In Sketching Men, veteran art instructor Koichi Hagawa, PhD explains how to quickly capture the dynamic male form through two distinct styles of sketching: Very rapid (1-3 minute) line drawings that capture the essence of the subject's posture and movement--perfect for recording athletic action poses in the moment More finished tonal drawings, which take a bit longer to render (7-10 minutes), but fill in lots of interesting texture and wonderfully realistic details and nuances, including the play of light and shadow, three-dimensional form and a sense of mass and balance Learn to sketch the following: Individual body parts and their bones and muscles Objects held in the hands and with both arms Standing and sitting poses Transitions from prone and sitting poses to a standing pose Bending, reaching and leaning poses Pushing, throwing and dancing poses Folds, gathers and drape of clothing This book contains hundreds of detailed studies and helpful examples. Your sketches will improve rapidly as you learn all about how human anatomy--the skeleton, muscles and posture--all come together to express the uniquely male form. When you hone your line and tonal drawing skills with this book, all of your artwork will improve as a result, no matter the application: storyboarding, cartooning and graphic novels, illustration, formal drawings, painting and more!

This magnificently illustrated box set explores the four most popular art mediums and techniques. How to Paint with Watercolours discusses brushwork, texturing, line and wash, and masking; How to Paint with Oils & Acrylics deals with mixing paints, knife painting, underpainting and glazing; How to Learn the Art of Drawing explains how to work in monochrome, how to draw with pencils, and the mechanics of drawing; and How to Draw with Pastels shows how to mix pastels, use charcoal, lay a textured ground, and how to create sgraffito effects. Together, the four volumes provide an invaluable practical reference for any amateur artist keen to improve their skills.

Drawing is not a talent. It's a skill anyone can learn. This is the philosophy of drawing instructor Brent Eviston based on his more than twenty years of teaching. He has tested numerous types of drawing instruction from centuries old classical techniques to contemporary practices and designed an approach that combines tried and true techniques with innovative methods of his own. Now, he shares his secrets with this book that provides the most accessible, streamlined, and effective methods for learning to draw. Taking the reader through the entire process, beginning with the most basic skills to more advanced such as volumetric drawing, shading, and figure sketching, this book contains numerous projects and guidance on what and how to practice. It also features instructional images and diagrams as well as finished drawings that showcase Brent's creative work. With this book and a dedication to practice, anyone can learn to draw!

The first in a series of seasonal watercoloring books based on artist Kristy Rice's cutting gardens, this book celebrates spring's profuse blossoms such as peonies, magnolias, pansies, and Eastern bluestar. Her easy-to-learn, joy-driven approach includes simple tutorials on how to use watercolor and where to find affordable materials. A stationery-industry tastemaker, Kristy believes that making art, regardless of skill level, has the power to reconnect us to each other and ourselves. Touching brush to paper with water and color releases an inexplicable calm that so many of us long for, and making art, even in short bursts, brings us back to ourselves by slowing time.With 25 detailed, yet whimsical illustrations, artists are invited to continue the journey begun in her first watercoloring book series, Painterly Days.

Dave White introduces the simple but effective techniques that he uses to paint stunning, dramatic seascapes with beautiful and realistic skies. He demonstrates spattering, blending backgrounds, painting horizons, finger painting clouds and foam. There is expert advice on the anatomy of waves and how they rise and collapse, creating ripples, surf, foam and spray. Clear instructions show how to paint effective reflections and beaches to improve your seascapes. The sky section shows effective techniques for painting all types of cloud, with some innovative methods such as tipping up the surface to let dilute paint run, to create cirrus clouds. Dave's method of creating depth in sea, beach and sky using lines projected from the vanishing point will radically improve readers' seascapes. There is a section of moods and sunsets full of beautiful, dramatic examples. Finally three step by step projects show how to paint a beach panorama with a rolling wave, a spectacular sunset over a calm sea and waves crashing on rocks.

If you've ever wanted to take up the creative art of pyrography, here's the perfect place to start. Big Book of Pyrography Projects is packed with tips, tricks and inspiration. All you need is this big book and an inexpensive woodburning tool to start adorning wood, paper, gourds and more with beautifully burned images and patterns.Leading pyrography artists and authors show you how to complete 23 of their favourite projects, from realistic portraits and landscape scenes to stylized frames, platters, boxes, bowls and birdhouses. Applications in both fine and decorative art are presented in traditional designs as well as modern innovations.Whether you're a complete beginner or an accomplished pyrographyartist, you're bound to find exciting ideas in this book. You'll also find helpful advice inside on choosing a woodburning system, creating your own patterns, making practice boards, staying safe and keeping your woodburner clean. A full-colour gallery presents a stunning array of projects from international artists to stir your imagination and spark your creativity.

This unique and beautifully illustrated colouring book features images and scenes inspired by the ever-fascinating Tudor dynasty. It will provide hours of joy and relaxation, and is a great way to unwind after a hectic day. Quiet your mind and colour your way to peace, while nurturing your creativity and love of Tudor history. Suitable for children.

Readers will get 100 separate patterns, ranging in complexity from basic to advanced to purely organic. Readers can use these patterns to create their own, entirely unique works of art and then use those to create their own pages to color using markers, crayons or paints. Further, readers will learn to create their very own patterns.

This is a fully revised and updated new version of a popular RSPB handbook to the art and joy of drawing birds. John Busby beautifully conveys his own remarkable ability to capture the grace and motion of living birds, illustrating his ideas and suggestions with many examples of his own work. He also uses illustrations from over 45 other talented bird artists to demonstrate a variety of principles and techniques. The text covers a wealth of topics, including choice of media, sketching from life, composition and different ways of interpreting the subject matter. This is a beautiful and inspiring book which will appeal to aspiring artists and anyone who has ever been entranced by the beauty of birds.

"The Alchemy of Paint" is a critique of the modern world, which Spike Bucklow sees as the product of seventeenth-century ideas about science. In modern times, we have divorced color from its origins, using it for commercial advantage. Spike Bucklow shows us how in medieval times, color had mystical significance far beyond the enjoyment of shade and hue.

Each chapter demonstrates the mindset of medieval Europe and is devoted to just one color, acknowledging its connections with life in the pre-modern world. Colors examined and explained in detail include a midnight blue called ultramarine, an opaque red called vermilion, a multitude of colors made from metals, a transparent red called dragonsblood, and, finally, gold.

Today, "scarlet" describes a color, but it was originally a type of cloth. Henry VI's wardrobe accounts from 1438 to 1489 show that his cheapest scarlet was 14.2s.6d. and that scarlets could fetch up to twice that price. In the fifteenth century, a mid-priced scarlet cost more than two thousand kilos of cheese or one thousand liters of wine. This expense accounts for the custom of giving important visitors the "red carpet treatment."

The book looks at how color was "read" in the Middle Ages and returns to materials to look at the hidden meaning of the artists' version of the philosopher's stone. The penultimate chapter considers why everyone has always loved gold.

Spike Bucklow is a conservation scientist working with oil paintings at the Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge.

Do you know how to draw a square, triangle, and rectangle? Well, then, you know how to draw! Rough: Drawing in 2 Strokes and 3 Moves provides you with a way to start drawing that is based on a very simple observation: the human body, as well as everything surrounding us, can be broken down into elementary and basic geometric shapes. The technique that author and teacher Pierre Pochet shows you here has no fine art or academic ambitions. Instead, it shows you how to quickly draw from memory a facial expression or a bodily movement, to flesh out a picture, to create a perspective, or to sketch a scene. This approach to drawing is particularly useful for those who have no artistic training but who are considering a career in a creative field, whether that be advertising, design, or graphics . . . as well as for anyone who simply wants to learn how to draw!

The techniques of depositing a thin metallic layer on an object for decoration, corrosion protection, electrical conductivity, wear resistance and so on have been known for many years but have been developed and improved to a remarkable extent in the second half of this century. This book sets out to discuss the principles and practice of those forms of plating most suited to the amateur and small workshop, using relatively simple and inexpensive equipment to produce results virtually undetectable from work carried out by major plating concerns. Jack Poyner, a professional involved in all forms of plating for many years, is also a keen model engineer able to recognise the dividing line between what his average fellow enthusiast would consider practical and worthwhile and what is really better left to experts in the field. The result is a really useful and practical book, which will be of value to both amateur and light industrial users in many diverse fields.

Relax and dive into the ultimate guide to creating watercolor paintings of your favorite flowers! From bright red roses to deep green cacti, this gorgeous, easy-to-follow book will show how anyone can paint luminous watercolor flowers and botanicals. Noted artist and instructor Rachel Eskandari details how anyone can paint a garden of bold, creative watercolor images. Featuring colorful step-by-step images, this book shows how to master the basics of watercolors and then expand your color palette to create boldly unconventional floral artwork. Watercolor Botanical Garden features everything you need to know, including: *Color theory and mixing for unique shades *Utilizing the skills of blending, gradients, and shading *Lesson for creating 25+ different plants and flowers including roses, cacti, peonies, nigella, agave, anemones, queen of the night, leaves, and more *How to incorporate multiple botanical images for a gorgeous landscape painting

A light-hearted interactive guide to comics and cartoon-making that uses an activity book format and creatively stimulating prompts to teach the fundamentals of cartooning in a fun and easy-to-follow fashion. From a working cartoonist and comic book making instructor, this all-ages activity book uses humorous and informative one-page comics and exercise prompts to guide young readers (and readers who are young at heart) through easy-to-master lessons on the skills needed to make comics. The activities cover a range of essential comics-making tasks from creating expressions for characters to filling in blank panels to creating original characters and placing them in adventures of their own. Each exercise can stand on its own or work together with others in the book to stimulate creativity via the comics medium. In the end, readers who complete the activities inside the book itself will have created several comics of their own, and will have generated many ideas for more sequential art creations. Praise for Let's Make Comics! "At once playful and complex, this book is a perfect introduction to cartooning, as well as a lovely (and lovingly crafted) tribute to the comics form and a timely reminder that artmaking can be fun."-Roman Muradov, creator of Vanishing Act and On Doing Nothing "Let's Make Comics is a book I wish I had when I was 9, but 29 works too! It's so fun and brilliant and packed with oodles of awesome activities. Great book for learning to make comics or for a seasoned cartoonist to find some new inspiration."-Ben Clanton, creator of the Narwhal and Jelly books "It's fantastic! This book will make you a better writer and a better artist and show you how to think like a comic star."-Charise Harper, creator of the Fashion Kitty and Crafty Cat books "Warning! This book will make you make comics, and it will be fun!"-Greg Pizzoli, creator of The Watermelon Seed, Number One Sam, and The Book Hog "If only we'd had this book! Our comics would be much better."-Elizabeth Pich and Jonathan Kunz, creators of War and Peas

Based on Shannon Bream's #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon The Women of the Bible Speak, a contemplative companion coloring book filled with meaningful and beautifully designed quotes from scripture to color in and accompanied by contextual references and passages from Bream's book which illuminate the stories from the women of the Bible. In The Women of the Bible Speak, Shannon Bream reminds you that women have long been essential in God's unfolding plan. Bream explains how their experiences can help you better understand what it means to be a woman of faith. From Sarah, to Miriam, to Mary of Nazareth, you can see your own struggles from the wisdom and lessons of the lives of the Biblical women. As you color, you'll find the motivation to better navigate your personal faith journeys. These unique women provide inspiration and guidance, and their stories show you that no matter how fearful, weak, or inadequate you may feel, God always has a plan for you. Bream drives home the message of her inspiring bestseller through the bible quotes in the coloring book that can be personalized, colored, and framed. Containing 36 verses from scripture to be colored in and context from Bream's bestseller, The Women of the Bible Speak Coloring Book will allow you to connect to your faith and contemplate your prayerful relationship with God. Filling in the biblical verses in this coloring book and thinking about the messages accompanying each one can help us discover more about the Bible, solidify our faith, and immerse ourselves in the undeniable power of love and God. Here are examples of verses that you will be contemplating and coloring in this book: "God listened to her" Genesis 30:22 "We will not fear" Psalm 26:2 "Woman, you are set free" Luke 13:12 "She can laugh at the days to come" Proverbs 31:25

Artists of all skill levels will find much to inspire them in this detailed and practical guide to drawing landscapes. Margaret Eggleton guides you through easy-to-follow drawing stages, and gives advice on using sketchbooks, line and tone, perspective and more. She shows how to draw elements of the landscape such as trees and foliage, hills and mountains, skies, water and buildings, and there are practical, step-by-step exercises throughout to help you practise the techniques. Margaret then guides you carefully through each stage of six stunning projects, each culminating in a beautiful landscape drawing you'll be proud of. Suitable for beginners wanting to build up their confidence as well as more seasoned artists seeking inspiration, this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to draw landscapes in dry media such as graphite pencils, acrylic ink, pen, Conte crayons, pastels or charcoal. This is a new, redesigned edition of Margaret's highly successful Drawing Masterclass: Landscapes.

This inspiring book makes drawing in a realistic style easier than you may think and more fun than you ever imagined! Authors Mark and Mary Willenbrink (Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner) cover it all-from choosing materials and the correct way to hold your pencil, to expert advice on the tricky stuff, like getting proportions and perspective right, drawing reflections, and designing strong compositions. (It's not as scary as it sounds...not with Mark and Mary as your guide!) At the heart of this book, a series of fun, hands-on exercises help you practice and perfect your strokes-24 mini-demos lead up to 9 full step-by-step demos. Each exercise builds on the previous one as you develop your skills, build your confidence, and enjoy yourself along the way. The lessons you learn by drawing simple subjects such as coffee mugs, clouds and trees will help you take on progressively more challenging matter like animals, still lifes, landscapes and portraits...the kinds of subjects and scenes you've always dreamt of drawing. This book is just the ticket for budding artists of any age. It's never too early and never too late to discover the pure joy of drawing!

Be amazed at how easily you can paint beautiful flowers in simple steps. Artist Becky Amelia shares her easy-to-follow approach to painting, with a range of beautiful flowers in her distinctive and contemporary style. Using only a few brushes and a small collection of watercolour and gouache paints, this book will inspire you with 25 stunning step-by-step projects to paint, including single flowers, leaves, wreaths and bouquets. Learn to paint sunflowers, tulips, poppies, lilies, wildflower arrangements, dried flowers and many more pretty stem arrangements. Feel inspired by Becky's intricate and delicate style and create beautiful floral paintings that you too could turn into gorgeous notecards, stationery, gifts or to keep as lovely, framed paintings.

An indispensable guide to the colors and combinations of contemporary Japanese design--by one of Japan's leading colorists! Color consultant Teruko Sakurai finds inspiration everywhere--in the foods, landscapes and everyday objects of her native land. Flipping through the pages of this book is like taking a tour through modern Japan. The tones, hues and palettes will dazzle and inspire you. Over 3,300 different color combinations are presented in over 125 different themes. Each two-page section in this book presents a different theme with the following information: An introduction giving a brief background on the color scheme and a description of how it can be used A number-coded nine-color palette board showing the range of shades and hues that complement and comprise the scheme CMYK, RGB and HEX (the color code used in Japan) references for all nine colors 26 examples including two- and three-color combinations with photos and illustrations This is an indispensable guide for graphic designers, illustrators, decorators, artists and publishing professionals. It will also be enjoyable and inspiring for readers planning their own home design or art projects.

Rivers can be enchanting or exciting, but are always absorbing. They provide a myriad of painting opportunities and challenges for the artist. Focusing on watercolour - one of the most direct of mediums - this practical book explains how to paint a river and capture its life, light, movement, colour and interest. With over 200 colour images, Rob Dudley shares his methods, techniques and ideas to make this beautiful book a must-have for all landscape and en plein-air artists.

Artists need to write, every day, to support their studio practice and careers. Working artists know this. Newly minted art graduates and emerging artists learn this the hard way-usually when a gallerist asks for basic documents like an artist resume, biography, and statement to support an upcoming exhibition! Conversational and instructive, this practical primer helps artists learn the best writing and research strategies for their letters, biographies, statements, proposals, applications, wall text, and more. Kate Kramer, lecturer in critical writing at the University of Pennsylvania, aligns writing strategies with art school curriculum (foundations, topics, capstones, professional development). This is the book every artist will turn to again and again. In addition to models, templates, worksheets, and sample analyses of calls for entry, it references readily available and public resources throughout. Ultimately, this primer brings writing process into practice so the art work can continue to thrive.