The Legend of Korra: Air

I love the Airbender animation series. I can still remember the strong nostalgia I had while watching the first episode of The Legend of Korra: Book 1 Air, recalling all the characters from the previous series, and watch how time has passed and given us a new generation to look upon. The Legend of Korra: Book 1 - Air, The Art of the Animated Series is a nice addition to that experience. It's as good as the first art book Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series . The cover art is different from the original product image. It has Korra looking rather too serious. The book features development art from all the 12 episodes in Book One: Air. There are designs for the main characters, followed by the Republic City and its inhabitants and then we have art from each episode in order. Character designs form the bulk of the book. There's Korra in different outfits, including those from Pro-bending gear, and also the cute four-year-old Korra. There are lots of line art and also coloured versions for the characters. Other characters are Tenzin and his family, Lin Beifong, Amon, Katara, and about most of the characters that appear in the episodes. The environment art are beautiful. The buildings and sets have a mix of oriental, industrial and European style. The world has changed since Aang was the Avatar. You'll see some connection to the past, for example, with Avatar Aang Memorial Island. Overall, the world feels very different because it has evolved. My favourite piece is the aerial painting of Air Temple Island that appears towards the end. The last few pages have some pretty cool miscellaneous art, such as the classic Avatar characters in their adult form, and also other characters drawn in non-animation style. Throughout the book, commentary is provided by creators Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and director Joaquin Dos Santos. They give illuminating insight to the designs and stories. Highly recommended to fans of the series, and those who like animation or character art. It's one of my 2013 favourite artbooks. (See more pictures of the book on my blog. Visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I really like that the creators have been so heavily involved in the comics and art books from Dark Horse, and as such, I want to own all of them after looking at this gem! The artwork is beautiful, and it's awesome reading little anecdotes from the series creators. Did you know that polar bear dogs are feared by the Water Tribes, but Korra met a lost cub when she was little and now she has Naga!? All of the notes add to the universe of the series and make you feel involved in the show. As a fan of the original series, I'm now a little older and can really appreciate the work that goes into entertaining people, so this book is exceptional at presenting that feeling. The book is separated into a few sections, focusing on early development, each episode of the first season, and extra artwork created for promotion such as the DVD cover. I love being able to look at the concept art and notes and then watch the series at home. I highly recommend grabbing the Blu-ray version of the series. It has audio commentaries for each episode, so you are really being thrown into the universe of The Legend of Korra! I highly recommend to everyone who is a fan of the series!

It is a beautiful book. It was everything I hoped for, but it was bigger than I expected. (I didn't see the measurements/size...oops) The artwork inside is incredible, the detail and effort that was put into this book is amazing. I am a huge Legend of Korra fan, so I was a little nervous when I bought the book. I had my doubts but when received it I was so pleased with it. I could not be happier with this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering it to either give to a friend or to buy for personal use.

It is a comprehensive look into the series with lots of wonderful art. I felt that it was thinner than the previous book from the Avatar series but I'm not talking about the length of the book (I know this one has less pages an only covers one season) but rather about the "insights" into the creative process. While the previous book felt full to the seams and you could feel that there was a lot of important material that didn't fit, you also felt that all the material that did was included was the best. In this one for Korra, you feel that there were many important things left out that should have been included and there are some things that were included that doesn't feel as important...

I loved this art book. It showed me basically everything I wanted to see from back drops used and unused, old character designs and how some things came to be or what they were inspired by. The commentary is great though rarely confusing (Ex: at one point they commentary refers to a picture in the top right but says "As you can see by the design in the middle" the middle being something completely different) I feel like this book is a must for fans and people interested in the art of the series alike.

It's so awesome to open an artbook and see every stage of the character and how it all came together. It's always fun and interesting to know how Korra was made, and why whe looks the way it looks. It's really cool to read the different ideas that came up for a certain character and why they decided that a certain design worked better than the previous ones! It's also really interesting and delicious to read about how they inspired themselves in known architecture to create the environment in this tv series. I simply loved it and I'm excited to know that I'll be buying the other Korra artbooks!!!

It's been a while since the Avatar: The Last Airbender series ran on TV. I really loved that series because it dealt with a lot of eastern cultures themes and it was not the average children TV show. Despite its children characters the show runners manged to find a balance between drama and comedy. Now about the art book: that series (Avatar) had its own book (all seasons in one single book) but this time we are getting one book entirely dedicated to the first season, which makes it great. Why? Because we are getting more artwork per episode, most of it in full-color. I would have liked to see more of the character design, I mean how they got to the final version. Most of the characters are shown in their final version with some costume variants but that's it, no development. One thing missing this time (both from the series and this book) is the animal designs. They had a lot 2-animal-fusion designs on the previous show but this time we get to see almost nothing. I know it is because the series is takes place mainly in Republic City. And wow! what a nice city it is. All the artwork dedicated to set Republic City's mood, the 1920s, the steam-punk influence, the fashion, everything just fits perfectly! There is a couple of aerial views (day & night) which are my favorite from the book. This new guy they hired to do the background paintings has done a great job! Every background and every building design have so much detail that they will make your jaw just drop. I like the fact they are paintings with no pencil lines, just paint brushed over the design, which makes it look richer! Now, I am giving this book a 4-star rating because of the reasons I have already explained and the fact that we are not getting that much in-depth information like we got from the Avatar art book . I must say this is not an animation book, this is an art book that depicts backgrounds, characters and vehicles. You will get to see a few storyboarded sequences but this book is not intended to teach you about animation. I seriously recommend this book to any person interested in art and animation. The artwork is so well achieved that you will be left wanting to see more.

I am learning to be a Concept Designer and Illustrator and this art book is inspirational. This art book has well presented examples for most every part of the conception and finishing process for characters, environments, costumes, props, and story. It has a good amount of design concepts from everything about the series first season: character designs, character sheets, building and city designs, costumes, vehicles, etc. I only wish is was longer/bigger. They could put all 4 seasons into one large encompassing volume.

Para mi, es complemento friki perfecto para fans incondicionales de la serie, y también para ilustradores o quienes disfruten dibujando. Vienen muchísimos bocetos y desarrollo del diseño de personajes, vestuarios, escenografía... es una joyita. Tapa dura, y está en inglés, pero se entiende bien. Desde aquí voy a animar a hacer piña a ver si conseguimos que hagan una edición en dvd y blueray tanto de Aang como de Korra con opcion de audio y subtítulo en castellano añadidos en todas las temporadas!!! Muero de tristeza de no poder comprarlo :(

In 2012, the creative team behind the popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender produced a sequel series focusing on the next Avatar, this time a headstrong teenage girl named Korra in a darker and more mature series. Since I am a fan of both Avatar shows and already own the book Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series, I immediately pre-ordered this product when it was announced. Unlike The Last Airbender, which was based in an feudal Asia inspired world with some examples of technology such as airships and tanks, the Legend of Korra has a 1920's theme with much of the series taking place in Republic City, an urban metropolis that resembles Manhattan but with Asian design principles, with more developed technology such as airships, automobiles, motorcycles and factories that heavily emphasise a steampunk theme. The Legend of Korra combines the mystical, fantasy and martial arts themes of The Last Airbdender with real life aspects such as technology, modernisation, organised crime and a group of extremists that become the main antagonists of the series. Like the previous series, a book of artwork was released for the Legend of Korra, but because this show has had only one season so far, this book is 40 pages shorter than the book for The Last Airbender, which contained production art for the entire three seasons, but the quality of material shown in this book more than makes up for the decrease in quantity. It should also be noted that the front cover to this book is different to the one advertised, as it features a solo painting of Korra and it is not a group shot of the main cast, though that is included in the book. This book is filled with hundreds of pieces of artwork that includes the design process from initial sketches of the main cast, animals, props, vehicles and environment to their final versions and colour tests. The majority of the book is taken up by individual chapters that focus on each of the first season's 12 episodes, including storyboards, expression sheets, background paintings and designs for supporting characters and new vehicles as they are introduced in the series. The book concludes with ancillary art by the production team, such as designs for DVD covers, promotional posters, random illustrations and two group shots, one of the new 'Team Avatar' and the second showing the original Team Avatar as adults, which is a nice touch by the series creators. The amount of artwork in this book showing the creation of a new location and era for the Avatar series is immense, you can see examples of the architecture used in designing Republic City, designs for city monuments such as the Avatar Aang Statue (which was inspired by the Statue of Liberty), detailed drawings of the hot rods, automobiles and trains that populate the city streets and conceptual art of the Avatar series' new sport Pro-Bending, ranging from the arena and uniforms to the conceptual illustrations that were pitched to the studio executives. The book itself is very well made, printed on high quality paper with a good layout and informative annotations by the series creators. There are some pages where ink has slightly transferred from the opposite page but this is barely noticeable and a minor detraction from what is a very inspiring look behind the scenes of a critically and commercially successful animated series. In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to fans of the Legend of Korra and fans of the Avatar universe in general, and animators and enthusiasts of production artwork for animated series and films would also enjoy this book. Like the book Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series, it is a high quality piece of material and should a similar book be published for the Legend of Korra's upcoming second season, then I will likely buy that as well.

One of those purchases I'll always be happy I made.

If you want to have a glimpse into the huge amount of work and dedication that went into producing the show, this is a great insight. If you look for inspiration to become a better artist for your own projects, this is a great tool. All in all a very lovingly put together snapshot of the production. 5/5 would buy again.

As a huge fan of this series and its predecessor, I simply had to have this book. And I was very pleasantly surprised by its contents. The Early Development section gives us a comprehensive overview of what went into starting this series as a whole... why they chose the artists that they did, and how the setting for this show developed. You'll see fantastic concept art, great expression sheets for the main characters, and also some never before seen paintings and sketches that marked the beginnings of this series. Kudos to Mike, Bryan, Joaquim, and Ryu who came up with such fantastic characters... and also to those fabulous artists who rendered them so flawlessly with their background paintings and color designs. All in all, a fantastic buy for a fan. I loved it and enjoyed it immensely!