Dragons have captured the imagination of artists for aeons and feature in the earliest myths, on the armour of medieval knights, as well as in today's popular culture. In this new and improved third edition, dragon aficionado and artist Lora Irish shares tips and techniques for creating your own fantastic renderings of man's favorite foe. Updated for this edition: brand new art for both Eastern and Western dragons, a new gallery, sections on dragon history, lore, and anatomy, and a newly added section on transfer instructions for all applications, including fabric, wood, canvas, and other materials.

This essay takes as its focus two paintings by Johannes Vermeer (1632-75), The Milkmaid c.1661-62 and Woman Holding a Balance c.1662-65, and considers critical approaches to the artist by four historians: Edward A.Snow, Lawrence Gowing, John Michael Montias, and Martin Pops. Its aim is not solely to describe Vermeer's art, but by a process of comparative analysis to discern the various standpoints of his biographers, and to clarify their methodologies in research.

Airfix has been commercially producing plastic kits since 1952 and its models have been made by successive generations of young boys and men alike. In the 1960s, a talented graphic artist called Roy Cross was commissioned to paint some of the box art for Airfix, and for a ten-year-period he provided many of the glorious paintings seen on the boxes, setting new standards for realism and accuracy. Many are still being used today, a full four decades later. Inside the pages of this book are some of Roy's best artworks, shown here in full format and in superb detail, with many reproduced here in book form for the very first time. As well as his vintage box art, Roy has included many sketches and alternative versions of his Airfix box art. After Roy left Airfix in 1974, the company went through a turbulent time. The present owners are Hornby, who have ambitious plans for Airfix and the other brands it acquired including Scalextric and Corgi. The decade that Roy Cross worked for Airfix, though, could be classed as their vintage era, with some of their finest models being produced then in their millions, ready for eager youngsters to build up into detailed miniature models of their favorite aircraft, ships and locomotives.