These sketchbooks, the work of the acclaimed Scottish artist Barbara Rae CBE RA during her three journeys towards the Northwest Passage in the depths of the Arctic Circle in 2015, 2016 and 2017, record in colourful and assured brush strokes the icebergs, frozen bays and snowdrifts of this often hostile landscape. Polar bears roam and the Northern Lights dance across its pages, accompanied by Rae's handwritten notes in which she records her experiences and her immediate reactions to this harsh, unforgiving environment. Each page of the sketchbooks is meticulously reproduced, and the handsomely bound volume sits comfortably in the hand, making it the perfect gift for anyone interested in painting or exploration. Each page of the sketchbooks is meticulously reproduced, and the handsomely bound volume sits comfortably in the hand, making it the perfect gift for anyone interested in painting or exploration.

The top-selling Sterling Sketchbook series now features the popular new Kraft-cover format! With their quality paper and sturdy binding, this is the sketchbook of choice for both amateur and professional artists.   This beautiful sketchbook, with a ribbon marker, contains acid-free, medium-weight drawing paper with a vellum finish that’s perfect for everything from charcoal and pencil to light washes with ink and watercolor. Perforated pages make it easy to tear out “masterpieces� for framing or gift giving. All the copy (title, paper description, size, page count) appears on an attractively designed removable sticker that you can either leave on or remove for a clean, blank front cover.

When watching a masterful sketcher, it seems that they create elaborate sketches with ease, tracing their pencils on the page and bringing to life rich and detailed drawings. After sweating away hours trying to create a simple sketch, you may find that yours pales in comparison, looking amateurish and unprofessional. Why is it that you can't do what these 'masters' can? While many assume the difference comes down to accurate strokes and natural talent, you couldn't be further from the truth. Accuracy is not everything - confidence is. And, in this book, Hlavacs helps you to build up your confidence, moving through each layer of drawing and helping you understand exactly why one drawing looks more professional than another. This book breaks down the fear around sketching, walking you through how to create intricate sketches without difficulty. No other book teaches sketching in such a natural way, allowing anyone - no matter levels of talent or their past in drawing - to learn how to make this beautiful skill an intuitive process. Hlavacs demonstrates sketching as a pathway of logical steps, starting with the most basic elements and then adding further layers to the sketches as the book progresses. With a range of exercises to move through and pages filled with the psychology of why humans are drawn to certain sketches over others, this book will turn you into the master you've always admired. Instead of aiming for perfection, Hlavacs teaches you how to draw emotionally, using confidence in place of skill and understanding in place of talent. No matter who you are, The Exceptionally Simple Theory of Sketching will give you rules and demonstrations that will turn every sketch you create into a masterpiece.

After the Reformation the successful painter Paul Lautensack (1477/78-1558) dedicated himself to spreading revelations on the nature of God. Lautensack was besides Durer the only German artist who wrote against the iconoclasts, and he believed that he as a painter could explain the images of Revelation better than theologians like Luther. He presented his insights in hundreds of highly sophisticated diagrams that display a wide range of material accessible to an urban craftsman, from the vernacular Bible to calendar illustrations. This study is the first monograph on this extraordinary man, it presents a corpus of his surviving works, analyzes his peculiar theology of the image and locates the elements of his diagrams in the visual world of the Reformation period.

Francis Bacon is considered one of the most important painters of the twentieth century. A major exhibition of his paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts, planned for 2020 but postponed because of the pandemic, explores the role of animals in his work – not least the human animal. Having often painted dogs and horses, in 1969 Bacon first depicted bullfights. In this powerful series of works, the interaction between man and beast is dangerous and cruel, but also disturbingly intimate. Both are contorted in their anguished struggle, and the erotic lurks not far away: ‘Bullfighting is like boxing,’ Bacon once said. ‘A marvellous aperitif to sex.’ Twenty-two years later, a lone bull was to be the subject of his final painting. In this fascinating publication – a significant addition to the literature on Bacon – expert authors discuss Bacon’s approach to animals and identify his varied sources of inspiration, which included wildlife photography and the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge. They contend that, by considering animals in states of vulnerability, anger and unease, Bacon was able to lay bare the role of instinctual behaviour in the human condition. Images below, left to right: Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Fragment of a Crucifixion, 1950. Oil and cotton wool on canvas, 140 x 108.5 cm. Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Photo Hugo Maertens Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Study for Portrait (with Two Owls), 1963. Oil on canvas, 198.1 x 144.8 cm. Private collection. Photo Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Man with Dog, 1953. Oil on canvas, 152 x 117 cm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Gift of Seymour H. Knox Jr, 1955, inv. K1955:3. Photo Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd All images © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2020.

Gateways to the Book investigates the complex image-text relationships between frontispieces and illustrated title pages on the one hand and texts on the other, in European books published between 1500 and 1800. Although interest in this broad field of research has increased in the past decades, many varieties of title pages and a great deal of printers and books remain as yet unstudied. The fifteen essays collected in this volume tackle this field with a great variety of academic approaches, asking how the images can be interpreted, how the texts and contexts shape their interpretation, and how they in turn shape the understanding of the text.

Originally published in 1923. The author was a well known early cartoonist and book illustrator.Contents Include: Originality In Pen Drawing And Design - To My Fellow Students - Various Methods and Various Means - A Few Hints To Special Artists - A Few Hints To Lady Students - A Little Captious Criticism of The Lady Art Student - The Illustrating of Books. The book is well illustrated with examples of the authors work and hints for the student. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.