50 dazzling techniques...for work that shines above the rest

From the author of the best-selling books "Acrylic Revolution" and "Acrylic Innovation," this book blazes new creative territory with 50 techniques that harness the artistic power of light. Ranging from subtle glazing on metal leaf, to pearly sheens, to boldly colored optical effects and glossy surfboard finishes, these approaches represent the most requested aspects of Nancy Reyner's popular workshops.

• 50 eye-catching techniques feature metal leaf, reflective paints, pouring, fluorescent and phosphorescent paints, refractive layering and optical color effects.
• Possibilities are vividly illustrated with diverse work from 44 artists.
• A "Crash Course on Acrylic" chapter offers an overview of how to use these versatile paints and products to their fullest potential.

"Character Design Quarterly (CDQ) is a lively, creative magazine bringing inspiration, expert insights, and leading techniques from professional illustrators, artists, and character art enthusiasts worldwide. Each issue provides detailed tutorials on creating diverse characters, enabling you to explore the processes and decision making that go into creating amazing characters. Learn new ways to develop your own ideas, and discover from the artists what it is like to work for prolific animation studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks. Among this issue's highlights are budding professional illustrator Amelia Bothe cover art featuring an exclusive animal character, and we go behind the scenes at London animation studio Blinkink. "

The Chinese often use the expression du hua, "to read a painting," in connection with their study and appreciation of such works. This volume closely "reads" thirty-six masterpieces of Chinese painting from the encyclopedic collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to reveal the major characteristics and themes of this rich pictorial tradition. The book examines multiple layers of meaning-style, technique, symbolism, past traditions, and the artist's personal circumstances-through accessible texts and numerous large color details. A dynastic chronology, map, and list of further readings supplement the text. Spanning a thousand years of Chinese art, these landscapes, flowers, birds, figures, religious subjects, and calligraphies illuminate the main goal of every Chinese artist: to capture not only the outer appearance of a subject but also its inner essence. Published in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (March 1 - August 10, 2008)

Calligraphy and lettering, in chalk! Chalk art and lettering are all around: on menu boards at a favorite local coffee shop, brightening sidewalk easels at street fairs, and in lively artwork found in the home. Chalk art and lettering pros Amanda Arneill and Shannon Roberts have teamed up to provide friendly, step-by-step instruction in chalk lettering and art, teaching you all you need to know to create your own chalk masterpieces: - Getting started: the basics of making and seasoning your own chalkboards - Lettering: various alphabets and lettering styles - Illustration: steps and processes in chalk art, including banners, flowers and more - Design: brings lettering and art techniques together with guided chalk projects ideas

The paintings of contemporary Thai artist Pichai Nirand (b. 1936) are a vivid exploration of the interplay between Thailand's Buddhist roots and its modern aspirations and struggles. Pichai engages fully with the world and belief system around him. Accompanying the full-color paintings is an incisive examination of the Thai moral and social themes of Pichai's paintings in terms of the Buddhist cycle of life. Philip Constable's sensitive analysis of the social, political, economic, and moral dimensions affecting the artist, coupled with careful reference to other contemporary Thai artists, illuminates the deep meaning and expression behind each painting. This book showcases a celebrated Thai artist who has spent a lifetime providing a Thai Buddhist perspective on the dilemmas and contradictions of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Nearly all glass makers (unless they are blowing glass) need moulds which can go in the kiln, as part of the process of creating their work. Currently glass students and makers get their expertise and recipes from lots of different sources, picking out the relevant bits and pieces which they need from other glass and ceramic books. This book aims to introduce all the mould-making techniques for casting glass, with detailed information on materials, recipes for mould mixes, methods and applications. It helps the student to learn which methods are appropriate for different types of work, and covers all the basics of how to make your mould. It also includes practical information on sourcing, storing, using and recycling materials, and how to develop your own recipes and methods for particular projects. It also covers where to start with writing programmes for kiln firings including annealing and cooling. It also contains images from well-known artists working in cast glass throughout.

Whether your character is jumping for joy or grappling with an opponent, this book provides all the essential techniques to draw more lifelike action figures in the classic Japanese manga style. The comprehensive introduction first shows the reader the physical anatomy of male vs. female figures and gives important tips on proportions, perspective and small but often-overlooked details such as the relative differences between male and female hands, fingers and feet. Five subsequent chapters cover over 40 action poses in the following categories: Chapter 1: Action (e.g. running and jumping) Chapter 2: Martial Arts (e.g. punching and kicking) Chapter 3: Interacting (e.g. judo holds and high fives) Chapter 4: Weapons (e.g. swords and knives) Chapter 5: Reacting (e.g. dodging a punch or taking a punch) Each pose and movement is illustrated with a rough sketch outline followed by a highlighted manga drawing containing detailed annotations by the author. After studying the sketches, you practice the drawing techniques in a tracing section at the end of each chapter. Each chapter also provides professional tips on the use of color and shading for greater realism. Special sections contain information and tips on particular topics of interest, such as how to draw clothes, hair and facial expressions or how to create special effects. At the end of the book, an actual 6-page comic strip gives readers the opportunity to practice what they have learned by filling in the missing elements.

By the author of Foolproof Color Wheel Set, Katie Fowler shares how to plan and practise colour theory. Guided by her expert tips, your creative juices will flow as you develop a comprehensive understanding of colour theory and colour relationships by exploring hues, transparency, saturation, and more. So, go ahead, get colouring!

DON'T use comic sans (except ironically!) but DO worship the classic typefaces like Helvetica and Garamond. Graphic Design Rules is a handy guide for professional graphic designers, students, and laymen who incorporate graphic design into their job or small business. Packed with practical advice, this spirited collection of design dos and don'ts takes readers through 365 rules like knowing when to use a modular grid-and when to throw the grid out the window. All designers will appreciate tips and lessons from these highly accomplished authors, who draw on years of experience to help you create good design.

The only color guide a designer will ever need; The Complete Color Harmony, Pantone Edition has been completely updated with Pantone colors and new text.

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, is a color specialist who has been called “the international color guru.” The latest installment in a best-selling series, this must-have book for designers and artists covers the phenomenon of color, the color wheel, the psychology of color, and color and mood, plus over 30 color palettes and more than 3,500 Pantone Colors and color trends.

This valuable resource will inspire and inform all of those who love color.

• 30 color moods of 36 palettes
• Including 3,500 Pantone Colors

The act of field sketching allows us to experience the landscape first-hand - rather than reliance upon plans, maps and photographs at a distance, back in the studio. Aimed primarily at landscape architects, Janet Swailes takes the reader on a journey through the art of field sketching, providing guidance and tips to develop skills from those starting out on a design course, to those looking to improve their sketching. Combining techniques from landscape architecture and the craft and sensibilities of arts practice, she invites us to experience sensations directly out in the field to enrich our work: to look closely at the effects of light and weather; understand the lie and shapes of the land through travel and walking; and to consider lines of sight from the inside out as well as outside in. Full colour throughout with examples, checklists and case studies of other sketchers' methods, this is an inspirational book to encourage landscape architects to spend more time in the field and reconnect with the basics of design through drawing practice.

In Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Faces, artist and popular Skillshare instructor Amarilys Henderson shares her practical and creative techniques for drawing and painting faces with style and personality. Gathering supplies. Consider the creative possibilities of watercolor, ink, and markers, and create a mobile sketch pack so you can capture faces and expressions on the go. Simplifying the face and identifying proportions. Use photos to simplify the face's key elements, learn about facial proportions and factors and variables for placing facial features, and apply these concepts through a simple warm up using a single color to paint a face in multiple values. Facial shapes and features. Learn about the five basic facial shapes and how to modify the chin line, ears, and hairline, and how to draw and paint mouths, eyes, and noses and make alterations to show pose and personality. Mixing color. The pigments and brushes you'll need to achieve a wide range of realistic skin tones, shadows, and expressions. Bringing faces to life. Navigate the process from start to finish, learn to adjust line quality to suggest different genders and ethnicities, and change up artistic styling to put a unique spin on your creations. Project ideas. Get inspired by some cool ways to apply your new skills: party invitations, repeat patterns, comic books, and more! Don't be intimidated by the challenge of drawing and painting faces. Improve your face game with Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Faces!

A welcoming drawing guide for creating beautiful worlds and wondrous wildlife from bestselling artist Johanna Basford Through her bestselling coloring books and distinctive illustrations, Johanna Basford's beautiful forests, ocean depths, and hidden magical kingdoms have enchanted millions of people around the world. In this lovely and accessible guide, she shares the fun, simple, no-skills-needed secrets to creating your own wondrous realms through fanciful, expressive line drawing. With step-by-step exercises, inspiring prompts, and still plenty of pages to color, you'll be free to let your creativity run wild. How to Draw Inky Wonderlands invites you to develop your personal drawing style and master creating marvelous creatures and landscapes using only the pen or pencil in your hand and the wildest reaches of your imagination.

Living Histories is a collection of new scholarship that explores histories of art education through a series of international contexts. The first truly international text highlighting histories of art education, with contributions from over 30 scholars based in 18 countries. Art education holds an important role in promoting historical awareness of the multiple relations that connect pedagogic inquiry with culture, heritage, place and identity, locally and globally. To keep pace with the movements of art and society, Garnet and Sinner consider that art education requires more inclusive and holistic versions of history from transnational perspectives that break down barriers and cross borders in the pursuit of more informed and diverse understandings of the field. The broad focus of this edited collection is to provide both new perspectives of art education from around the world, and to introduce transnationalism into the field as a way to conceptualize the entanglements of historical research in our globalized age. Transnational histories of art education focus on the linkages and flows that shift focus away from the nation-state to other transnational actors such as individuals, communities, institutions and/or organizations. Contributions from scholars and educators based and working in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Iran, Japan, Malta, South Africa, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, USA and Zimbabwe. Includes chapters that adapt an approach of 'artwork histories' to explore the legacies of art education as an anticipatory mode of historical thinking and practice across the visual arts and sites of art education. The book offers an opportunity for authentic engagement and intellectual risk, which includes the rejection of 'correct' interpretations of historical problems. As active agents, art education historians are not passive collectors of the past, but engaged in new ways of doing history predicated on cultivating stories that move beyond representation to attend to aesthetic dimensions that bridge historiography, material culture, oral history, art history and teacher education. Living Histories provides an interpretation of historical thinking and consciousness through the interrelations of time and space to provoke critical and creative practices in education. This is the latest book in the Artwork Scholarship series, which aims to invite debate on, and provide an essential resource for transnational scholars engaged in, creative research involving visual, literary and performative arts. With contributors from 18 countries, this book will have a substantial international readership among art educators and those interested in the history of art education, primarily in universities and colleges. It will also be particularly useful for graduate students. It will also appeal to scholars in arts education more broadly - music education, dance education, theatre education scholars, cultural and art historians, art theorists, international educators, and curators.

Generations of students have benefited from the teachings of this 19th-century master, whose sketches of vignettes from natural settings are accompanied by a series of lessons emphasizing both practical and theoretical considerations. This edition features the added attraction of 23 outstanding plates from the author's Lessons on Trees.

"Computers and Art" provides insightful perspectives on the use of the computer as a tool for artists. The approaches taken vary from its historical, philosophical and practical implications to the use of computer technology in art practice. The contributors include an art critic, an educator, a practising artist and a researcher. Mealing looks at the potential for future developments in the field, looking at both the artistic and the computational aspects of the field.

Twenty-five leading artist duos and collectives give insight into how and why to work collaboratively Art history is traditionally presented as the individual's struggle for self-expression, yet over the past fifty years, the number of artists working collaboratively has grown exponentially. Co-Art: Artists on Creative Collaboration explores this phenomenon through conversations with twenty-five leading art-world pairs and groups, who offer insight that is relevant beyond the art world, making this book vital for all who seek to work creatively and effectively with others. Artists featured: Allora & Calzadilla, Assemble, Auguste Orts, ayr, Biggs & Collings, Broomberg & Chanarin, ChimPom, Claire Fontaine, DAS INSTITUT, DIS, Elmgreen & Dragset, Eva & Franco Mattes, GCC, Gelitin, Guerrilla Girls, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Jane and Louise Wilson, John Wood and Paul Harrison, LaBeouf, Roenkkoe & Turner, Lizzie Fitch/Ryan Trecartin, Los Carpinteros, Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz, Raqs Media Collective, SUPERFLEX

From allotment inspiration to nature prints, from harnessing patchwork concepts to recycling pieces of art, to the alchemy of found materials, this is a journey to find new creativity through our connection with the natural world.

In her most passionate and personal book for artists, acclaimed watercolor artist Ann Blockley takes the reader through a series of ideas of working with nature—in its widest sense—to nurture our creativity, inspire us, make us more sustainable artists, and breathe back energy and flow when our artistic streams run dry. In “Go Outside and Play,” the author exhorts artists to recapture a fun, no-pressure way of being outside and use that feeling when creating. In “Connecting Materials to Place,” she creates her own paint from the local pond. In “The Slow Movement,” the artist reveals her year of working on a specific local hedgerow and painting a series of different interpretations in its every-changing detail. She created regular creative rituals, using her weekly playing card as a starting point for a new painting to reflect the season each week. She reuses old paintings, and tissue and paper—wabi-sabi style—to create new textures and even new paintings. Including work from other artists as well as her own, she shows the ideas and work from textile and mixed-media artists.

As major universities and professional organizations like the Poynter Institute have begun to examine graphic nonfiction from a critical perspective, new courses are emerging that give student writers and artists the tools to tell their own nonfiction stories in comics form. Nonfiction Comics is the first textbook to bring these tools and techniques together in a single volume. Most novices who first attempt the form arrive at it from a background of journalism or art, meaning they arrive with at least one deficit in the required skill set. Journalists, for example, typically have had little training in illustration. Artists and designers may not know how to conduct interviews or to avoid the potential legal pitfalls of telling the personal stories of real people. This book aims to fill in the gaps providing student journalists, artists, designers, creative writers, web producers and others the tools they need to tell stories visually and graphically.

Based on the authors' popular team-taught nonfiction comics course, Nonfiction Comics teaches readers how to create a graphic nonfiction story from start to finish, providing guidance on:

• how to find the story and how to find and utilize appropriate facts and visuals;
• nonfiction narrative techniques
• artist's tools and techniques
• print, digital, and multimedia production
• legal and ethical considerations

Interviews with well-known nonfiction comics creators--showcased in the book and on the book's companion website--will discuss best practice and offer readers inspiration to begin creating their own work.

After more than thirty years of research and teaching, artist Valerie Winslow has compiled her unique methods of drawing human anatomy into one groundbreaking volume: Classic Human Anatomy. This long-awaited book provides simple, insightful approaches to the complex subject of human anatomy, using drawings, diagrams, and reader-friendly text. Three major sections-the skeletal form, the muscular form and action of the muscles, and movement-break the material down into easy-to-understand pieces. More than 800 distinctive illustrations detail the movement and actions of the bones and muscles, and unique charts reveal the origins and insertions of the muscles. Packed with an extraordinary wealth of information, Classic Human Anatomy is sure to become a new classic of art instruction.

For more than six centuries, European painters have been ambitious to depict objects as if they possessed volume, placing them in a space that seems equivalent to the real space of our world. This "fiction" was central to the artist's purpose. Through a close examination of paintings from the 1400s to the early 20th century, including works by Uccello, Vermeer, Titian, and Monet, Nicholas Penny explains in this latest title in the National Gallery's Closer Look series how artists sought to make the fiction of pictorial space compelling, not only through the use of linear or aerial perspective, but also through the choice and intensity of color, the variations in light, and the texture of the painted surface. Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press