Vincent van Gogh's paintings are amongst the most iconic and admired in the world. The trials of his life and health are endlessly discussed but the extraordinary richness of his writings and depth of his thinking on creativity, art and beauty is less explored. In Creative Inspiration, Van Gogh's writings have been edited and selected to create an enlightening, uplifting and helpful book for art lovers and creatives - amateurs and professionals alike. 150 carefully selected images illustrate these quotes, focusing on the sketches and drawings that reveal the rigour and ambition with which he approached his work. The book is thematically divided - from Beginnings to Routine to Beauty - and his determination and charisma are shared through words and pictures. A beautiful, and delightfully handy, art book that is designed to inspire.

Blacksmithing skills are greatly in demand in many rural areas, for making agricultural implements and other metal tools. This book is designed to help skilled blacksmiths who have little or no teaching experience to train others in forge work techniques, using easily obtainable equipment and scrap metal to produce tools such as hoes, sickles, hammers and axes.

If you love dogs and you love to color, get ready for hours of relaxing creativity. Talented artist Brenda Abdoyan presents 32 dog-gone cute designs for you to bring to life with beautiful colors. Brenda s intricately detailed, whimsical illustrations cover the full range of doggy moods and personalities. She encourages you to develop your own coloring style with expert advice and a full-color gallery of inspiring finished examples. Printed on one side only of high-quality extra-thick paper, each four-footed friend is accompanied by cute canine quotations and sayings of tail-wagging wisdom. Perfect for decorating with markers, colored pencils, or watercolors, each page is perforated for easy removal and display."

The knowledge and use of metals has played an important role in the evolution of many African cultures. This bibliography brings together, in one volume, publications on the origins, spread, mining, smelting, smithing, use, functions, aesthetics, significance, and impact of various metals and their alloys on African cultures. Covering African metallurgy from the African Iron Age to the present, this guide is a useful reference tool for archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, history, art, and religion.

Arranged geographically by country, the volume is fully annotated and includes both printed and electronic sources.

Graffiti School is the world's first fully illustrated graffiti coursebook for college use. It opens with an exploration of graffiti's background and history, from Pompeii to the Hip Hop revolution to the present day, as well as how to stay on the right side of the law. It then introduces modern-day graffiti media and terminology, going on to conduct the reader through the process of designing graffiti, setting out the possibilities and skills needed to create a successful work on paper, ready to be transferred to a wall. The author explains the practical techniques of using a spray can, and the step-by-step methods and skills required to create artistic graffiti. The final section is a manual designed specifically to be of use to teachers. It gives ideas for running both theoretical and practical graffiti lessons and units, as well as providing suggestions on the details, such as marking schemes and ideas for class trips.

This book is aimed at helping budding interior designers learn how to draw professional looking interior designs. It is accessible, beautifully illustrated and practical. Guidance is given on drawing perspective, floor plans, drawing furniture and renditions of rooms. Filled with sketches and drawings, this is the ideal guide to producing successful drawings of interior designs.

Milt Gross (1895-1953), a Bronx-born cartoonist and animator, first found fame in the late 1920s, writing comic strips and newspaper columns in the unmistakable accent of Jewish immigrants. By the end of the 1920s, Gross had become one of the most famous humorists in the United States, his work drawing praise from writers like H. L. Mencken and Constance Roarke, even while some of his Jewish colleagues found Gross' extreme renderings of Jewish accents to be more crass than comical.

Working during the decline of vaudeville and the rise of the newspaper cartoon strip, Gross captured American humor in transition. Gross adapted the sounds of ethnic humor from the stage to the page and developed both a sound and a sensibility that grew out of an intimate knowledge of immigrant life. His parodies of beloved poetry sounded like reading primers set loose on the Lower East Side, while his accounts of Jewish tenement residents echoed with the mistakes and malapropisms born of the immigrant experience.

Introduced by an historical essay, Is Diss a System? presents some of the most outstanding and hilarious examples of Jewish dialect humor drawn from the five books Gross published between 1926 and 1928--"Nize Baby," "De Night in de Front from Chreesmas," "Hiawatta, Dunt Esk," and "Famous Fimmales"--providing a fresh opportunity to look, read, and laugh at this nearly forgotten forefather of American Jewish humor.

The really easy way to learn how to paint flowers in watercolour! Using a simple ten-step process, learn how to draw a basic outline starting with simple shapes, then add washes of colour and fine details to complete your work. Arranged in three chapters based on skill level, this book features 25 lovely projects, each showing you how to paint a flower in ten steps. There are paint swatches for every plant, showing you the colours you need to mix for each step of the way and the finished painting serves as a reference to guide you. It couldn't be easier! Also included is a useful techniques section at the beginning, and clever painting tips from the author throughout the book. With flora as diverse as a tulip, a magnolia, a bunny ears cactus and a passionflower, there is plenty to choose from and practise with, to develop your skills.

This pocket-size drawing journal is packed with just as much clever, creative fun as the original bestselling 642 Things to Draw. All 642 drawing prompts inside invite doodlers to draw teeny tiny things-from 'a keyhole' and 'a marble' to 'an atom' and 'your house, from space.' Sure to keep creative folks inspired on the go, or wherever the doodle bug strikes!