Blockbuster movies get art books all the time, but it’s not every day that a particular artist gets an entire book covering their work. But that’s what’s happening for Dylan Cole, an award-winning concept artist and production designer whose decades-long career has encompassed just about everything. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King till Avatar Movies, including December movies fire and ashes,
Ahead of its release tomorrow, November 18, io9 has the art Creating Worlds: The Disney and 20th Century Studios Cinematic Art of Dylan Cole. The book contains “in-depth insights into the ideas behind the creation of each artwork and the creative process” taken directly from Cole. Together AvatarThere will be movie posters and art from films he contributed to, such as Alita: Battle Angel And Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Some of whose works have never been shared before.
We can also divulge a portion of the book’s introduction, written exclusively by James Cameron, who has nothing but love for Cole’s “emerging vision” and “the tremendous impact this one man’s imagination has had on the collective imagination we call cinema”:
I have had the privilege and honor of working with Dylan continuously for nearly twenty years, ever since he appeared as a concept artist on the first Avatar film. We put together a core team of young, highly creative artists to create the world of Pandora, an exomoon in Alpha Centauri, the planetary system on which our story was set.
Dylan soon distinguished himself as not only a talented artist who could depict spectacular settings and the myriad plants and animals that lived in them, but also a thoughtful contributor to narrative concepts. All those grandiose fantasies have a purpose, which is to tell a story. And as the director, when I’m inundated with amazing visual ideas from my eager team, I find my way by selecting the designs and images that are best suited to telling the story.
What are we trying to say with each visual gesture? What is metaphor? What is subtext? How are we communicating with the audience’s collective subconscious? Dylan emerged as an excellent visual storyteller. Using color, tone, composition, and scale, he conjured up settings and life-forms that not only excited the eyes, but also allowed the audience to understand what the film was trying to say thematically in each scene.
Creating Worlds: The Disney and 20th Century Studios Cinematic Art of Dylan Cole Available tomorrow for $75; You can pre-order a copy here.
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