During his career as one of America's most sought-after illustrators, Andrew Loomis (1889-1959) taught at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and in 1939 he codified his lessons in his first manual, "Fun with a Pencil." Four years later it had already been through six printings, and he followed up over the next two decades with a series of even more successful how-to books that remain the gold standard for artists to this day.
"Creative Illustration" is considered Loomis's magnum opus, which was aimed primarily at the professional-level illustrator. Divided into seven sections: Line, Tone, Color, Telling the Story, Creating Ideas, Fields of Illustration, and Experimenting and Studies, this book is filled with instructions, tips, insider experiences, and incredible illustrations.

In The Urban Sketching Handbook: Drawing Expressive People, urban sketcher and workshop instructor Roisin Cure shows how to make your figures more than just anonymous bystanders by sharing the basics of drawing people on the go as well as how to successfully render poses, faces, and expressions. Following an essential section on proportion, you'll find tips, tricks, and examples for surmounting the intimidating prospect of capturing ever-shifting subjects, plus techniques for portraying poses accurately and distilling details that convey personality and emotion, whether individually, in small groups, or in crowds. Bring figures and people to life on the page and tell an authentic visual story with The Urban Sketching Handbook: Drawing Expressive People. The Urban Sketching Handbook series offers location artists expert instruction on creative techniques, on-location tips and advice, and an abundance of visual inspiration. These handy references come in a compact, easy-to-carry format-perfect to toss in your backpack or artist's tote.

Take your plein air artwork to the next level through easy-to-understand workshop-style lessons and skill-building exercises. In Plein Air Techniques for Artists, award-winning artist and respected workshop instructor Aimee Erickson demystifies how to capture a variety of light effects and guides you in strengthening your plein air skills through practice. This accessible book covers: Materials and gear. Gain a basic knowledge of the possibilities so you can keep your options open and your plein air process fresh. Composition and value. Explore the impact of proportion, color, value, line, edges, shape, and texture. Color. Consider how knowledge and intention, your color palette, and what you see-your perspective-take turns being in charge of the color game, inventing rules and finding solutions. Light effects. Learn how conditions of the day-how much light there is, and whether it's soft, diffuse, golden, harsh, pale, or dusky-affect everything we see and how we paint. Design and the visual idea. Discover strategies for developing a visual idea, from creating serial studies to working with a camera to improvisation. Featuring exceptional still lifes, figures, and landscapes by other noted artists working in a range of mediums, Plein Air Techniques for Artists gives artists at all levels of experience the guidance they need to grow as a plein air artist. The For Artists series expertly guides and instructs artists at all skill levels who want to develop their classical drawing and painting skills and create realistic and representational art.

Perspective is a discipline often set aside when it comes to general art study, though it is essential to master in order to produce any piece of art that is and feels realistic. Framed Perspective 1 equips artists with the technical knowledge needed to produce successful visual storytelling-related drawings: from understanding the basics of the space around us and how we perceive it, all the way to more sophisticated endeavors, like creating entire locations that will become the believable set ups our characters and stories will happen within. As intimidating as perspective may seem, best-selling author and artist Marcos Mateu-Mestre delivers each lesson in an accessible and informative way that takes the mystery out of achieving successful scenes. The book includes extensive step-by-step practical explanations of how to build objects and environments of all sorts, taking that first sketch to a fully rendered artwork with many of his finished illustrations as examples. Sure to be the most popular book in your art library, it will train you to see the world in a way that allows you to enjoy every curve and slope you see in it and, more importantly, translate that vision into art with accuracy and a great sense and understanding of depth and proportion. Your perspective will never be the same!

The Watercolour Sourcebook is a compilation of four selected titles from the What to Paint series, chosen specially to illustrate the wide range of scenes and subjects that can be captured in watercolour. The works of four master watercolourists - Geoff Kersey, Terry Harrison, Peter Woolley and Wendy Tait - are brought together in a collection of 60 beautiful, detailed projects on the subjects of trees, woodlands and forests; landscapes; hills and mountains and flowers respectively. Each project results in a full painting that is accompanied at the end of the book by a full-size outline that can be copied and applied to the artist's own watercolour paper using tracedown paper and pencil. The Watercolour Sourcebook aims to provide a wealth of inspiration to the painter who struggles to decide upon their subject matter, and arms the artist with everything they need to know about what they're about to paint, from colour palette to useful techniques.

Following in the successful paw and hoof prints of The Daily Zoo: Volume One comes another exotic menagerie of creative fauna from Hollywood artist Chris Ayers. The Daily Zoo 2 offers more furry and feathered friends along with continuing reflections on his life as an artist and cancer survivor. And, as with Volume 1 and perhaps more so, regardless of your artistic experience, this book will leave you inspired to grab the nearest pencil, pen, brush or crayon and start drawing ... for fun and perhaps as a way to bring healing!

Featuring elegant designs and high-quality paper, Floating Worlds Japanese Prints Coloring Book is the perfect stress-reliever for fans of classical Japanese woodblock prints. The floating world of Geisha, Kabuki actors, cherry blossoms and the majestic Mt. Fuji--with this coloring book for adults you are there, recreating woodblock prints of people, landscapes, flora and fauna. This fine art, adult coloring book includes 22 woodblock prints from the Ukiyo-e genre, all ready for the touch of your colored pencils or fine markers. A copy of the richly-colored original print sits opposite your coloring "canvas" to use as a reference, or not. Before beginning, enjoy a little of the story behind the image, as each print comes with a brief yet fascinating introduction to the original work. Altogether, it's the perfect way to relax and have fun with art. When your masterpiece is complete, tear it out at the perforation to frame and display.

How to Draw is for artists, architects and designers. It is useful to the novice, the student and the professional. You will learn how to draw any object or environment from your imagination, starting with the most basic perspective drawing skills. Early chapters explain how to draw accurate perspective grids and ellipses that in later chapters provide the foundation for more complex forms. The research and design processes used to generate visual concepts are demonstrated, making it much easier for you to draw things never-before-seen! Best of all, more than 25 pages can be scanned via a smartphone or tablet using the new Design Studio Press app, which link to video tutorials for that section of the book! With a combined 26 years of teaching experience, Scott Robertson and Thomas Bertling bring you the lessons and techniques they have used to help thousands of their students become professional artists and designers. This book is indispensable for anyone who wants to learn, or teaches others, how to draw.

The possibilities for creation are endless with 3D printing, sculpting, scanning, and milling, and new opportunities are popping up faster than artists can keep up with them. 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft takes the mystery out of these exciting new processes by demonstrating how to navigate their digital components and showing their real world applications. Artists will learn to incorporate these new technologies into their studio work and see their creations come to life in a physical form never before possible. Featuring a primer on 3D basics for beginners,interviews, tutorials, and artwork from over 80 artists, intellectual property rights information, and a comprehensive companion website, this book is your field guide to exploring the exhilarating new world of 3D. Follow step-by-step photos and tutorials outlining the techniques, methodologies, and finished products of master artists who have employed 3D technology in new and inventive ways Learn how to enlarge, reduce, and repurpose existing artwork and create virtual pieces in physical forms through a variety of mediums Research your options with an accessible list of pros and cons of the various software, 3D printers, scanners, milling machines, and vendors that provide services in 3D technology Listen to podcasts with the artists and learn more tips and tricks through the book's website at www.digitalsculpting.net

Featuring over 100 images, including step-by-step examples illustrating how to improve costume renderings. This is an invaluable resource for students in Costume Rendering and Costume Design courses, along with professional costume designers looking to improve their rendering skills. Written to complement any rendering style.

Revolutionize your work with acrylics!

Get ready for the creative ride of your life! Tradition is out, experimentation is in with this cutting-edge how-to sampler of techniques to use with acrylic, the world’s most versatile medium. Inside, you’ll find inventive, non-traditional, downright inspirational ways to paint with acrylic (pour, scrape, squirt, roll, layer and excavate).

Workshop style instruction covers a wide range of approaches:

Watermedia Effects * Creating Texture Gels * Subtractive Techniques * Collage and Acrylic Skins * Acrylic Transfers and the Printed Image * Pours * Acrylic Encaustic * Metallic and Reflective Paints * Drawing and Resists with Acrylic * Traditional Techniques with Acrylic * Varnishing

- 18 step-by-step demonstrations illustrate a wide variety of techniques including engraving acrylic, intarsia, pouring acrylic objects and more.

- Studio visits profile 10 artists and their personal approaches to painting with acrylics.

If you want to try something new...to put more play into your artwork...to test-drive some of those enticing products you’ve been eyeing...open this book and go for it. We’re not talking just about brush and canvas anymore...get out the hand-sander and Plexiglas, and hold on tight (or better yet, let loose!), because this adventure-in-acrylics will take you through a variety of possibilities. Delicate transparent washes, lively impasto surfaces, radical multi-dimensional effects... What will YOU think of next?

Master the challenges of drawing on location with this collection of insider know-how and expert tips and techniques. Illustrator, architect, and international workshop instructor and Urban Sketcher Stephanie Bower has collected 101 of her best insider drawing tips, hacks, and techniques and shares them in this fully illustrated, portable book. Learn shortcuts to getting your perspective right, determining your composition, and balancing your light and shadow. This book collects many basic drawing techniques into one handy volume: How to draw a great line Using ellipses to draw arches How towers are like wedding cakes The importance of your eye level line in sketching and 97 things more! The book also features beautiful example illustrations from Urban Sketchers around the globe! Whether you are new to sketching or are an experienced artist, this book is chock-full of useful, practical, and clever tips to take your drawing to the next level. The Urban Sketching Handbook series offers location artists expert instruction on creative techniques, on-location tips and advice, and an abundance of visual inspiration. These handy references come in a compact, easy-to-carry format-perfect to toss in your backpack or artist's tote.

The first monograph on the Vita Humana cycle at Tre Fontane, this book includes an overview of the medieval history of the Roman Cistercian abbey and its architecture, as well as a consideration of the political and cultural standing of the abbey both within Papal Rome and within the Cistercian order. Furthermore, it considers the commission of the fresco cycle, the circumstances of its making, and its position within the art historical context of the Roman Duecento. Examining the unusual blend of images in the Vita Humana cycle, this study offers a more nuanced picture of the iconographic repertoire of medieval art. Since the discovery of the frescoes in the 1960s, the iconographic programme of the cycle has remained mysterious, and an adequate analysis of the Vita Humana cycle as a whole has so far been lacking. Kristin B. Aavitsland covers this gap in the scholarship on Roman art circa 1300, and also presents the first interpretative discussion of the frescoes that is up-to-date with the architectural investigations undertaken in the monastery around 2000. Aavitsland proposes a rationale behind the conception of the fresco cycle, thereby providing a key for understanding its iconography and shedding new light on thirteenth-century Cistercian culture.

A practical and inspirational book of printmaking techniques and modern working practices. This book is your basic and essential guide to a wide range of printmaking techniques. Through step-by-step instructions, it covers the processes of monotype, relief, intaglio, collagraph, screenprinting and lithography, explaining basic methods and recommending tools, types of paper, equipment and materials necessary for each, as well as highlighting safe and sensible working practices. A handy chapter also teaches you how to edition and frame your prints. This new, expanded edition covers modern working practices and recent techniques such as printing with carborundum. Designed as a practical book, it is also full of inspiration for all budding printmakers.

The monochrome - a single colour of paint applied over the entirety of a canvas - remains one of the more contentious modernist artistic inventions. But whilst the manufacture of these 'pictures of nothing' was ostensibly straightforward, their subsequent theorisation has been anything but. More than a history, Monochrome: Darkness and Light in Contemporary Art is the first account of the monochrome's lively role in contemporary art. Liberated from the burden of representation, the monochrome first stood for emancipation: an ideological and artistic impulse that characterised the avant-garde of the early twentieth century. Historically, the monochrome embodied the most extreme form of abstraction and pure materiality. Yet more recently, adaptations of the art form have focused on a broader range of cultural and interpretive contexts. Provocative, innovative and timely, this book argues that the latest artistic strategies go beyond stylistic concerns and instead seek to re-engage with ideas around authorship, process and the conditions of the visible as they are given and understood through both light and darkness. Discussing works by artists such as Katie Paterson, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tom Friedman, Bruno Jakob, Sherrie Levine and Ceal Floyer, the book shows that the debates around an artwork's form and its possibility for meaning that the monochrome first engendered remain very much alive in contemporary visual culture.

This guide introduces aspiring manga artists to drawing chibi characters--wide-eyed caricatures beloved for their cartoonish exaggeration. Drawing Cute Manga Chibi walks you through the steps needed to draw these adorable characters, while sidebars offer expert tips, pointers on the pitfalls to avoid, and how to use details to bring your drawings to life. In this book, readers will learn how to imagine and express: Facial expressions Body posture Hairstyles Different ages Poses Bringing your characters into full-color Different character identities--from a punk rocker to a samurai Author and Japanese manga artist Ryusuke Hamamoto (Ryu Moto) is best known for his design and creation of the Petit Eva character--who even makes an appearance in this book! In Drawing Cute Manga Chibi, he shares his personal tips, showing you how to break the "rules" of figure drawing in order to create these bobbleheaded cuties. Artists of all ages and levels will have fun creating original characters or reimagining their friends and family as kawaii chibi drawings.

Learn to draw the natural world with this inspiring and accessible guide by master-artist Giovanni Civardi. Beginning with the key drawing methods and essential materials you'll need to start your artistic journey, along with advice on drawing perspective as well as light and shade, learn to sketch country scenes, fruit, vegetables, animals and more. Throughout you'll find hundreds of helpful and practical illustrations, along with stunning examples of Civardi's work that exemplify his favourite techniques for capturing the natural world. This is the perfect book for both beginner and experienced artists looking for an inspirational, no-nonsense introduction to drawing natural subjects. This comprehensive guide brings together seven books from Search Press's successful Art of Drawing series: Drawing Techniques; Understanding Perspective; Drawing Scenery; Drawing Light & Shade; Flowers, Fruit & Vegetables; Drawing Pets; and Wild Animals.

A new type of craft, braided wire jewelry does not require expensive equipment and can be made by almost anyone with easily found materials. Come and give it a try! Pretty, delicate-looking (but actually quite strong) jewelry, including pendants, pins, watchbands, and earrings, can be made from wires, beads and stones. Cute monkey, butterfly, and cross shapes are shown, and you are encouraged to design your own styles once you learn her techniques. Let your imagination go! Have fun being creative! Step-by-step instructions with color photographs and detail drawings guide you through the basic techniques and seven projects with various levels of difficulty.

Drawing and Painting People - A Fresh Approach is about confident and defiant art. Written by a practising artist and tutor, it contains inspiring examples, thought-provoking insights and practical advice about how to become more expressive and adventurous with your work. It is a book for people who are serious about painting and want to develop work that is personal and exceptional in quality. An unpretentious, non-academic approach to painting and drawing Avoiding 'painting by numbers' Strategies for independent working, building confidence and taking risks Examples from notable artists The body as an inspiring muse

British painter William Tillyer (born 1938) is regarded as one of the most accomplished and consistently inventive artists working in watercolor. His work luxuriates in translucent color and sensuous brushwork. Some of his pieces, in their untrammeled expressive zeal and readily apparent love of color as a pure quality call to mind the canvases of Morris Louis; in other paintings, flamboyantly voluptuous shapes confront geometric abstractions and Minimalist blocks of color. With 224 full-color images, "William Tillyer: Watercolours" provides a comprehensive look at the titular aspect of Tillyer's oeuvre, looking back over nearly 40 years of work. It includes three texts by the American poet and art historian John Yau, an essay describing the development of Tillyer's watercolors and linking his work to the tradition of the English watercolor, an essay on the latest body of work and an interview with the artist.

Discover a unique approach to creating art on location: start with a loose, colorful watercolor sketch, let that layer dry, then add details in ink. The result? Sketches that are more vibrant, dynamic, and fun! Designer, urban sketcher, and author of The Urban Sketching Handbook: Sketch Now, Think Later, Mike Daikubara is your guide to this exciting method in The Urban Sketching Handbook: Color First, Ink Later: Start with a detailed overview of the process, from optional light pencil sketch to finishing touches Follow along several step-by-step demonstrations that apply the approach to a range of subjects, from still life to figures to architecture Get inspired by an extensive gallery of on-location sketches You'll learn how to let watercolor do the hard work of urban sketching and enjoy the spontaneous effects and delightful surprises you'll see in your artwork. The Urban Sketching Handbooks series offers location artists expert instruction on creative techniques, on-location tips and advice, and an abundance of visual inspiration. These handy references come in a compact, easy-to-carry format-perfect to toss in your backpack or artist's tote. Also available from the Urban Sketching Handbooks series: Understanding Light; Panoramas and Vertical Vistas; Drawing Expressive People; Techniques for Beginners; Complete Urban Sketching Companion; Drawing with a Tablet; 101 Sketching Tips; Working with Color; Sketch Now, Think Later; Understanding Perspective; People and Motion; and Architecture and Cityscapes.

Veteran carver and instructor Al Streetman cleaned up his shop and came up with yet another hot book, this one presenting a thin cast of characters carved from leftover wood scraps. Streetman takes novice and advanced carvers alike through a step-by-step process of carving and painting these unique creations made from piles of narrow leftovers. The task is made simpler with 126 photos and more than 25 illustrations, including the cutout patterns for 20 unique figures, such as Santas, elves, and the featured pirate project. In addition to sharing Al's tips and secrets regarding head, hand, and body carving, this informative book provides detailed suggestions regarding carving tools, paintbrushes, and paint colors.