Art of Ray Harryhausen [Paperback]

Ray Harryhausen (Author), Tony Dalton (Author), Peter Jackson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 2008

As one of the most highly acclaimed stop-motion animators in movie history, Ray Harryhausen was responsible for the dinosaurs, animals, mythological creatures, and aliens in such classic films as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, King Kong, Jason & The Argonauts, and War of the Worlds. These extraordinary creatures stole scene after scene from human actors, and this book shows how he developed them.

When writing his autobiography, An Animated Life, Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton realized that they were working with a collection of art too extensive to share in one book. As a result, this companion volume lets readers explore the hoard of artwork that Harryhausen has preserved in his London home.

Reproduced to the highest standards, this artwork includes preliminary sketches, elaborate drawings of key scenes, and storyboards, all produced as he prepared to undertake the laborious task of animating each creature. Also shown here are the tiny, elaborately articulated models that Harryhausen created to play enormous roles, and the bronzes he cast to preserve their forms in perpetuity.

The stunning array of images in this book is a tribute to the vast scope of Harryhausen’s imagination and artistic skills. It is a collection that no one interested in special effects or cinema history can do without.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Fantasy-film geeks revere Harryhausen's technically dazzling, meticulously crafted movies employing the painstaking technique of stop-motion animation. This coffee-table volume showcases the material Harryhausen discovered in his archives while researching Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life (2004). Harryhausen stresses that this book isn't as much about animation as about the previsualization that precedes making the models that will be filmed; accordingly, it focuses on sketches, key drawings, storyboards, and preliminary clay models rather than film stills. Thematic chapters cover Harryhausen's early work, including his stint with animation legend Willis O'Brien on the King Kong quasi sequel, Mighty Joe Young; dinosaur movies, such as One Million Years B.C.; sci-fi flicks such as the 1953 War of the Worlds; and the series of films portraying the adventures of Sinbad of, more or less, the Arabian Nights. Like O'Brien before him, Harryhausen hugely influenced younger filmmakers. In the introduction, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson says he grew up wanting to become Harryhausen's apprentice and notes that the animator's films "have lost none of their ability to provoke wonder." Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Ray has been a great inspiration to us in the special visual industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much."
—GEORGE LUCAS PRODUCER/DIRECTOR

"The Lord of the Rings is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie.’ Without that lifelong love of his wondrous images and storytelling, it would never have been made–not by me at least."
—FROM THE FOREWORD BY PETER JACKSON

"One of the world’s greatest manipulators"
—KERMIT FROG

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill; 1 Reissue edition (December 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823084647
• ISBN-13: 978-0823084647
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 0.8 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing and incredible testament to a major fantastic filmmaker., March 22, 2006

By 

Bob Eggleton "zillabob" (Providence, RI United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Ray Harryhausen (Hardcover)

To start with, this book reproduces so many unseen and barely- glimpsed-before drawings and concepts, that one can spend hours looking at each one again and again. So it is rare are we are afforded this backstage look at the making of those wonderful stop motion films. Harryhausen's legacy is testamony to a time when films were made of this kind, and they not only took a long time of thinking and planning to make, but the result on screen was epic and, worth the wait. Nowadays fantasy film effects are churned out so ad nauseum thanks to CGI, that they simply lose their wonder-it's like we're used to it. I'm a big fan of *real* model work and real matte painting. You could touch it and it had presence, and those little nuances people fault it for now, are what give it it's character and style. Because of that, Harryhausen's legacy stands on it's own and will be remembered well past his lifetime. Remember, even up to his last film CLASH OF THE TITANS(1981) he worked largely out of a very small studio-one time it was his garage(!!)with one or two assistants and that was only on later,larger budgeted pictures. What does that say compared nowadays to $150M dollar + effects films!!!???

And though retired, we have Harryhausen now, still working away with his drawings ans sculptures into his 80's. A man who loves what he does.I can't recommend this book enough, save to say that the reproduction is excellent on all the art shown-pencil sketches, storyboards, charcoal drawings. It's so nice to see drawings as opposed to overrendered computer artwork of nowadays.

Of note is the "Inspirations" part of the book where we see some of the artwork by others that inspired Ray to follow his muse. It says much about the man.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful representation of Ray's talents, March 22, 2006

By 

John Gentile (Hoboken, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Ray Harryhausen (Hardcover)

Being a Harryhausen fanatic, I was bound to love this book. For those "not so compulsive" collectors who are wondering if the book is worth having after buying Ray's autobiography: I think you'll find the answer to be YES!
The hardcover volume is attractive, with Ray's awesome charcoal drawings slightly tinted to give them extra flavor. Some of the drawings span 2 pages, so you can really enjoy the details. Most of the photos and artwork have never been seen before. I especially love the two page spread that shows the genesis of a creature, from charcoal drawing to animation armature. Terrific!
Casual fans might find this overkill, but if you have all of Ray's stop motion films on DVD, this is a must. And the price is right!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Outstanding!!!!!!!!!, April 19, 2006

By 

D. Donovan, Editor/Sr. Reviewer "California B... (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Ray Harryhausen (Hardcover)

While science fiction artist Ray Harryhausen's ART OF is intended as a companion to his prior autobiography AN ANIMATED LIFE, this succeeds well in standing alone as an outstanding focus on his movie art and his overall artwork. Source material for ART OF comes from Harryhausen's own archives, preserved in his London home and published here for the first time. Here are exquisite sketch and scene reproductions, storyboards, original art and models in black and white and color throughout. For avid Harryhausen fans - and there are many - ART OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN is a 'must'. Very highly recommended.