"Have you ever experienced the peace of walking through the woods or the excitement of a storm gathering on a beach? Artwork provides the ability for us to capture those moments and share them with others."

"Drawing Nature for the Absolute Beginner" offers a great beginner's course on drawing nature. In their fun and friendly teaching style, Mark and Mary Willenbrink show you how to realistically capture the world around you.

All you need to get started are some simple supplies, basic techniques, and inspiration. From field to forest, beach or mountain, begin with a structural sketch, apply values and textures, and, before you know it, you'll be drawing everything you see. You'll even learn how to render favorite wildlife such as chipmunks, deer and eagles

• Follow along with easy step-by-step demonstrations to draw rocks, seashells, butterflies and even more developed nature scenes.
• Gain a working understanding of key concepts such as perspective, value and composition.
• Discover simple tools and tips you can use right away to improve your art.

This is the true story of a robin who lives in my garden among fences, hedges, shrubs, trees, stacks of pots and bricks and the vine on my balcony. Lickel Bird or LB, responded to human company and showed remarkable trust and attachment. During my daily contact with him I watched him perform many tasks. These observational snapshots have given me a window into his world and allowed me to share some of his busy life in all its ups and downs. He watched me in my garden long before he trusted me enough to see I was on the side of small birds and that I would be there for him in his hour of need and what he needed most in his life was food.

Formed in 1995 "Cv/Visual Arts Research" is a documentary resource of developments in contemporary art. The survey began in April 1988, and was first published as the quarterly review "Cv Journal of Art and Crafts" (later "Cv Journal of the Arts"). "Cv" was produced until 1992 and the collection of interviews, features and reviews provided the foundation of the "Cv/VAR" archive and subsequent publications. Following "Cv Journal" the data-base shifted towards electronic publishing, allowing a greater flexibility of communication. "Cv/VAR" addresses the fields of academic research, galleries and museums worldwide, and a growing non-specialist readership. In this respect the archive has been re-organised as a file system which may be accessed as individual articles or collated volumes, according to specific requirements. The programme is categorized as Interviews with the Artists (files 1-8); Curators and Collections (files 9/10); Crafts Directory (files 11/12); Small Histories (files 13/14); Guide to the Arts (files 15/16); Art, Criticism & Display (files 17/18) and an open area for current developments (files 19/20). This describes how students in the Art Study Plan at Richmond Adult & Community College 1988 worked on a 8'x12' painting - "Whirlwind" that represented the carnal sins of society. This was recorded in situ in three sessions as the work was in progress.

An inspirational practical guide with bold and colourful designs, Polymer clay is a popular medium suitable for and loved by crafters of all ages and skill levels.

It is available in every imaginable colour and easily cured in a home oven, making clay art accessible to everyone. Clay surfaces can be enhanced in many ways and borrowing techniques from other crafts, such as stamping, punching, mosaicing and embossing adds tremendously to the versatility of this craft, making it fun and rewarding. This book shows you how to use it to create exquisite jewellery, stylish gifts, decorative boxes, buttons, faux finishes, attractive home accessories and much more.

Lots of step by step photographs ensure that not even a rank beginner can go wrong, and full page pictures of the finished items will inspire clay crafters to try the terrific projects. Many techniques, from basic conditioning to creative canework and millefiori-finishes, are clearly explained and illustrated, then contextualised in the various projects. Use these techniques to create your own unique pieces and custom designs. Owing to the nature of the medium, no two pieces will ever look exactly the same.

So go get your clay and start playing!

Packed with information and tips on materials and techniques, the book is a visual delight as well as a practical. Best-selling authors Tracy Boomer and Deborah Morbin said in their first book that they would decoupage the sky if they could reach it. Since then it's become even easier to decorate just about anything you can imagine with decoupage by making use of serviettes and the variety of special mediums for applying them to different base materials. With a text once again written with the infectious enthusiasm and humour that contributed to record sales on both their earlier books Tracy and Debbie guide you through the basics, share the results of their extensive experimenting with you by way of useful hints and tips, and tell you how to complete more than 30 projects using serviette decoupage. Decoupage with serviettes brings you as close to instant results as can be with some of the projects in this book taking no more than a couple of hours to complete. Packed with information and tips on materials and techniques, the book is a visual delight as well as a practical craft book with a wealth of innovative and original ideas. Projects have been carefully selected to cover a variety of base materials; each project is beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned photographs; steps are explained with easy to follow instructions; suggested alternatives help you create unique items; projects include paper tole and elevated images.

Enter the fantastic fantasy world of epic doodler Kerby Rosanes in his creepiest collection yet. From skulls that morph into butterflies to clockwork dragons and vine-entangled pumpkins - there's plenty of gothic-inspired scenes and creatures to bring to life in colour. As an extra challenge, seek out the search items at the back of the book - there's more to discover within these pages than you ever dreamed possible. On top of the success of Animorphia, Imagimorphia and Mythomorphia, Kerby's detailed doodle skills have already earned him a solid fan base. His Sketchy Stories Facebook page has more than 1,000,000 likes, he has had 275,000 project views on Behance and his incredible website (www.kerbyrosanes.com) is getting more hits by the day. Other books in the colouring series include: 9781910552070 Animorphia 9781910552148 Imagimorphia 9781910552261 Mythomorphia 9781910552926 Geomorphia

Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes - this collection of female nudes is a celebration of the artist's view that the rubenesque female form is beautiful and desirable. The art is soft and sensual, and displays the larger woman in tasteful relaxed poses that are at times dreamlike in form.

The paintings are grouped under various headings to take the reader through specific visual experiences beginning with some of the artist's tools, colour palettes and showing the development of texture. Seascapes and shorelines are the first stop, going through to the moors,hills and beyond.

Collaboration The Mind's Eye is a collaboration between the artist's emotional response to the poems and the immediacy of the poet's reaction to nature and personal encounters. The Poet Gail Gowers Cotton is a member of the Poetry Society and the British Haiku Society. Her poems have appeared in the Societies' journals as well as in other specialist magazines. She "scatters" her work by leaving poems on buses, in cafes and tucked into library books. The Mind's Eye is her second book. Her inspiration comes from nature and personal encounters including memories of Ireland, Africa, North Wales and visits to Sydenham Hill Woods, Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Horniman Museum in South London, where she now lives. The Artist Pat Keay graduated as a painter at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1971. She has worked as an artist and designer in Scotland, Kenya and London and now lives in Worthing. Read more on www.patkeay.com. The illustrations come from Pat's spontaneous reaction to the essence, rather than the detail, of a particular Haiku.

Here is our garden. The gate is not locked But don't venture in if you're easily shocked. We admit that our plantings won't please everyone; But if you're unsettled, that's part of the fun. See these creepers - like this one, that's wrapped round your feet? They creep terribly fast, and they only eat meat. Oh, and though they look pretty, please don't pick the flowers; They pick back, and their nails are far sharper than ours. You've seen how our chickens don't scratch in the mud? They're vampire hens, and they much prefer blood. And our goat, with the red eyes like smouldering coals? Satan's his name: he devours human souls. But don't be too frightened: all's not what it seems. These flora and fauna are tissues of dreams; And the monsters we dredge from the depths of our brain Fall asleep when we wake...or they'd drive us insane.