The Art of Ray Harryhausen

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.

As much as I loved "Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life" - and I did, I did! - I think that this second book tops it. Using his wonderful sketches, paintings and (incredible!) sculptures as the book's foundation, Harryhausen takes us further into the workings of his vivid imagination. There is very little duplication of material from the first book. This time out, key drawings are printed in large format so you can pour over the details for hours at a time. Hardcore fans of Ray's work will drool over the sight of more detailed drawings and models from unrealized projects like "War of the Worlds" and "The Elementals", and mourn the fact that these pictures never got made. I have always thought of Ray Harryhausen as my own personal Gandalf. Every 2-3 years, I would eagerly line up at the box office of the Embassy Theater to see what new wonders The Master would reveal to me. Now, he is bowling me over again on the printed page. When I got a chance to meet Ray in 1980, I was impressed by his humor, charm and modesty, qualities which are very much part of the fabric of this book. "The Art of Ray Harryhausen" is worthy of any first-class wizard. May Ray live forever!

The word genius has become one of the most overused and improperly used words in our society, easily passed out to those who are often undeserving. But in the case of Ray Harryhausen it is the only word that fits. It's not just his body of work over the past sixty plus years that earns him this title, but also his many pioneering achievements in filmmaking. In "The Art of Ray Harryhausen" the old master takes readers on a journey that begins with his earliest influences in film, art, and storytelling. Throughout the fascinating journey he explains many of the techniques that he either devised himself, or improved upon. Ray's first great influence on film was the stop-motion work of his friend and eventual mentor Willis O'Brien. Ray discusses how he first contacted O'Brien at the film studio and arranged to meet him at O'Brien's home where the friendship blossomed and Obie...as Ray calls him...took him under his wing. Harryhausen also talks about some of his formal art training in the 40's at schools in L.A. and New York. Aspiring filmmakers or special effects fans are going to love this book. Ray devotes an early chapter to how his famous models were made including the building of the metal armatures, to the coverings made with cotton and latex, to the final painting of the models, many of which are still intact today including a wooly mammoth made in 1938, his oldest surviving (and working) model. This chapter provides up close and detailed photos of some of Ray's most famous creations including the Skeleton warriors from "Jason and the Argonauts" and Ymir from "20 Million Miles to Earth". The entire creative process is demonstrated in photographs beginning with concept sketches and storyboards, to the building of the models and the actual animation. While Harryhausen is best known for his stop motion animation and wonderfully detailed models, these were not his only talents. Ray is a fantastic, natural artist and the book features literally hundreds of Ray's rough sketches, storyboards, pencil and charcoal illustrations, and color paintings. His remarkable illustrations conjure up those bold, adventurous scenes involving his animated creations and it all started with a simple drawing. Ray also made his own masks and puppets. In the early 50's he made a series of short films based on fairy tales for which he made the models and animated them as well. The book includes rare photos of these creations which most of us have never seen before. Other chapters are segmented by film genre type such as his Sci-Fi films that covers works like "First Men in the Moon" and "Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers" and his Greek films "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Clash of the Titans". Again readers are treated to numerous works of Harryhausen art for these films as well as photos of the models. Ray admits that "Jason" remains his favorite film and how he was inspired by Greek mythology. Talos, the iron golem, was inspired by the legendary Co

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!

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.