Book Review: The Art and Making of Arcane
February 11th 2025
Arcane hit Netflix in 2021 and was an instant hit. The story and characters are a key aspect to its success, but the visuals are another huge part. The high-quality mix of animation with the use of both 3D and 2D by French studio Fortiche, in partnership with Riot Games, makes it stand out from other animated projects.
It only made sense then, that an artbook be made and that book, The Art and Making of Arcane, came to fruition and is now here. It was released in December of 2024, by either Insight Editions or Titan Books, depending on where you are from. The book was number one Amazon lists before being released and is still unavailable due to selling out on pre-orders alone. Two months later, some people are unfortunately still waiting on copies, an indication of the demand for more Arcane. Reprints are continuing though for those interested in grabbing a copy.
But does it deliver? I will give my thoughts on the book through the usual 5 points; build quality, content, credits, use of space and value. You can also find a flip through preview and page photos below too.
Build Quality
This is a large book, slightly bigger than a typical artbook and comes with a hardcover. Books from Insight Editions/ Titan Books almost always come with a dust jacket too, but this one is more unique as it is made from acetate. I like this inclusion, it really makes the book pop from a distance as the acetate makes the colour bright and loud. It does feel odd to leave it on while reading the book though, so I opt to remove it. The cover underneath, as seen in the video, inverts the white and pink.
It has over 200 pages with solid binding, so I have no concerns about the book coming apart. They used matte paper for the pages, less common than the usual gloss paper found in most artbooks. This doesn’t really change anything for me, some people feel gloss paper makes a book feel higher in quality, but I’m happy with either.
Content
With the book you also get some extras inside; a map, wanted poster, blueprints, a letter and a paint stencil. These are nice little extras, done for parts of the show as fan service, which I appreciate.
Though I don’t review the art itself, what you get in the book is superb as expected. You can’t create a show like Arcane if that isn’t the case after all. The matte paintings are standouts for me, as is the unused character art. I will speak to what is covered in the book, as the art is of course subjective, though if you're checking out this review, I'm guessing you're going to like what you see too!
You get a wide range of art types here which is nice, such as early sketches, developed art, final renders, matte paintings and storyboards. Every aspect is covered, including some behind the scenes photos. The art is not just for the show though, you also get a little for the game the show is based on, League of Legends, and also ‘Get Jinxed’, a short animation made by Fortiche prior to Arcane. The art filling the book is in no particular order either. Most books are split into chapters for the art, whereas this does the chapters for different parts of the shows creation. While that can coincide with certain concept types, like character art, the book as whole mixes it up. Pages can jump between not only different focuses, but between different episodes and seasons too. It’s chaotic in that sense, but I feel it works.
As this is also a ‘making of’ book, there is a lot of reading. What I liked is that it’s a deep dive into everything. From how Riot and Fortiche came together, earlier projects and style, to making the music, animation process and integration with the game. It is well written, covers a lot of ground and includes insights from the makers of the show. It’s a great example of how to do a book like this, the balance of artwork and behind the scenes commentary is well executed.
My only minor complaint with the text is that I feel some paragraphs need to end on the page. In one instance, a page starts and ends midway through sentences. This breaks up the flow of reading and then enjoying the art (or vice versa), because you either have to abandon the reading to take in the page, or finish reading and turn back again. In another example the text doesn’t continue to the next page, the second half of a sentence picks up 6 pages later. I turned expecting to finish what I was reading, but got full pages of art instead, 2 of which are fold-outs. It’s not the end of the world, but something I feel could have been avoided.
Credits
The artists aren’t credited on each page here, so the next best option for an artbook is to list the names in the front or back. They opted to list them at the back, but unfortunately, they list the team members in an endless stream of names in columns. This means you cannot identify the roles of each person without looking it up yourself online.
Use of Space
This is an interesting aspect of this book, because for the most part it works, but there are moments it feels over designed. The pages are full, which is what you want and so I’m happy to see this. The book does cover both seasons of the show after all, so there shouldn’t be a lack of content and it delivers on this front.
The issue for me comes with the design. It is often interesting, with a more unconventional way of showing the art, such as integrating it into the backgrounds, slightly rotating pieces and more. The approach was clearly to make this look like Jinx has got her hands on it and scribbled all over it. It’s a little messy, sometimes like a scrapbook and has pink and blue doodles/ graffiti throughout. But, it does feel overused in places and gets in the way. These doodles don’t restrict themselves to just the backgrounds, but are often placed on top of the art too. This isn’t always too bad, but every now and again it can feel too much, which is a shame. The art is fantastic, so I feel like it should get all the room it needs to breathe and the addition of these scribbles isn’t improving it. I like how it keeps the book interesting, but it needed to be dialled back a little.
Value
The Art and Making of Arcane is currently unavailable as mentioned before due to selling out. Some online stores note they are expecting stock February or March. It is listed online though at full retail price as £45/ $60, which is a standard price for an artbook. For the size of the book and the amount of content, I feel this is very reasonable, especially as it’s not often books are sold at this price and if they are, you can shop around to find a better deal.
Digital copies are available at a lower price too, for those that don’t want to wait.
Verdict
For fans of Arcane, this book offers a great look at the art and work that went into creating the show. A lot more is shared here than I was anticipating, which is brilliant for those that like to get into the nerdy details about the process of putting a show together. The design of the book can be too much in places, but it is more interesting to flip through than plain white pages and orderly image and text placement. The added physical extras and dust jacket make this book feel like you are getting some extra bang for your buck too.
Overall, despite some shortcomings, I would feel comfortable recommending this book to someone that enjoyed Arcane and may like the details inside, but maybe less so for people that only want to see the art.
For those interested, you can find The Art and Making of Arcane here here;
Tags;
Based On: #Arcane Series: #Arcane #LeagueOfLegends Publisher: #InsightEditions #TitanBooks Studio: #Fortiche #RiotGames
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