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Steven Universe artbooks
The Art of Steven Universe: The Movie
DATE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Go behind the scenes of Cartoon Network's highly anticipated film with this unique art book!
This magical deep-dive into Steven Universe The Movie is designed by Ryan Sands (Frontier) in conjunction with Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar! See preliminary character designs, witness the formation of settings and storyboards, and discover the art that shaped the full-length movie! It's a new kind of artistic adventure with with Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and--of course--Steven.
Go behind the scenes of Cartoon Network's highly anticipated film with this unique art book!
This magical deep-dive into Steven Universe The Movie is designed by Ryan Sands (Frontier) in conjunction with Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar! See preliminary character designs, witness the formation of settings and storyboards, and discover the art that shaped the full-length movie! It's a new kind of artistic adventure with with Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and--of course--Steven.
96 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 3, 2020
8 people are currently reading
281 people want to read
About the author
Cartoon Network
214 books20 followersCartoon Network (CN for short) is an American pay television channel owned by Turner Broadcasting System, a subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia.
The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 and primarily broadcasts animated television series, mostly children's programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. It operates daily from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. (ET) and primarily aimed at children between the ages of 6 to 11, and targets older teens and adults with mature content during its late night daypart block, Adult Swim, which is treated as a separate entity for promotional purposes and as a separate channel by Nielsen for ratings purposes.
As of January 2016, Cartoon Network is available to approximately 94.0 million pay television households (80.7% of households with television) in the United States.
The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 and primarily broadcasts animated television series, mostly children's programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. It operates daily from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. (ET) and primarily aimed at children between the ages of 6 to 11, and targets older teens and adults with mature content during its late night daypart block, Adult Swim, which is treated as a separate entity for promotional purposes and as a separate channel by Nielsen for ratings purposes.
As of January 2016, Cartoon Network is available to approximately 94.0 million pay television households (80.7% of households with television) in the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 4, 2020
The Art of Steven Universe The Movie was released March 3, 2020. It's a wonderful journey through the concept art, character development, and experience of fashioning these ideas into the movie we all love.
Nuts and bolts: The book is published by Dark Horse, and it was designed by Ryan Sands (a zine specialist), with commentary by Takafumi Hori, Kat Morris, and Rebecca Sugar. It includes art by Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Takafumi Hori, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Angie Wang, Ashley Fisher, Becky Dreistadt, Chromosphere, Danny Cragg, Elle Michalka, Hilary Florido, Ian Jones-Quartey, Jasmin Lai, Jeff Liu, Joe Johnston, Julian De Perio, Katie Mitroff, Leonard Hung, Miki Brewster, Patrick Bryson, and Paul Villeco.
An introduction explains the same origin story that Rebecca Sugar told us in the movie DVD's commentary: that she accidentally restored her phone to factory settings and lost years of important stuff, and she ended up applying that devastating premise to her movie. That combined with the concept of "breaking" the main premise of a TV show to make a movie was how she got started developing the story.
The opening of the movie styled like a storybook is blocked out with some great drawings and breakdowns of which narration would go to what storybook pages. This is combined with some partial sheet music for "The Tale of Steven." Rebecca writes about how she felt having to wrap pre-production on Season 5 only to take on this even bigger movie challenge. The biggest challenge was writing all these songs in such a short time--six weeks--and having to deal with the stress, being crushed under all that pressure while still wanting to do this story so badly, and it was humbling to still have to work so hard to sell the idea. The feeling of relief to finally be done that Steven expresses in "Happily Ever After" is very similar to what Rebecca went through feeling like she wanted to be finally done but still knowing what she had to do to climb an even bigger mountain.
Some very cute Steven-at-age-16 and Connie in Space Camp clothes follow. Notes indicate that Steven and Connie are the same height now, but his poofy hair is just slightly higher than her head.
Notes from 2017 also give us the "Neckstravaganza": design notes on Steven's new form, with a neck and a jacket. It's very cool.
Some beautiful Joe Johnston boards follow, with sequences from the "Happily Ever After" song. We also get Angie Wang's final design (with Ashley Fisher's color) of the injector, including some sketchy concept art for it from Rebecca Sugar and Hilary Florido. In the rough concept notes, they call this the "Mega Injector," with notes for Takafumi Hori to use for scale. It looks beyond huge in a Leonard Hung drawing.
Spinel concepts are next. Some notes explain that aivi & surasshu (the usual composers) were involved very early since it was a musical, and Rebecca included them when pitching the story to the Crew so they could organically develop the sound. The heart shape was central to Spinel from the beginning, and early versions of her had an entire heart shape to her head.
(There's a doodle of what looks like a cartoon dog in the pile of drawings shown in this section. It's not clear what that was.)
Spinel was given the heart imagery partly because Rebecca had learned early on about the importance of symbols, and when it came time to assign one to Steven, the star was chosen because it's so positive and is read as gender-neutral. Rebecca still hadn't used hearts for anything, so it was time. They also incorporated really old, dated character design ideas to make Spinel feel like an outdated cartoon from the rubber hose era.
The aspect of her design with the running mascara versus cute eyelashes predated the rotation of her Gem. Rebecca likes to start with more realistic sketches when she's figuring out a character, and then she'll move to making it more cartoony. A quote from Miki Brewster is shared: "Spinel can do anything, as long as it's entertaining!" Her "best friend" form is described as "a doll for friendship fun & games! Of a different era--hokey, charming, weird...super gullible and trusting. Incredibly loyal, constant entertainment machine!"
When it comes to developing her "worst enemy" form, Rebecca explains a bit that she has a really complicated relationship with old cartoons because nostalgia is not compelling to her--the animation from the 1930s is so neat, but considering the social limits and the way the industry was at the time, Rebecca doesn't think she could have participated. Especially considering nowadays she even had to struggle to be allowed to tell the stories she needed to tell and it would have been impossible five years ago. The norms of the time aren't entirely extricable from the art itself.
Takafumi Hori weighs in with commentary on how fun it was to animate a scary but fun character on top of Miki Brewster's boards for the "Other Friends" fight sequence.
Next, moving on from the central new character, they also spend some time discussing Steg. Rebecca first explains "Steg Multiverse" as a character so uplifting he can make you fly, combining Greg's unending support and Steven's positive power. She makes reference to the early "stegosaurus" concepts they had for his look, but they didn't want to lose the opportunity to have his hair flow. Rebecca confirms that the pompadour idea was established in "Steven and the Stevens" so they wanted to give it to Steg, and she credits Paul Villeco for really finalizing his design and bringing him to life.
And of course the poofy hair from Steven and the double-necked guitar was essential for Steg.
Next, the book gives us a whole page of handwritten notes about "Drift Away." Kat Morris explains the intentional duality of the scene--how Spinel should be shown seeing her own past with new perspective, being embarrassed, blending together who she was with who she is. The partial lyrics to the song and some sketchy boards are offered.
Rebecca shares her personal connection with the subject matter--how she once left a stuffed animal in her garden and the side facing the sun faded. It really made a mark on her as a child that things changed without her, because of her actions, and that she'd left this treasured toy alone without thinking about it all that time, letting it be affected by the elements without her interference. She wrote "Everything Stays" for Adventure Time based on that plushie, and realized that she was writing about it again for the Steven Universe movie.
Many beautiful miniature boards are shown in this section.
Partial sheet music for "Drift Away" is also offered here. It's credited to Rebecca Sugar and Aimee Mann. The music sheet is followed by some lovely images of the garden by Julian De Perio, Patrick Bryson, and Leonard Hung.
Takafumi Hori returns for a discussion of the final fight sequence during "Change," which he animated from Jeff Liu's boards. He discusses trying to keep the fight feeling dramatic and serious even though Spinel's fighting style is funny. He wanted to keep her tension. Hori-san throws in a word of thanks for being allowed to work on his favorite show again, praises Jeff and Miki, and compliments Rebecca Sugar's demos. He hoped we'd get a soundtrack album. (Of course, we did.)
Some final boards by Rebecca Sugar and Becky Dreistadt of the characters in their show gear descending the steps close out the book. There are also some cute little doodles at the end on the credits page, like a head of lettuce with caption "lettuce adore you" and Spinel in a drifting go-kart laughing, captioned "drift away."
The back cover pictures Steven with his arm around a heartbroken Spinel, comforting her.
Overall, the book is wonderful--the accompanying information is generally not new to anyone who watched the DVD's documentary and commentary, and many of the sketches have been released one way or another directly by the artists through Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr blogs. There was still plenty of wonderful new concept art that wasn't already out there, and looking at some of the iterations Spinel and Steg went through was particularly captivating.
There was no new insight into the development of the plot beyond the premise and the Spinel-related conflict, though; nothing about how they decided to focus the Garnet storyline, the Pearl storyline, and the Amethyst storyline for how they would each get their memories back, and there was no spotlight on their movie versions--modern Cotton Candy Garnet, copycat baby Amethyst, and factory settings uncustomized Pearl. I was hoping especially for some Amethyst stuff because the movie was the first place we got to see her with the simple default outfit and segmented limbs.
It was primarily an art book with commentary on some of the most definitive movie aspects--it didn't reach the depth that Art and Origins gave us. It has a start-to-finish feeling in a sense, but it's mostly just splashes of information that are fun to know. It's a great companion and definitely should not be missed by any fan of the movie. I recommend it heartily!
Nuts and bolts: The book is published by Dark Horse, and it was designed by Ryan Sands (a zine specialist), with commentary by Takafumi Hori, Kat Morris, and Rebecca Sugar. It includes art by Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Takafumi Hori, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Angie Wang, Ashley Fisher, Becky Dreistadt, Chromosphere, Danny Cragg, Elle Michalka, Hilary Florido, Ian Jones-Quartey, Jasmin Lai, Jeff Liu, Joe Johnston, Julian De Perio, Katie Mitroff, Leonard Hung, Miki Brewster, Patrick Bryson, and Paul Villeco.
An introduction explains the same origin story that Rebecca Sugar told us in the movie DVD's commentary: that she accidentally restored her phone to factory settings and lost years of important stuff, and she ended up applying that devastating premise to her movie. That combined with the concept of "breaking" the main premise of a TV show to make a movie was how she got started developing the story.
The opening of the movie styled like a storybook is blocked out with some great drawings and breakdowns of which narration would go to what storybook pages. This is combined with some partial sheet music for "The Tale of Steven." Rebecca writes about how she felt having to wrap pre-production on Season 5 only to take on this even bigger movie challenge. The biggest challenge was writing all these songs in such a short time--six weeks--and having to deal with the stress, being crushed under all that pressure while still wanting to do this story so badly, and it was humbling to still have to work so hard to sell the idea. The feeling of relief to finally be done that Steven expresses in "Happily Ever After" is very similar to what Rebecca went through feeling like she wanted to be finally done but still knowing what she had to do to climb an even bigger mountain.
Some very cute Steven-at-age-16 and Connie in Space Camp clothes follow. Notes indicate that Steven and Connie are the same height now, but his poofy hair is just slightly higher than her head.
Notes from 2017 also give us the "Neckstravaganza": design notes on Steven's new form, with a neck and a jacket. It's very cool.
Some beautiful Joe Johnston boards follow, with sequences from the "Happily Ever After" song. We also get Angie Wang's final design (with Ashley Fisher's color) of the injector, including some sketchy concept art for it from Rebecca Sugar and Hilary Florido. In the rough concept notes, they call this the "Mega Injector," with notes for Takafumi Hori to use for scale. It looks beyond huge in a Leonard Hung drawing.
Spinel concepts are next. Some notes explain that aivi & surasshu (the usual composers) were involved very early since it was a musical, and Rebecca included them when pitching the story to the Crew so they could organically develop the sound. The heart shape was central to Spinel from the beginning, and early versions of her had an entire heart shape to her head.
(There's a doodle of what looks like a cartoon dog in the pile of drawings shown in this section. It's not clear what that was.)
Spinel was given the heart imagery partly because Rebecca had learned early on about the importance of symbols, and when it came time to assign one to Steven, the star was chosen because it's so positive and is read as gender-neutral. Rebecca still hadn't used hearts for anything, so it was time. They also incorporated really old, dated character design ideas to make Spinel feel like an outdated cartoon from the rubber hose era.
The aspect of her design with the running mascara versus cute eyelashes predated the rotation of her Gem. Rebecca likes to start with more realistic sketches when she's figuring out a character, and then she'll move to making it more cartoony. A quote from Miki Brewster is shared: "Spinel can do anything, as long as it's entertaining!" Her "best friend" form is described as "a doll for friendship fun & games! Of a different era--hokey, charming, weird...super gullible and trusting. Incredibly loyal, constant entertainment machine!"
When it comes to developing her "worst enemy" form, Rebecca explains a bit that she has a really complicated relationship with old cartoons because nostalgia is not compelling to her--the animation from the 1930s is so neat, but considering the social limits and the way the industry was at the time, Rebecca doesn't think she could have participated. Especially considering nowadays she even had to struggle to be allowed to tell the stories she needed to tell and it would have been impossible five years ago. The norms of the time aren't entirely extricable from the art itself.
Takafumi Hori weighs in with commentary on how fun it was to animate a scary but fun character on top of Miki Brewster's boards for the "Other Friends" fight sequence.
Next, moving on from the central new character, they also spend some time discussing Steg. Rebecca first explains "Steg Multiverse" as a character so uplifting he can make you fly, combining Greg's unending support and Steven's positive power. She makes reference to the early "stegosaurus" concepts they had for his look, but they didn't want to lose the opportunity to have his hair flow. Rebecca confirms that the pompadour idea was established in "Steven and the Stevens" so they wanted to give it to Steg, and she credits Paul Villeco for really finalizing his design and bringing him to life.
And of course the poofy hair from Steven and the double-necked guitar was essential for Steg.
Next, the book gives us a whole page of handwritten notes about "Drift Away." Kat Morris explains the intentional duality of the scene--how Spinel should be shown seeing her own past with new perspective, being embarrassed, blending together who she was with who she is. The partial lyrics to the song and some sketchy boards are offered.
Rebecca shares her personal connection with the subject matter--how she once left a stuffed animal in her garden and the side facing the sun faded. It really made a mark on her as a child that things changed without her, because of her actions, and that she'd left this treasured toy alone without thinking about it all that time, letting it be affected by the elements without her interference. She wrote "Everything Stays" for Adventure Time based on that plushie, and realized that she was writing about it again for the Steven Universe movie.
Many beautiful miniature boards are shown in this section.
Partial sheet music for "Drift Away" is also offered here. It's credited to Rebecca Sugar and Aimee Mann. The music sheet is followed by some lovely images of the garden by Julian De Perio, Patrick Bryson, and Leonard Hung.
Takafumi Hori returns for a discussion of the final fight sequence during "Change," which he animated from Jeff Liu's boards. He discusses trying to keep the fight feeling dramatic and serious even though Spinel's fighting style is funny. He wanted to keep her tension. Hori-san throws in a word of thanks for being allowed to work on his favorite show again, praises Jeff and Miki, and compliments Rebecca Sugar's demos. He hoped we'd get a soundtrack album. (Of course, we did.)
Some final boards by Rebecca Sugar and Becky Dreistadt of the characters in their show gear descending the steps close out the book. There are also some cute little doodles at the end on the credits page, like a head of lettuce with caption "lettuce adore you" and Spinel in a drifting go-kart laughing, captioned "drift away."
The back cover pictures Steven with his arm around a heartbroken Spinel, comforting her.
Overall, the book is wonderful--the accompanying information is generally not new to anyone who watched the DVD's documentary and commentary, and many of the sketches have been released one way or another directly by the artists through Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr blogs. There was still plenty of wonderful new concept art that wasn't already out there, and looking at some of the iterations Spinel and Steg went through was particularly captivating.
There was no new insight into the development of the plot beyond the premise and the Spinel-related conflict, though; nothing about how they decided to focus the Garnet storyline, the Pearl storyline, and the Amethyst storyline for how they would each get their memories back, and there was no spotlight on their movie versions--modern Cotton Candy Garnet, copycat baby Amethyst, and factory settings uncustomized Pearl. I was hoping especially for some Amethyst stuff because the movie was the first place we got to see her with the simple default outfit and segmented limbs.
It was primarily an art book with commentary on some of the most definitive movie aspects--it didn't reach the depth that Art and Origins gave us. It has a start-to-finish feeling in a sense, but it's mostly just splashes of information that are fun to know. It's a great companion and definitely should not be missed by any fan of the movie. I recommend it heartily!
April 8, 2022
What an incredible and inspiring read! Steven Universe was my first queer cartoon I'd ever watched. The magic of the gems still shines to this day, with this book bringing luminosity to their future in the movie! In concept sketches, you can trace the movie's beginnings line by sketchy line with a splash of colorful commentary from storyboard artists who helped bring Steven, the Crystal Gems, and Spinel to life with thoughtful input on their teamwork and admiration for their fellow artists. Rebecca Sugar talks about the rocky road in the early days of production, she doesn't candy coat it. It wasn't easy and her time working in animation helped her to better see the world for the movie, I'll always admire Rebecca for their tenacity and determination to give a voice to their sketches, melody to the lyrics they carefully craft with Aiva and Surassha for each individual character, and movement in storytelling after wrapping up a whole series with excellent character development and growth but choosing to take a different road in this next chapter of the Crystal Gems' lives. Like Rebecca wrote, everything stays, but it still changes. I love you forever Steven Universe.
March 4, 2020
This slick paperback provides a nice behind-the-scenes look at some aspects of the art and story for Steven Universe The Movie. Incredible concept art and various artists' input allows us to peek into early versions of antagonist Spinel, fun early art of rockstar fusion Steg, musical development and art styles to define the characters, and Steven's amazing new neck.
The book doesn't give a whole lot of information that is new to megafans like me; I've already seen the commentary and the documentary that was released on the DVD some time ago, and I follow many of the artists online so I've seen some of the developmental art before. But there were still some images I'd never seen and a couple reflections I'd not heard before, and even though the main focus was on Steven, Spinel, and a little Steg, we still got some really cool background art, images of the injector, and action images of the other Gems. As a huge fan of everything about the show, I would never dream of not having this in my collection.
The book doesn't give a whole lot of information that is new to megafans like me; I've already seen the commentary and the documentary that was released on the DVD some time ago, and I follow many of the artists online so I've seen some of the developmental art before. But there were still some images I'd never seen and a couple reflections I'd not heard before, and even though the main focus was on Steven, Spinel, and a little Steg, we still got some really cool background art, images of the injector, and action images of the other Gems. As a huge fan of everything about the show, I would never dream of not having this in my collection.
March 3, 2020
Really awesome book for the fans, my only problem was not seeing a lot of concept art/storyboards/etc for characters other than Steven & Spinel. Still, a high-quality book and Sugar's art style is something to behold, but dang a lot of the others were left in the dust here. (....like Spinel in the garden...) ;)
March 31, 2020
This was a quick and fun read. I enjoyed getting a peek behind the creation of the movie. That's all this was, though, a nice peek. I know there's a documentary about the making of the movie on the Blu-ray but I still would have liked more concept art in this book.
Read
June 7, 2021I hoped to find a thicker book —I guess the other 2 art books are just beyond extraordinary. I miss some explanations about the wonderfull ideas behind the movie, comments regarding the songs, the lyrics, the choice to make a musical... but it's still wonderfull ☆
March 25, 2020
Shorter than I expected it to be
It was shorter than I expected it to be but I love Steven Universe so it's worth spending money on.
It was shorter than I expected it to be but I love Steven Universe so it's worth spending money on.
April 8, 2020
Beautiful and with insight, but not as much text as I'm used to from Dark Horse's art books. Worth it for the SU devoted.
July 7, 2023
Ik this book is made by another publisher but I wish I had more parts about Rebecca’s thought process throughout the movie and connection points and not just the main hitting points of the plot.
November 6, 2023
These art books are always wayyyy to short like please I want to see it all 😭
January 27, 2024
3.5 ⭐️ Me gustó pero es muy corto, esperaba más contenido
October 5, 2020
It’s a cute book. Not comprehensive, though.
This book feels like mostly a scrapbook of initial and concept drawings, along with some selected clean-up frames. There are notes and blurbs accompanying some of the drawings that give insight into the creation and background of characters (and they’re fun to read!) but it seems really minimal.
This book reads like a scrapbook and a love letter to the initial concept drawings. Maybe they thought the drawings speak for themselves and displaying them for study would be more sublime.
This book was also curated by Ryan Sands, the founder of zine group Youth In Decline. They have a zine series called Frontier, which focuses on the work of a single artist each issue. Rebecca Sugar was the featured artist in Issue #14. If you compare Frontier Issue #14 with this book, the layout and style is _crazy_ similar. Maybe they gave the book editor job to Ryan Sands as an acknowledgment and appreciation to a friend and also as a nod to Sugar’s independent comic roots, since she first started out in zines. I can respect that decision.
As of this writing, (Sept 2020) if you want a deeper look into the movie, watch the documentary that accompanies the "Steven Universe: The Movie" DVD. It’s a lot more comprehensive. Compared to that, this book feels like more of an accompaniment piece to that documentary.
Maybe they’ll cover more in the upcoming “Steven Universe: End of an Era” art and discussion book (due in Oct 2020). As for this book... it's cute, it's sublime, you get to see a bunch of brainstorming and concept drawings (and that's cool), but there’s not as much deep dive into the behind-the-scenes creation of the movie as I would have personally liked.
This book feels like mostly a scrapbook of initial and concept drawings, along with some selected clean-up frames. There are notes and blurbs accompanying some of the drawings that give insight into the creation and background of characters (and they’re fun to read!) but it seems really minimal.
This book reads like a scrapbook and a love letter to the initial concept drawings. Maybe they thought the drawings speak for themselves and displaying them for study would be more sublime.
This book was also curated by Ryan Sands, the founder of zine group Youth In Decline. They have a zine series called Frontier, which focuses on the work of a single artist each issue. Rebecca Sugar was the featured artist in Issue #14. If you compare Frontier Issue #14 with this book, the layout and style is _crazy_ similar. Maybe they gave the book editor job to Ryan Sands as an acknowledgment and appreciation to a friend and also as a nod to Sugar’s independent comic roots, since she first started out in zines. I can respect that decision.
As of this writing, (Sept 2020) if you want a deeper look into the movie, watch the documentary that accompanies the "Steven Universe: The Movie" DVD. It’s a lot more comprehensive. Compared to that, this book feels like more of an accompaniment piece to that documentary.
Maybe they’ll cover more in the upcoming “Steven Universe: End of an Era” art and discussion book (due in Oct 2020). As for this book... it's cute, it's sublime, you get to see a bunch of brainstorming and concept drawings (and that's cool), but there’s not as much deep dive into the behind-the-scenes creation of the movie as I would have personally liked.
January 22, 2025
Not as rich as the other Steven Universe art books, but still enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews