Drawing can improve your mood, release endorphins and make you happy – but for many, the fear of the blank page, combined with a lack of confidence and know-how, can be daunting.

In her new book, Molly Egan encourages you to sketch like no one is watching! Once you stop caring what people think – just like when you were a child – your creativity will flow. Filled with drawing prompts and tutorials, Molly will help you to unleash your creativity and embrace your own unique style. Build your skills by revisiting the basics, such as shape, perspective and pattern, then learn how to draw from photographs and from real life, sketching people, nature, buildings, landscapes and more.

Small enough to put in your bag, yet big enough to make impactful art, this fun title will reignite your passion for being creative.

In his graphic biography Nick Cave: Mercy on Me, Reinhard Kleist paints an expressive and enthralling portrait of the musician, novelist, poet, and actor. It is, according to Nick Cave himself, "a complex, chilling and completely bizarre journey into Cave World." Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: An Art Book collects Kleist's moody and expressive portraits of the musician and his band, spanning 30 years of writing, recording, and live performance. Kleist also returns readers to Cave's imaginative world with comic book reimaginings of "Deanna," "The Good Son," and "Stagger Lee." Filled with visual delights, this record-size art book is a kaleidoscopic portrait of Nick Cave's wide-ranging career as a storyteller, musician, and cultural icon.

Delve deeper into the work of the intriguing and iconic artist Aubrey Beardsley with this beautiful reissue of his classic 1897 illustrated book, containing fifty of his best known works. Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) lived a desperately short life and his career spanned just seven years. Nonetheless, his output as a draughtsman and illustrator was prolific. Beardsley's subversive illustrations became synonymous with decadence: he delighted in the erotic, shocking audiences with his bizarre sense of humour and fascination with the grotesque. His work was deemed too scandalous by many publishers of the period, but found a suitably unseemly home with the notorious Leonard Charles Smithers.  This book, published by Smithers in 1897, and now reproduced in a near-facsimile edition, is as much a historic document as it is a beautiful introduction to Beardsley's art.

The Art of Urban Sketching is both a comprehensive guide and a showcase of location drawings by artists around the world who draw the cities where they live and travel. Authored by the founder of the nonprofit organization Urban Sketchers (www.urbansketchers.org), this beautiful, 320-page volume explains urban sketching within the context of a long historical tradition and how it is being practiced today. With profiles of leading practitioners and discussions of the benefits of working in this art form, this inspiring book shows how one can participate and experience this creative outlet through modern-day social networks and online activity. You'll find more than 600 beautiful, contemporary illustrations, as well as artists' profiles and extended captions where these urban sketchers share their stories, how they work, sketching tips, and the tools behind each drawing. With sketches and observations from more than 50 cities in more than 30 countries, The Art of Urban Sketching offers a visually arresting, storytelling take on urban life from different cultures and artistic styles, as well as insight into various drawing techniques and mediums.

Do you want to learn how to draw manga characters from scratch? Then look no further! Aimed specifically at beginners, this book includes examples from the main genres of manga characters and will teach you how to draw different characters in distinct poses. Starting with simple exercises and gradually getting more complicated, there are sections covering Kodomo (child), Shonen (teenage boy), Shojo (teenage girl) and Seinen (youth) characters to practise. To help you along the way, there are clear step-by-step instructions, with 10 exercises for each genre. Friendly chibis also pop up every so often to offer tips and advice to keep in mind while you are drawing. Extensive advice on finishing techniques ranges from colouring by computer, using pen and ink, paintbrush, felt-tip pen and pencils, both in black and white and colour. For the best start to your manga-drawing journey, this book will inspire you to explore and improve your skills.

Dogs can be a pleasure to draw, whether they are dignified, elegant, cute or scruffy. Suzie Hodges shows you how to capture the character of a great selection of popular dog breeds. This delightful introduction to drawing dogs completely demystifies the drawing process. It shows how images can be built up easily, from initial geometric shapes right through to the finished animals. Susie Hodges includes a good selection of popular breeds and she uses a helpful two colour method that clearly shows every line and curve of the step-by-step pictures. Even absolute beginners will find themselves creating great drawings when they use this book and there is much to inspire more experienced artists too. An invaluable guide for anyone interested in this subject.

Take your manga drawings to the next level with amazing outfits and creative costumes. It just takes two details-wrinkles and shadows. In How to Draw Clothing for Manga, you'll discover how adding a tuck here, a gather there, and hiding some areas in shadow will take your drawings from flat sketches to fantastic illustrations. What you'll find inside: Basic techniques for drawing a variety of fabric details, including pulled wrinkles, gathered folds, tucked shapes, and more! Plus, learn how to express the differences between stiff, thick fabric and soft fabric with drape. 35+ outfits shown side by side with modeled photos to easily break down exactly what to draw for a realistic finished look. From slim-fit tees to skirts that twirl, every style is covered across all genders. Practice line art to get you started mastering wrinkles and shadows before adding details to your own work. With hundreds of sample illustrations and step-by-step guidance, this is your must-have guide to drawing clothes and costumes for your manga characters. What are you waiting for? Grab your supplies and get started drawing with style!

With this high-quality sketchbook, experienced and aspiring manga artists can take what they've learned about drawing manga and create their own manga graphic novels. The opening pages of this sketchbook include information on filling the panels, creating drama with angles, using speech balloons, and creating special effects. After that, the book is divided into six sections, each with a cover template and blank, black-framed panels that allow artists to create different manga stories from start to finish. The possibilities are endless!

The Mandala Sketchbook is a new and exciting sketchbook, which will appeal to both adults and children, for the creation of beautiful Mandalas in 8 easy steps. A Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle or discoid object and creating a Mandala involves using a variety of own unique shapes and patterns. Designing, drawing and colouring a Mandala can be a highly enriching and calming personal experience. With 48 pages to complete or share with others, the Mandala Sketchbook guides you through the design process before setting you free to enjoy creating your own unique designs, which can be coloured in or painted once completed. The perforated pages allow the illustrations to easily be removed for framing or card-making

"Life, Legend, Landscape" presents a rich selection of Victorian drawings and watercolors from the Courtauld Gallery collection, ranging from finished watercolors intended for public exhibition to informal sketches and preparatory drawings for paintings or sculpture. The selection includes a study by Edwin Landseer for the famous lions used at the base of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, London; the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti's intimate portrait of his muse, Elizabeth Siddal, seated at her easel; Whistler's delicate study of the young Elinor Leyland, and Fredrick Walker's outstanding The Old Farm Garden.

"...by far the best primer [on perspective] I've ever seen. If you have other books, throw them away and buy this. You won't regret it." - Artbookreview.net Learn how to master perspective and create convincing drawings of the three-dimensional world with the help of artist and teacher, Tim Fisher. Every aspect of perspective, from zero- to multi-point, is explored and explained in simple terms that everyone can understand. In addition to landscapes and buildings, you will learn how to apply perspective to people, animals, boats, reflections and more. There is also expert advice on drawing curved objects and inclined planes, a run-down of common mistakes, and an inspirational chapter on moving beyond a rigid application of the rules to draw freely and instinctively. Clear diagrams and finished drawings are included throughout, along with numerous exercises so that you can put your new skills into practice. This is a revitalized edition of Drawing Masterclass: Perspective (ISBN: 9781782211112).

When Stevie Smith died in 1971 she was one of the twentieth-century's most popular poets; many of her poems have been widely anthologised, and 'Not Waving but Drowning' remains one of the nation's favourite poems to this day.

Satirical, mischievous, teasing, disarming, her characteristically lightning-fast changes in tone take readers from comedy to tragedy and back again, while her line drawings are by turns unsettling and beguiling. In this edition of her work, Smith scholar Will May collects together the illustrations and poems from her original published volumes for the first time, recording fascinating details about their provenance, and describing the various versions Smith presented both on stage and page. Including over 500 works from Smith's 35-year career, The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith is the essential edition of modern poetry's most distinctive voice.

Nobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning.

- 'Not Waving but Drowning'

The power of creation is at your fingertips! Orcs prepare for battle against high Elves, Dwarves retreat to the mountains and men march to the sea to reclaim crumbling fortresses. Fortunes are decided. Kingdoms are lost. Entire worlds are created. This book will teach you to bring your fictional realm to life with simple step-by-step instructions on how to draw authentic fantasy maps. Set the stage for adventure by illustrating domains, castles and battle lines, mountains, forests and sea monsters! Learn to create completely unique and fully functional RPG maps time and time again on which your world can unfold. All the skills necessary to create awe-inspiring maps are covered! Landscapes. Add depth, balance and plausibility with rocky coastlines, towering mountains, dark forests and rolling plains. Iconography. Mark important places--towns and cities, fortresses and bridges--with symbolic iconography for easy-to-understand maps. Typography. Learn how to place readable text and the basics of decorative script. Bonus instruction teaches you to create fonts for Orcs, Elves, Vikings and dragons. Heraldry and shield design. Depict cultural and political boundaries with shields and colors. Advanced cartography. Includes how to draw landmarks, country boundaries and political lines. Build roads to connect merchants and troops, troll cairns and dragon lairs. And complete your maps with creative backgrounds, elaborate compasses and thematic legends. 30+ step-by-step demonstrations illustrate how to construct an entire fantasy world map from start to finish--both digitally and by hand!

Anyone wanting to develop their drawing skills, as well as artists, teachers and students, will enjoy the creative challenge of form drawing. Regular practise can help discover what the art of line can mean. Drawing skills are developed through systematic exercises, and can develop self-confidence, balance and tranquillity. Simple form drawing is used in Steiner?Waldorf schools as a companion discipline to handwriting and drawing skills. It offers a healthy antidote to screen culture.

If you have often struggled to draw animals, from master artist Giovanni Civardi comes this highly visual beginners guide to drawing dogs, cats and horses using the traditional grid technique - a method that makes the first stages of drawing simple and achievable. Giovanni Civardi shows you how to create an accurate pencil sketch of the subject by laying a grid over a photo or drawing and transferring the image to the drawing surface one square at a time. Beginning with a summary of animal anatomy and basic drawing techniques, this book contains over 90 outlines of dogs, cat and horses in a range of static and moving poses, with guidance on how to add shading and tonal effects to create more detailed finished drawings.

Zwei Werkserien von Jeremias Altmann In seiner künstlerischen Arbeit beschäftigt sich Jeremias Altmann mit den Themen Maschine, Mensch und Entwicklung. Die aufwendig gestaltete Künstlermonografie präsentiert die beiden Werkserien YOUNG PROPHECIES und MACHINES. In der Serie YOUNG PROPHECIES rekonstruiert Altmann seine eigenen Kinderzeichnungen. Die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Innenleben technischer Apparaturen im zeitlichen Wandel ist Ausgangspunkt für die Serie MACHINES. Die Präsentation der Serien wird ergänzt durch einen essayistischen Text des Künstlers, von Fragen kindlicher Entwicklungspsychologie bis zu Reflexionen zum Spannungsfeld Mensch/Maschine. Die ungewöhnliche Gestaltung des Buches mit zwei Leserichtungen erlaubt das spielerische Erforschen der Serien: Leseroutinen werden aufgebrochen; Texte und Bilder sind zu einer besonderen Einheit verwoben. Präsentation zweier außergewöhnlicher Werkserien des Künstlers Jeremias Altmann Unkonventionell gestaltetes Buchobjekt mit zwei Leserichtungen Mit Beiträgen von Barbara Herbst, Antonia Hoerschelmann, Esther Mlenek, Günther Oberhollenzer und Nina Schedlmayer

Drawing and sketching are central to the art of animation and can be crucial tools in designing and developing original stories, characters and layouts. Sketching for Animation offers a wealth of examples, exercises and tips from an army of professional animators to help you develop essential sketching, technical drawing and ideation techniques. With interviews and in-depth case studies from some of today's leading animators, including Bill Plympton, Glen Keane, Tori Davis and John Canemaker, this is a unique guide to turning your sketchbook - the world's cheapest, most portable pre-visualisation tool - into your own personal animation armory.

The newest addition to Sylph's series The Art Monographs, Breathing Underwater tells of a duplicitous world in which dream may become nightmare, and beauty terror, in the blink of an eye. This is a realm of shifting shapes and organic forms, saturated with a surfeit of life that seems variously splendid and miraculous, ruthless and inevitable. The natural world features strongly; we encounter storm-beaten trees, tired butterflies and panicked sheep. Yet the human world is never far away, a relentless presence that changes and exhausts all that comes into contact with it. In this intensely intimate conversation between poet and artist, Lisa Davidson's texts find a haunting echo in Ralph Petty's dream-like ink wash drawings. Breathing Underwater reveals the convergence of two minds on one theme, discovering in each drawing-poem pair the rich cross-pollination between the visual and the verbal.

Before photography was invented, we relied on illustrations, paintings and, even more so, real dead bodies to gaze upon decaying flesh. Many visual expressions of death were used to moralize or romanticise death. Vanitas paintings were made to remind us that life is only temporary and all mortal possessions remain in vain. The Japanese Kusozu tradition of watercolour paintings, that depict the nine stages of the decaying body, from the first moment of death unto the final stages, were made to remind us not to give into bodily desires. Romantic war paintings asked the viewer to fight for the cause. In DEATH BOOK, you will find various signs and symbols related to death, such as skulls, violence, accidents, spirits, cadavers, sexual acts and references to religion and Christ. The works included remind us of our living status, in ways that are sometimes funny, arousing or DEAD serious. A true representation of death, and its associated pain is impossible, but the works included attempt to communicate the agony, the anguish, the grave sadness and, sometimes, the humour associated with death. DEATH BOOK is art directed by PZtoday, who has designed the book as a Bible/Address book. With an introduction by Pernilla Ellens and Lauren Raaijmakers and featuring drawings, paintings and illustrations from Alicia Gibson, Christina Quarles, Dallas Seitz, Ellen Cantor, Franko B, Gray Wielebinski, Hermann Nitsch, Ion Birch, Keith Boadwee, Lin Ke, Mike Diana, Namio Harukawa, Oliver Eales, Patrick Wray, PZtoday, Qiu Xiaofei, Richard Hawkins, Sutapa Biswas, Toshio Saeki, Urs Luthi, Vittorio Scarpati, Will Henry, Julien Ceccaldi and many more.

Very few artists can claim such lasting and worldwide fame and importance as Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). The nickname il divino ("the divine one") has been applied to him since the 1530s right through to today: his achievements as a sculptor, painter, and architect remain unparalleled and his creations are among the best-known artworks in the world. This Bibliotheca Universalis edition is devoted to the artist's graphic work, a testimony to his masterly command of line, form, and detail, from architectural studies to anatomically perfect figures. The book brings together some of the artist's finest drawings from museums and collections around the world as well as some of his own notes and revisions, offering stunning proximity not only to the ambition and scope of Michelangelo's practice but also his working process. A chapter with a compilation of newly attributed and reattributed drawings provides further insights into Michelangelo's varied graphic oeuvre and the ongoing exploration of his genius. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

Learn how to draw your favorite furry friend! With Christopher Hart's simple templates, any pet owner can do it. Whatever your pet, you can capture it in a beautiful drawing! Chris Hart, the world's bestselling art instruction author, has created templates that work for pups and kitties of just about any shape and size--from poodles, dachshunds, and Bernese Mountain Dogs to tabbies, Persians, and Siamese cats. Every template is easy to follow so you'll get adorable results worthy of framing . . . no matter what your skill level.

This is an essential book for anyone learning to draw, or wishing to improve their drawing. Starting with the basics of drawing techniques, Civardi gives expert advice on drawing portraits, the clothed figure, hands and feet and scenery, finishing with a section on the importance of light and shade. Civardi's technical advice and practical tips, accompanied by his own outstanding drawings, make this an invaluable resource for any artist. Previously published as Giovanni Civardi's Complete Guide to Drawing (9781844482061) and now includes The Nude (9781844482443).