Rating: 
Summary: A picture is worth a thousand words!!!
Review: ...so no words can give justice to this incredible book, filled with fascinating pre-production art, drawings, and paintings. When George Lucas started working on the script for THE PHANTOM MENACE in 1994, he hired a group of talented artists who turned Lucas' rough ideas into concrete concepts, helping the Jedi Master himself craft EPISODE I, the beginning of the STAR WARS SAGA... How many concepts that did not make it into MENACE will be used for EPISODES 2 or 3 is anyone's guess, but be on the lookout for those SITH WITCHES!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A great source book
Review: A sumptuous record of both line-art and colour sketches of designs, images, technology and creatures; as well as technical production drawings and conceptual work, both used in the film and unused. A nice mix of what was discarded and what-might-have-been, showing how the designs came to be the final design in almost all categories you can name. Drawings are well labelled, with numerous information on the artist, influences and whether it was a final design or not. For me the huge volume of images, both large and small, was enough for a desire to seek more, the balance between text and the images themselves just right. Conceptual designs are accompanied by design notes; the drawings themselves still bearing sketch lines, axis points and hand written notation all guaranteeing that you feel involved in the process. Paper quality is high, and the text appropriate to a wide range of readers. In places the text can be a little sparse, though I suppose that the images are more important in a book of this type. My favourite sections are the colour graphic schemes of the podracers and the Trade Federation stuff. Occasional mistakes in labelling, but on the whole a very enjoyable book, a pleasure to read. Would make a good present.
Rating:
Summary: A great source book
Review: A sumptuous record of both line-art and colour sketches of designs, images, technology and creatures; as well as technical production drawings and conceptual work, both used in the film and unused. A nice mix of what was discarded and what-might-have-been, showing how the designs came to be the final design in almost all categories you can name. Drawings are well labelled, with numerous information on the artist, influences and whether it was a final design or not. For me the huge volume of images, both large and small, was enough for a desire to seek more, the balance between text and the images themselves just right. Conceptual designs are accompanied by design notes; the drawings themselves still bearing sketch lines, axis points and hand written notation all guaranteeing that you feel involved in the process. Paper quality is high, and the text appropriate to a wide range of readers. In places the text can be a little sparse, though I suppose that the images are more important in a book of this type. My favourite sections are the colour graphic schemes of the podracers and the Trade Federation stuff. Occasional mistakes in labelling, but on the whole a very enjoyable book, a pleasure to read. Would make a good present.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the series.They all should have been like this.
Review: Hmmm. The reader from Coral Springs states that this book didn't have the range of artwork that the other "Art of Star Wars" books did. That's strange, because if you actually OPEN these books, you will see that (s)he is absolutely WRONG. This book is MUCH richer than the previous ones. The only explanation I can think of is that (s)he must have accidentally placed a review of the "Making of Episode I" here, instead of a review of the "Art of Episode I." (S)he also complains that the Star Wars Insider CD-ROM has more artwork on it. Well, of course it does! It's a CD-ROM! It has a lot of memory and you can put a lot of art on there! More art than can be put in a book! What a silly criticism! This is a FANTASTIC book! It actually tells you something about the artwork and the process that went into creating it. The previous books in the series should have been done this way! Hopefully Lucasfilm will do the remaining books in the series in a similar fashion. (Please, George?)
Rating:
Summary: Best of the series.They all should have been like this.
Review: Hmmm. The reader from Coral Springs states that this book didn't have the range of artwork that the other "Art of Star Wars" books did. That's strange, because if you actually OPEN these books, you will see that (s)he is absolutely WRONG. This book is MUCH richer than the previous ones. The only explanation I can think of is that (s)he must have accidentally placed a review of the "Making of Episode I" here, instead of a review of the "Art of Episode I." (S)he also complains that the Star Wars Insider CD-ROM has more artwork on it. Well, of course it does! It's a CD-ROM! It has a lot of memory and you can put a lot of art on there! More art than can be put in a book! What a silly criticism! This is a FANTASTIC book! It actually tells you something about the artwork and the process that went into creating it. The previous books in the series should have been done this way! Hopefully Lucasfilm will do the remaining books in the series in a similar fashion. (Please, George?)
Rating:
Summary: Impacting wondeful and full of inspiration!
Review: I am a product of the orginal trilogies and i am still impressed with what they were able to do even back then. technology has definetely worked on the side of movie creators, and Star Wars' creators are no exception. the art by which all of this amazing visual achievement is based is nothing short of spectacular. the work of all the artists who design costumes and sets to those who decide on the look for probably the best movie villian in recent history (Darth maul) is absolutely amazing. i recoomend this book to anyone who loves Star Wars, it's art, and the process that goes into building an element which has become a part of our modern culture.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely breathtaking
Review: I got this book when it first came out, and read every page before dawn. Doug Chiang's illustrations are outstanding, possibly better than McCreary's (is that possible) for the original trilogy. The rest of the illustrators are great in their own respects. Each page is full of original sketches (the first Darth Maul, beautiful), city layouts, and production paintings. A true gem.
Rating:
Summary: No McQuarrie, and yet an awesome art of Star Wars Book
Review: I loved the art Ralph McQuarrie did for the first three Star Wars movies, and in the Art of Episode I, Doug Chiang takes the torch and does an awesome job. His grand scale works are so appealing and detailed, I loved it.The character concept work in intriguing, there is a lot of evolutionary type paintings which I like a lot. The Sith work is fascinating. The one draw back to the book was the lack of explaination each work had. I would have liked more insight as to what the artist was thinking, what Lucas liked and what he disliked. That wasn't in this version as much as I would have liked. But overall, one to own.
Rating:
Summary: No McQuarrie, and yet an awesome art of Star Wars Book
Review: I loved the art Ralph McQuarrie did for the first three Star Wars movies, and in the Art of Episode I, Doug Chiang takes the torch and does an awesome job. His grand scale works are so appealing and detailed, I loved it. The character concept work in intriguing, there is a lot of evolutionary type paintings which I like a lot. The Sith work is fascinating. The one draw back to the book was the lack of explaination each work had. I would have liked more insight as to what the artist was thinking, what Lucas liked and what he disliked. That wasn't in this version as much as I would have liked. But overall, one to own.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not as good as other Star Wars Art of books
Review: I must say that the paintings were fantastic and the conceptual drawings were excellent. The only problem was that I didn't see nearly the range of work from the film that I saw in the other Art of Star Wars books! Also the artwork in the book had been seen many times before on the official website and in the Episode 1 Insiders Guide CD-rom. In fact the CD-rom had more artwork on it!
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