The VG Resource

http://www.lamhirh.com/index.php/deadwoo...inari-you/

Deadwood Designs by Yoshinari You(Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Panty&Stocking, Valkyrie Profile)

He is an amazing artist and I love his ability to vary his style so drastically.

http://halcyonrealms.com/anime/the-art-o...-art-book/

The Art of Toriyama Akira – “The World Special”

Classic Toriyama art, before he drew blocky same-looking people and shaded like total ass. Y'know, when he was still awesome.

Post some books you want, bought or recommend

insert capcom artbook here.

I've seen another Toriyama art book somewhere. His work before he had a boner for screaming bulked-up men is very charming.

Art of Kung Fu Panda (Marlet's style is inspiring)
Water (Inoue Takehiko Vagabond illustrations and watercolor sketches/paintings. Guy who did Slam Dunk)
Street Fighter Tribute Art Book (I seem to remember seeing two Capcom Tribute Art Book at some point? I need to search bookstores and libraries again)
The Art of My Neighbor Totoro ('nuff said! the Castle in The Sky(?) and Howl's are p nice as well)
Art of Witchblade (overloaded with digital art, but some of it is nice to look at. A bit disappointing because the cover is as good as it gets)

The only Artbook I have is MegaMan Battle Network: Complete Works (Of course!) but I've found the concept art pages, where they break down just how the design process results in that neat character design, to be really useful.

I wouldn't mind other artbooks covering a similar theme, honestly.

The Art of How to Train Your Dragon is pretty awesome!
There's a few bits from it here: http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com...arlet.html
there's a couple of "MEH" bits in the book when you see the progression of the design for Hiccup, the final sketches are just so... SmarmBrow Generic
but Nico Marlet's work is always gorgeous forever

and the Art of Up is nice, too! Again, lots of really strong shape design
and they took a simpler approach to the character models, there's a lot in there about taking an influence from stop-motion character design, which is really interesting
Stuff from that here: http://louromano.blogspot.com/2009/05/ar..._3697.html

I was about to suggest the Up artwork (actually, most of the Pixar artbooks). All the variation and the difference from the final product, I love it.