Ballistic Publishing have a good range of art books covering areas like Matte Painting, Concept Art, Character Modelling & Design, Game Art. The really good thing they do is provide an online copy you can flip through to determine how appropriate it is for a school.

The Creative Essence Series which started with The Face provides a good foundation in how to create the human face on computer in 3D. It starts with the reference photography moving through modelling, UV mapping, texturing and finally into rendering. Aimed at mid-to-advanced artists it will need to be supported with a range of activities to reach this goal. I did trial this in year 11 VET Multimedia class to limited success.

Inspiration can be found in each book in the d’Artiste series which covers one of a range of digital art subjects with the aim of being an artist master class, the Exposé Series which is a yearly collection of fine artworks from around the world, and the Exotique Series which focuses on beautiful CG characters.

These books are best suited to senior visual arts students as a way to inspire and to provide ideas & examples