Minimalist artist Dan Flavin (1933-96) is best known for his brightly colored fluorescent light installations, which have captivated art lovers for decades. But he was also an accomplished draftsman, and this is the first book to fully explore the central role that drawing played in Flavin's art.
Not only did Flavin produce numerous sketches for each of his light installations, he also regularly drew outdoors, primarily riverscapes and beach scenes. A number of those drawings are included in this volume, as are a group of remarkable pastels of sails, a subject he turned to when he was in his fifties. This book also draws on Flavin's journals, in which he wrote about his passion for drawing, which he called "an intensely concentrated personal form of artistic relief." Yet despite the importance of drawing in Flavin's life, his drawings are little known, in part because he almost never sold--or even gave away--his drawings. Most of the works reproduced here were never shown publicly and are being published here for the first time.
Offering a surprising new angle on a major artist, "Dan Flavin: Drawing" will surprise--and delight--his many fans.

The fundamentals of figure drawing--anatomy and perspective -- seldom receive a thorough treatment within the same book. This volume, written by an experienced teacher, covers both aspects and provides a basic understanding of how to convey the structure and functions of the human figure. Oliver discusses and illustrates the principles involved in figure drawing -- including its representation by such simple forms as the cube, the cylinder, and the sphere-- as well as anatomical features, from the trunk and limbs to the head and facial features.

Draw In Order to See is the first book to survey the history of architectural design using the latest research in neuroscience and embodied cognition. At present, among the dozens of books on architectural drawing, design theory, methodologies, model making, CAAD, and planning, there is no book that specifically looks at the history of representation as a reflection of cognitive habits among individuals and groups of architects. As a historian and a practicing architect, Mark Hewitt has a unique point of view, that has enabled him to study the design practices of many architects during various eras, beginning in the Renaissance and stretching into the late 20th century. His earlier published books have touched on subjects related to design practice, as many have dealt with the lives of architects and designers. In addition, he has written dozens of biographies of architects, published essays on architectural representation, and wrote a master's thesis on visual perception and architecture. Hewitt has dedicated more than 30 years to writing about the process of conception (or visualisation) of buildings in the brain. Researchers on that subject now consistently cite one of his earliest studies on drawings and modes of conception. This book pursues that line of inquiry with the new discoveries about visual perception, cognition and embodiment that have revolutionised brain science. Hewitt believes that looking historically at how architects have designed, a brain-based practice developed during and after the Renaissance, once drawings became sophisticated enough to provide feedback for perception and memory in the cortex. His contention is that disegno, as invented in Italy during the time of Leonardo and Michelangelo, initiated that system, and that it was translated into a curriculum during the rise of Beaux Arts institutions prior to the 1920s, after which the Bauhaus system replaced it completely with what we have today.