Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker is one of my favorite graphic novels, I reread it every few months when I’m in a funk. The style is simple yet whimsical, the plot is lovely, and her use of color always inspires me! The way she draws characters is so shapey and fun!
Love this video! I collect graphic novels for reference all the the time. These are my all time favs: 1 The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui - The use of brushwork, the wash of red throughout the panels, this comic is just stunning and I will never shut up about it. The story itself is also a tear jerker, similar to how Deb JJ Lee's work covers generational trauma & that outsider experience but from a Vietnamese American perspective. 2 Squire written by Nadia Shammas and illustrated by Sara Alfageeh - I love this comic soo much and I recommend it all the time, not only is it a solid story featuring ~girls with swords ~ it's also by one of my favorite illustrators. She blends culture and context into her fantasy worlds and it's what I aspire to do in my own work. I loved that the back included notes from the author and illustrator with a page dedicated to inking, flats, colors etc. Definitely a unique comic. 3 A Gift for a Ghost by Borja Gonzalez -This one was self published by an artist in Spain. It's about 3 girls that start a punk band in 2016 while having no idea how to play instruments. The second part is about a girl in the 1800s that writes really tragic poems and laments about how no one understands her. The 2 time periods kind of intermix in this paranormal comic that is honestly so strange and amazing. I found this one randomly and it has quickly become the comic I reference the most. The art style is so clean and the use of dark colors and really pretty forest backgrounds makes it a fav. Also I love that the characters all look like ghosts, none of them have faces, just forms. Those are 3 that instantly come to mind. I definitely want to get more art books! Thanks for posting this.
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki (text) Rosemary Valero-O'Connell(illustrations) and Don't Go Without Me by the same illustrator. I really love their work, it is just so beautiful and delicate. I keep it as a graphic and composition reference for my work.
this video makes me incredibly happy! i love children's books for the stories, the wonder, the lightness and dearness of the characters and of course, the art. what a beloved dimension :( they just inspire you heart wise in a way, to see things in a way for yourself, and? so thank you for this video because it means a bunch of dear recommendations for me!!
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen!!!!!! It is an amazing graphic novel and his art is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I also highly recommend Snapdragon by Kat Leyh: also an amazing and beautiful graphic novel! I could literally list so many but those two are my Absolute Favorites lol
If you love looking for illustration and color combo inspiration, try exploring some antique stores. You can find old books, comics, text books, packaging, etc. that have great artwork due to limitations of the time period they were printed in. There is so much great art out there that don't make it to museums and art history books. Another color inspiration rec would be to look for nature books that have reptiles, birds, sea animals, insects, or flowers.
How is it possible that I Just watched your video when you did a little art book haul from when you were visiting your sister and I was screenshoting the covers of the books pausing to run on Amazon to add them to my cart. And now today you have a video out on art books. I feel like my mind was read because I was hoping you would one day do a bigger art book haul and look here. My ipad is obviously reading my brain now🧠 🙄 love it!!!
Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden is one of my absolute favorite graphic novels, the use of color and composition to convey emotion is just * chef's kiss *. Beautiful Darkness by Kerascoët is filled with absolutely gorgeous traditionally done watercolor illustrations, and does a wonderful job of telling an incredibly dark story within a world and style that still reads as innocent, childlike, and cute, in a very unassuming way. For Beautiful Darkness though, huge TW for g 0re and vi 0len ce. Beautiful artwork about not so beautiful things.
if youre interested in getting into comics i TOTALLY recommend making a few shorter comics (like 10-30) pages!! it will help you get used to the formatting and how to write and pace comics! its also WAY easier and more approachable than trying to write/draw/pitch a graphic novel cause you can also self publish them! My fav shorter comics are I See A Knight by Xulia Vicente, Cry Wolf Girl by Ariel Ries, Dont Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (an anthology), peow MAMI by Diigii Daguna, and any of the tillie walden short comics!! i LOVE to see people looking to get into making longer form comics
My favorite art book is really weird and obscure, it’s called Inside Out with Gadget and it’s a tie in for a Japanese point and click adventure game series called Gadget. It was made to show off CG renders that were very complex for the time but look pretty primitive today, but the retrofuturistic design and lighting are still really cool. It tells an ambiguous narrative through character’s letters, transcripts of their conversations, weird poetry, and I call the aesthetic “Acid Deco” because it’s got 1920’s-40’s sci-fi designs filtered through some often psychedelic color schemes and dream-like compositions. So it’s entirely different from your art, but I thought I’d mention it because I think it’s neat.
I always love watching art books videos because I can always find something that I need to my evergrowing collection even though I have no more room for books 😂 I also have books that are in different languages that I don't even speak but I don't mind that because the visuals and illustrations are what I am really looking over the words sometimes. My favorite art books are the ones from the Sketching from the Imagination line by 3Dtotal publishing; I own most of them and they offer good insight to various artist processes. Taschen is also a company I buy from sometimes and they publish some of my favorite coffee table books.
I recommend "The Magic Fish" by Trung Le Nguyen !!! It's a very thoughtful exploration of fairy tales through both a traditional western and eastern perspectives, along with communication barriers and an exploration of queerness. His art style is already iconic and captivating but the use of color is brilliant in how its used in a narrative sense. Literally can't recommend it enough 😭✨✨
Beautiful video! Loved your collection, I'm slowly building mine too, since I moved over a year but I have like a huge list of artbooks and comics I want to have, taking it one book at a time!
Woo, I love heading to the picture book section for beautiful illustration work but also the graphic novel section for young readers. Several I’ve brought home is The Runaway Princess and Marshmallow And Jordan and picture books that I really loved was Kunoichi Bunny and Mina, all very diverse in illustration style but all so awesome!
I can really recommend the artist Tillie Walden if you want to grow your graphic novel collection :) Especially her graphic novel 'Spinning' touched me a lot and has some very beautiful art in it!
ik im late to comment but just wanted to point out it might be worth exploring 'yonkoma' or 4koma comics/manga! I always found them so inspiring and is exactly what I'm going for as far as making a comic.
The one I'd recommend: Tillie Walden's on a Space Beam. Rex Ogle’s Northranger Victoria Ying’s Hungry Ghost Tillie Walden’s Are You Listening? Tillie Walden’s I Love This Part Tillie Walden’s Spinning Tillie Walden’s A City Inside Tillie Walden’s Alone in Space: A Collection Tillie Walden’s Clementine Book One & Two Tillie Walden’s The End of Summer Trung Le Nguyen's The Magic Fish Takei's They Called Us Enemy Lucie Byron’s Thieves Jessi Zabarsky’s Witchlight Molly Ostertag’s The Girl from the Sea Kiku Hughes’ Displacement Mariko Tamaki’s Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up With Me Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki’s Skim Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet (1-8) Suzanne Walker’s Mooncakes Wendy Xu’s The Infinity Particle Mark Crilley’s My Last Summer with Cass Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Ram V(author) & Filipe Andrade(illustrator)’s The Many Deaths of Laila Starr Deluxe Edition Zoe Thorogood’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth Ellinor Richey’s Junkwraith (1) Nadia Shammas(author) Sara Alfageeh(author,illustrator)’s Squire Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale Part I & II Richard McGuire’s Here Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Craig Thompson’s Blankets Briana Loewinsohn’s Ephemera: A Memoir Jordi Lafebre’s Always Never Lucas Harari’s Swimming in Darkness Eleanor Davis’s How To Be Happy Suzy Hopkins’s What To Do When I’m Gone: A Mother’s Wisdom to Her Daughter Liana Finck’s Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir This is copied and pasted from a bucket list I have. :)
Lovely video, as always - thanks for the recommendations! I have and love This one summer and In limbo, and so would like to recommend another graphic novel from the same publisher: Laura Dern keeps breaking up with me, by Mariko Tamaki, which has a similar feel to This one summer, imo :)
I've been wanting to visit Gallery Nucleus for sooooo long!!!! I feel like I'd have such a hard time picking a few items and not wanting to buy everything.
It’s such a dangerous place LOL I always leave with something and I tend to be really picky when purchasing stuff! I highly recommend and there’s great food nearby too! (I’d recommend Kyoto gyukatsu if you eat meat)
if its in the 90's inside your home you should turn your computor off or dont use it at all till the ambient temp is cooler. You will fry your computer. High temps are death to computers.
Why don't you try going to your local Goodwill or thrift shop and see what inspires you in the book section. It might make a good video too! It would be nice to see that inspirational books don't need to be expensive. Maybe a dollar store too?
For me, the graphic novel series that inspires me the most artistically is The Tea Dragon Society. I love it so much.
Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker is one of my favorite graphic novels, I reread it every few months when I’m in a funk. The style is simple yet whimsical, the plot is lovely, and her use of color always inspires me! The way she draws characters is so shapey and fun!
I love that book!
garlic and the Vampyre is one of my favorites. I love the art style and the story is so wholesome🥺
AHHH A GRAPHIC NOVEL WITH YOUR ART WOULD BE AMAZING!!!!
Wahoo that’s me!!! Loved seeing all these books, I want to get so many of them
Also if you need help on the publishing side of things let me know!!!
i love that ad book! so colourful and very useful for graphic designers 😀
You’re hair is on point!! Looking fab Megan 👌🏽
Love this video! I collect graphic novels for reference all the the time. These are my all time favs:
1 The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui - The use of brushwork, the wash of red throughout the panels, this comic is just stunning and I will never shut up about it. The story itself is also a tear jerker, similar to how Deb JJ Lee's work covers generational trauma & that outsider experience but from a Vietnamese American perspective.
2 Squire written by Nadia Shammas and illustrated by Sara Alfageeh - I love this comic soo much and I recommend it all the time, not only is it a solid story featuring ~girls with swords ~ it's also by one of my favorite illustrators. She blends culture and context into her fantasy worlds and it's what I aspire to do in my own work. I loved that the back included notes from the author and illustrator with a page dedicated to inking, flats, colors etc. Definitely a unique comic.
3 A Gift for a Ghost by Borja Gonzalez -This one was self published by an artist in Spain. It's about 3 girls that start a punk band in 2016 while having no idea how to play instruments. The second part is about a girl in the 1800s that writes really tragic poems and laments about how no one understands her. The 2 time periods kind of intermix in this paranormal comic that is honestly so strange and amazing. I found this one randomly and it has quickly become the comic I reference the most. The art style is so clean and the use of dark colors and really pretty forest backgrounds makes it a fav. Also I love that the characters all look like ghosts, none of them have faces, just forms.
Those are 3 that instantly come to mind. I definitely want to get more art books! Thanks for posting this.
omg you have such a natural glow!! I adore your vids!!
This is the first video I've seen of you. You've definitely somehow encouraged me to create more with it, thank you!
The Moth Keeper by K. O'Neill reminds me of Heikala's work in graphic novel form. Also love Jen Wang's graphic novels
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki (text) Rosemary Valero-O'Connell(illustrations) and Don't Go Without Me by the same illustrator. I really love their work, it is just so beautiful and delicate. I keep it as a graphic and composition reference for my work.
this video makes me incredibly happy! i love children's books for the stories, the wonder, the lightness and dearness of the characters and of course, the art. what a beloved dimension :( they just inspire you heart wise in a way, to see things in a way for yourself, and? so thank you for this video because it means a bunch of dear recommendations for me!!
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen!!!!!! It is an amazing graphic novel and his art is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I also highly recommend Snapdragon by Kat Leyh: also an amazing and beautiful graphic novel! I could literally list so many but those two are my Absolute Favorites lol
If you love looking for illustration and color combo inspiration, try exploring some antique stores. You can find old books, comics, text books, packaging, etc. that have great artwork due to limitations of the time period they were printed in. There is so much great art out there that don't make it to museums and art history books.
Another color inspiration rec would be to look for nature books that have reptiles, birds, sea animals, insects, or flowers.
How is it possible that I Just watched your video when you did a little art book haul from when you were visiting your sister and I was screenshoting the covers of the books pausing to run on Amazon to add them to my cart. And now today you have a video out on art books. I feel like my mind was read because I was hoping you would one day do a bigger art book haul and look here. My ipad is obviously reading my brain now🧠 🙄 love it!!!
Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden is one of my absolute favorite graphic novels, the use of color and composition to convey emotion is just * chef's kiss *. Beautiful Darkness by Kerascoët is filled with absolutely gorgeous traditionally done watercolor illustrations, and does a wonderful job of telling an incredibly dark story within a world and style that still reads as innocent, childlike, and cute, in a very unassuming way. For Beautiful Darkness though, huge TW for g 0re and vi 0len ce. Beautiful artwork about not so beautiful things.
if youre interested in getting into comics i TOTALLY recommend making a few shorter comics (like 10-30) pages!! it will help you get used to the formatting and how to write and pace comics! its also WAY easier and more approachable than trying to write/draw/pitch a graphic novel cause you can also self publish them! My fav shorter comics are I See A Knight by Xulia Vicente, Cry Wolf Girl by Ariel Ries, Dont Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (an anthology), peow MAMI by Diigii Daguna, and any of the tillie walden short comics!! i LOVE to see people looking to get into making longer form comics
thank you so much for all the cool recs! i LOVE this one summer and have been meaning to check out in limbo, so thanks for the reminder!
Totally recommend On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden or The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui! They're so beautiful i cry
My favorite art book is really weird and obscure, it’s called Inside Out with Gadget and it’s a tie in for a Japanese point and click adventure game series called Gadget. It was made to show off CG renders that were very complex for the time but look pretty primitive today, but the retrofuturistic design and lighting are still really cool.
It tells an ambiguous narrative through character’s letters, transcripts of their conversations, weird poetry, and I call the aesthetic “Acid Deco” because it’s got 1920’s-40’s sci-fi designs filtered through some often psychedelic color schemes and dream-like compositions.
So it’s entirely different from your art, but I thought I’d mention it because I think it’s neat.
I always love watching art books videos because I can always find something that I need to my evergrowing collection even though I have no more room for books 😂 I also have books that are in different languages that I don't even speak but I don't mind that because the visuals and illustrations are what I am really looking over the words sometimes. My favorite art books are the ones from the Sketching from the Imagination line by 3Dtotal publishing; I own most of them and they offer good insight to various artist processes. Taschen is also a company I buy from sometimes and they publish some of my favorite coffee table books.
Excellent art collection
I hope to be able to visit Gallery Nucleus some day! My recs for graphic novels are all of Jen Wang, K O’Nail and Yuko Ota works.
I recommend "The Magic Fish" by Trung Le Nguyen !!! It's a very thoughtful exploration of fairy tales through both a traditional western and eastern perspectives, along with communication barriers and an exploration of queerness. His art style is already iconic and captivating but the use of color is brilliant in how its used in a narrative sense. Literally can't recommend it enough 😭✨✨
I'm reading this one right now! It's so beautifuuuul
watched this to keep me company while i cleaned! 🤍
will be checking out these books and artists!
i can v recommend The Tea Dragon Society!!! such beautiful illustrations!!!
Beautiful video! Loved your collection, I'm slowly building mine too, since I moved over a year but I have like a huge list of artbooks and comics I want to have, taking it one book at a time!
I have to get The Art of Heikala!! I just fell in love with it! 😍
Woo, I love heading to the picture book section for beautiful illustration work but also the graphic novel section for young readers. Several I’ve brought home is The Runaway Princess and Marshmallow And Jordan and picture books that I really loved was Kunoichi Bunny and Mina, all very diverse in illustration style but all so awesome!
I love the graphic novel named Hooky by Miriam Bonastre Tur!
ohh and by Manjit Thapp Feelings: A Story in Seasons
for graphic novels, I would recommend "lore olympus", "heartstopper", "buuza!", "nimona'.
ooh also google translate is epic! you can scan the text and take photos to translate!
My Neighbor Totoro is my favorite Miyazaki movie and quite possibly my favorite movie of all time. ❤❤❤❤
I can really recommend the artist Tillie Walden if you want to grow your graphic novel collection :) Especially her graphic novel 'Spinning' touched me a lot and has some very beautiful art in it!
ik im late to comment but just wanted to point out it might be worth exploring 'yonkoma' or 4koma comics/manga! I always found them so inspiring and is exactly what I'm going for as far as making a comic.
yay early! can't wait for this one :)
The one I'd recommend: Tillie Walden's on a Space Beam.
Rex Ogle’s Northranger
Victoria Ying’s Hungry Ghost
Tillie Walden’s Are You Listening?
Tillie Walden’s I Love This Part
Tillie Walden’s Spinning
Tillie Walden’s A City Inside
Tillie Walden’s Alone in Space: A Collection
Tillie Walden’s Clementine Book One & Two
Tillie Walden’s The End of Summer
Trung Le Nguyen's The Magic Fish
Takei's They Called Us Enemy
Lucie Byron’s Thieves
Jessi Zabarsky’s Witchlight
Molly Ostertag’s The Girl from the Sea
Kiku Hughes’ Displacement
Mariko Tamaki’s Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up With Me
Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki’s Skim
Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona
Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet (1-8)
Suzanne Walker’s Mooncakes
Wendy Xu’s The Infinity Particle
Mark Crilley’s My Last Summer with Cass
Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker
Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil
Ram V(author) & Filipe Andrade(illustrator)’s The Many Deaths of Laila Starr Deluxe Edition
Zoe Thorogood’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth
Ellinor Richey’s Junkwraith (1)
Nadia Shammas(author) Sara Alfageeh(author,illustrator)’s Squire
Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus
David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp
Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale Part I & II
Richard McGuire’s Here
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Craig Thompson’s Blankets
Briana Loewinsohn’s Ephemera: A Memoir
Jordi Lafebre’s Always Never
Lucas Harari’s Swimming in Darkness
Eleanor Davis’s How To Be Happy
Suzy Hopkins’s What To Do When I’m Gone: A Mother’s Wisdom to Her Daughter
Liana Finck’s Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir
This is copied and pasted from a bucket list I have. :)
I have New Retro Illustration!! I love it!!!!!
Lovely video, as always - thanks for the recommendations! I have and love This one summer and In limbo, and so would like to recommend another graphic novel from the same publisher: Laura Dern keeps breaking up with me, by Mariko Tamaki, which has a similar feel to This one summer, imo :)
I've been wanting to visit Gallery Nucleus for sooooo long!!!! I feel like I'd have such a hard time picking a few items and not wanting to buy everything.
It’s such a dangerous place LOL I always leave with something and I tend to be really picky when purchasing stuff! I highly recommend and there’s great food nearby too! (I’d recommend Kyoto gyukatsu if you eat meat)
@@MeganWangart Ahh thanks for the recs!! I'd looove to visit if I ever travel over there !! 🥰
if its in the 90's inside your home you should turn your computor off or dont use it at all till the ambient temp is cooler. You will fry your computer. High temps are death to computers.
AMAZING!! SUCCESS!!!
Why don't you try going to your local Goodwill or thrift shop and see what inspires you in the book section. It might make a good video too! It would be nice to see that inspirational books don't need to be expensive. Maybe a dollar store too?
Christian Robinson is a great picture book illustrator; especially if you love artists that embrace traditional mediums and textures.