In my humble opinion there really is only one 'art of' book series and its the one that started it all.

I must have read this book a million times back in the late 70's. There have been a huge amount of Concept artist's since these guys started it. Ralph Mcquarrie and Joe johnston were and still are leagues ahead of all the others that followed. What they did through the 70's and 80's still fills me with Awe. I love Ron Cobb and Nilo's work and love the boldness of Syd Mead and appreciate how groundbreaking he was. Nothing else stands up to this body of work done between '74 and '83.

 Now nearly 40 years later..............

Avengers 2 Age of Ultron, Man from Uncle and some old stuff

I've not updated for a while and probably won't be able to in the near future due to the nature of the work I'm currently on.
 Here are just a couple of pieces from Ultron, Uncle and a few others. As an Art Director its my responsibility to make sure the artists that work for me deliver both the right vision for the piece as well the quality. That can mean collaborating on Art. The Uncle 'Checkpoint Charlie' piece was started by Joe Mclamb and I jumped in later.
As I look around the web at the explosion of concept art, I see how most up and coming artists  concern themselves only with technique.  The ideas are usually more important and harder to define as a process.
painting a picture is relatively easy, coming up with a good idea is not. It is very collaborative and usually not one person can claim an idea or that painting was solely theirs.

I recently finished a lecture at the Industry Workshops in London.  It was great to see so many people and I had some great thoughtful questions at the end. I wonder if anyone understood what I was really on about.......