Urban sketching has become one of the biggest art trends of the last decade, with artists preferring to capture a scene on location rather than relying on a photograph. Featuring 20 step-by-step exercises, Sketch Club: Urban Drawing is your essential guide to putting your drawing skills into practice on location. You'll learn how to start, when to stop and how to fix common mistakes. Packed with all the energy and inspiration of a drawing group, this is the ideal book for anyone looking to take their urban drawing further. Perfect your urban drawing skills and develop your own unique style with professional urban sketcher, Phil Dean. Chapters include: - Loosening Up - Building a Scene - Adding Contrast - Taking it Further - Finishing Touches

In this reissue of his popular book, Vic Bearcroft shares his love of drawing and painting wild animals, showing how to capture the personality and distinctive features of a variety of creatures. Using simple steps and plenty of detail, this guide shows you how to create beautiful artworks, from drawing the basic shapes through to realising your favourite animals in your preferred medium.

The artist Sappho Marchal was the daughter of the renowned French conservator of Angkor, Henri Marchal. She spent the early years of her life in Cambodia, surrounded by the magnificent ruins of the Khmers, and produced the present study at age 23. Her fine line drawings present the myriad details of ornament and costume depicted on the stone reliefs of Angkor Wat with a clarity that could not be captured, even then, on film. Since that time, many of the stone carvings have severely deteriorated, rendering Marchal's drawings all the more valuable as a record for present-day students and restorers of Angkor.

In the tradition of Persepolis, In the Shadow of No Towers, and Our Cancer Year, an illustrated memoir of remarkable depth, power, and beauty Danny Gregory and his wife, Patti, hadn't been married long. Their baby, Jack, was ten months old; life was pretty swell. And then Patti fell under a subway train and was paralyzed from the waist down. In a world where nothing seemed to have much meaning, Danny decided to teach himself to draw, and what he learned stunned him. Suddenly things had color again, and value. The result is Everyday Matters, his journal of discovery, recovery, and daily life in New York City. It is as funny, insightful, and surprising as life itself.

This handsome boxed set provides hours of enlightening entertainment for those curious about the natural world, farm life, and food. Best-selling author and illustrator Julia Rothman presents Farm Anatomy, Nature Anatomy, and Food Anatomy in a specially designed slipcase with 10 frameable prints. Rothman's popular line drawings offer a whimsical and educational guide to life on a farm, nature's hidden wonders, and delectable tidbits from kitchens and pantries around the globe.

Do something amazing and learn a new skill thanks to the Little Ways to Live a Big Life books! As children, when we learn to write, we gain an important life skill: a practical means of communicating that we end up using almost every day of our lives, if only to jot down a shopping list or dash out an email. As children, we also know instinctively that drawing is a great way to communicate, but later in life it isn't universally valued and nurtured in the way that writing is. It's not seen as a necessity, it's seen as a specialism. As a result, most of us stop drawing completely, apart from the odd doodling. More than that, we lose all confidence in our ability to draw. Yet drawing is an incredibly prac tical way of turning what's inside your head into something tangible and useful. It can equip you with new means of solving problems, sharing ideas and telling stories. How to Draw Anything sets out to repair our broken relationship with drawing. It will inspire you to pick up that pencil from where you left it all those years ago and start making pictures again. It will give you back the confidence and joy in drawing you never should have lost. And it will take drawing out of the art world and put it into your world, introducing you to drawing as a practical tool for everyday life that will change the way you work, think and communicate.

This book contains all of Gary Gianni's artwork for George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Over 300 pages of beautifully illustrated scenes from the five novels in the series--A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons--are featured alongside passages from the books themselves. Also included are illustrations from the two prequels of the series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Fire and Blood. All together, the paintings and hundreds of drawings in pencil and pen-and-ink provide a unique view of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros as seen through the eyes of the award-winning illustrator. Describing Gianni's artwork, George R.R. Martin says it's "as if I am looking through a window into Westeros, that I am there with Tyrion and Daenerys, with Ned and Arya, with Dunk and Egg." All of Gary Gianni's previously shown pencil sketches and paintings have been tightened up and polished for this collection, making them appear as new works. In addition, over 35 pencil drawings appear for the first time. The artist draws on his longtime experience in comics and illustration to offer a unique perspective into Martin's universe. The book also includes an introduction by Cullen Murphy, who discusses the art of illustration and adds context to the pictures by providing an overview of Gianni's career. Notes from the artist reveal insight concerning his methods and the creative process of working with Martin, a relationship that has spanned five years to date.

An inspired collection of the authors' own work spanning 30 years into the 'Visual Art Language'. Demonstrates a variety of mediums including oil paint, etching and drawing. Will appeal to readers with an interest in Fine Art, practitioners or those with an interest in the development of a visual language. This is a book of original art works comprising 49 colour and 62 black and white images, most are at full page size. The book is divided into six sections which look at different aspects of visual language in terms of either subject matter or media. It contains works from memory, etchings, still life, portrait, figure drawings and student work which form these six sections. Readers are able to see the development of a language which has evolved from early student work to current work. There are brief introductions to each section which aim to explain how the ideas came about, providing some detail about the artistic process, the inspiration behind the work and the challenges encountered along the way. Complementing the visual art are short and concise introductions to each section. A biography of the author is included at the end.

This book is an expert guide to producing beautiful lifelike drawings of birds in their natural habitat. Artists of all interests will find a lot to inspire them in this detailed, practical and beautiful guide on drawing birds. The book includes sections on materials, basic techniques and reference gathering, as well as how to draw the key features of birds such as beaks, eyes, claws, wings and feathers. A special section focuses on birds in flight, and this is followed by chapters on the main bird groups including: Waders and water birds, Wildfowl, Birds of prey, Owls, Garden and woodland birds, Seabirds and Game birds. Each chapter covers the techniques specific to the group as well as numerous examples and a full step-by-step demonstration. The absence of colour means that Andrew uses other aspects such as pattern, shading and shape to give his paintings life and interest. Written for artists who wish to apply their skills to drawing birds, as well as experienced artists who want to improve their drawing skills, this is an expert guide to producing exquisitely rendered, lifelike drawings of birds in their natural habitats and nothing could be more inspirational than Andrew's accurately observed and truly beautiful drawings.

Colour your way to better focus! Colouring books ... for grown-ups. Remember the long hours spent colouring in the lines of your most-cherished colouring books, full box of crayons within reach, the demanding adult world tuned out? Secretly long for an excuse to retreat back into that world? Now you can. Find your inner artist and colour your way to better focus! Mindfulness helps us to appreciate the world around us - to feel centred, less stressed and more fully alive. Art for Mindfulness offers the perfect aid - 60 intricate blank vintage fabric patterns to help focus your mind, unlock your creativity and calm your conscious as you pour colour into them. With an introduction from art therapist and mindfulness practitioner Imi Lo, plus accompanying quotes with each illustration to inspire meditation as you go through, Art for Mindfulness is the beautiful colouring book for grown-ups you can mindfully complete. So pick up your pencil, unleash your creativity and watch your well-being thrive!

Unique digital drawings from one of Switzerland's most prolific artists of today. Since early in his career, the Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer has used digital drawings as the basis of his work, which oscillates between sculpture and the moving image. Lines drawn into a space in abeyance visualize his figurative thought and beguile the viewer into bizarre, comical, and eerie associations. Netzhammer's refined and precise pictorial rhetoric plays a subtle game that permits the viewer a variety of interpretations and continually evades the deceptive moment of unambiguity. This results in images in which complexity and levity, formal strictness, or conceptual proliferation come to the front depending on one's point of view. Convex Thoughts is a bibliographical space that complements its predecessor, Concave Thoughts-together they are a guide for dreamers and musers, an endless storyboard from an art at the highs and lows of its time.

Die Studie widmet sich Lea Grundig (1906-1977) als Prasidentin des Verbandes der Bildenden Kunstler Deutschlands (VBKD) von 1964 bis 1970. Nach Inhaftierung und Verfolgung wahrend der NS-Diktatur fluchtete Grundig 1940 nach Palastina und kehrte 1949 nach Deutschland zuruck, wo sie zur Professorin fur Graphik an der Dresdner Kunstakademie berufen wurde. Sie gehoerte zur "Weimarer Generation" von bildenden Kunstlern und genoss in der ehemaligen DDR hohes Ansehen. Im Jahre 1964 erfolgte die Wahl Grundigs zur neuen Prasidentin des VBKD. Sie war die erste und einzige Frau an der Spitze des ostdeutschen Kunstlerverbandes. Lag das Hauptaugenmerk der Forschung bislang auf dem Wandel Grundigs wahrend der 50er und 60er Jahre zur angepassten und konservativen Kulturfunktionarin, beleuchtet diese kunsthistorisch-zeitgeschichtliche Studie erstmals anhand von bislang unbeachteten Archivunterlagen der Akademie der Kunste zu Berlin die Faktoren, Massnahmen und Auswirkungen der Prasidentschaftszeit Grundigs. Besonderes Augenmerk liegt dabei auf den Beziehungen der Grundig zu Israel vor der Folie des staatlichen Antizionismus und Holocaust-Gedenken in der DDR, den deutsch-deutschen Kunstbeziehungen, den Diskursen innerhalb des VBKD sowie dem Verhaltnis des VBKD zu den kulturpolitischen Liberalisierungsbewegungen in der Tschechoslowakischen Sozialistischen Republik sowie in der Volksrepublik Polen.

The artist Beatrice Wood, born in 1893, lived and worked until the age of 105. She was known variously as the Mama of Dada and the Queen of Luster. In 1917 she was part of the avant-garde Dada movement in New York. By the mid-1950s she had become a leading practitioner of luster-glazed ceramics. Wood moved from being a debutante to joining one of the most bohemian circles of her day. Her work played with sexuality, but her aesthetic was often more comic than erotic. Now featured in over one hundred museums across the world, Wood is often quoted for her recipe to a long life: "art books, chocolates, and young men." This book contains a collection of risque drawings that document an intimate relationship she enjoyed with a married couple, Jack and Rhea Case, in Ojai, California, during the 1950s and 1960s. The collection was later acquired by Betsy Ross Rowland, who has sponsored this limited-edition book to benefit the ceramics educational programs of the nonprofit CFile Foundation.

Until recently, the Dutch draughtsman Johan Thopas, who was born in 1626 both deaf and dumb, was only known to a small group of connoisseurs, dealers and collectors. However, his remarkable, subtle and technically refined portrait drawings on parchment deserve a wider audience. This handsome publication, the first devoted to his work, will prove to be an eye opener for many art lovers. Beginning with his earliest works (two beautiful miniatures of 1646 in the Fondation Custodia in Paris), Thopas produced incredibly refined drawings, usually with lead point on parchment. He had an almost magic control of the lead point, and his sense of texture and the way he was able to achieve this with minimal means is astounding, setting him apart from other draughtsmen in the Dutch Golden Age. Thopas was also able to capture brilliantly the characters of his sitters– such as the sulky husband and trouser-wearing wife in the 1684 companion pieces in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Apart from lead-point drawings, Thopas made several drawings in colour, on parchment and on Japanese paper. In most cases these drawings were done after life, although we do know that the large commission he received from the Bas-Kerckrinck family in Amsterdam included several drawings that were done after existing portraits. Furthermore, he produced at least one brilliant copy after a painting by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, Venus, Mars and Cupid, and even a painting, portraying a dead child. He must have made more paintings and certainly more drawings than the seventy we know today (all of which are catalogued and illustrated here). In this exhibition his only known painting and the one mythological drawing are accompanied by thirty of his most beautiful portraits, from private collections in the US, Canada, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as well-known museums and print rooms, such as the Albertina in Vienna, the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, the Städel in Frankfurt or the Victoria& Albert Museum in London. The author of the catalogue, Prof. Dr Rudolf E.O. Ekkart, is regarded as the most important connoisseur in the field of Dutch sixteenth- and seventeenth-century portraiture and the author of many important monographs and other publications in the field of Dutch portraiture. He was Director of the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) in The Hague between 1990 and 2012 and gained momentum as Chairman of the Committee that carried his name and proved responsible for the return of many looted works of art that were returned to the heirs of many Jewish collectors in The Netherlands. Included in the book are Dutch and German translations of the essays.