This richly illustrated book celebrates in words and pictures the beautiful work that award-winning artist Alan Lee produced for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and includes dozens of brand-new paintings and pencil drawings exploring the world of Bilbo Baggins. Since The Hobbit was first published in 1937, generations of readers have fallen under its spell. That magic was reignited sixty years later, when Alan Lee was commissioned to produce a special illustrated edition, and his delicate pencil drawings and beautiful watercolour paintings have become for many the definitive vision of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. In this sumptuous, large-format hardback Alan Lee reveals in pictures and in words how he created these images, which would prove so powerful, matching perfectly with Tolkien's own vision, that they would eventually define the look of Peter Jackson's film adaptations and earn Alan a coveted Academy Award. The Hobbit Sketchbook is filled with more than 100 of his sketches and early conceptual pieces that reveal how the project progressed from idea to finished art. It also contains a wealth of brand-new full-colour paintings and sketches drawn specially for this book, which unlock the secrets of how Alan creates his own magic and provide a fascinating insight into the imagination of the man who breathed new life into Tolkien's vision.

The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Light is an informative guide to heightening the impact of your artwork by capturing the look and subtleties of light in any scene. In settings ranging from fields and mountains at daybreak to neon cityscapes at midnight, learn how to express light effects through color and value to improve and refine your drawings and paintings. Artist and urban sketcher Katie Woodward offers strategies for: Selectively translating values for maximum effect Using your sketchbook to experiment with the effects of natural as well as artificial light Considering many options for visual solutions through work contributed by experienced urban sketchers Master the art of rendering light with The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Light as your guide. The Urban Sketching Handbook series offers location artists expert instruction on creative techniques, on-location tips and advice, and an abundance of visual inspiration. These handy references come in a compact, easy-to-carry format-perfect to toss in your backpack or artist's tote.

The Easy Way to Get Started with Oil Painting Craig Stephens has a simple motto for painting: With a brush, some paints and a willingness to learn, anyone can do it. With that mindset, Craig takes his most essential lessons, boils them down to their basics and teaches you everything you need to know to start oil painting, without any fuss or highbrow. Thanks to his experience teaching painting to high school students for over two decades, Craig is an expert at helping those with no experience pick up a brush and make beautiful art they are proud of. With his direction, you'll create dynamic, vivid paintings and learn to capture your world in ways you never thought possible. Each project in this book is designed to highlight the important elements of using oil paints, helping you to practice new skills and get comfortable with the medium. And thanks to Craig's helpful step-by-step directions that pair a picture with each stroke, you'll get great results. Hone your color-mixing eye as you blend the vibrant greens and subtle yellows in the Freshly Cut Avocado piece. Practice painting unique textures, like the small craters in the Simplified Strawberry or the glossy skin on the Smooth and Shiny Plum. Learn all the ways to capture natural light, like transparency in a glass of Refreshing Lemon Water or dazzling reflections on a Chrome Coffee Creamer. Oil painting is a timeless art form, and with Craig as your teacher, you'll create 22 beautiful pieces for your walls and learn all the foundational skills you need to enjoy this hobby for years to come.

At first glance, contemporary popular culture, filled with bleak images of the future, seems to have given up on the possibility of positive collective change. Below the surface, however, alternative culture is rife with artist-led projects, activist movements, and subcultural communities of interest that seek to spark the collective imagination and to encourage hunger for alternatives. More playfully self-conscious than past utopian movements, today's are often whimsical or ironic, but are still entirely earnest. Artists invite us to re-author city maps, or archive individual ideas for the future, while maker collectives urge us to rethink our relationship to consumer goods. All seem to have grown out of a similar do-it-yourself ethos and alternative culture. One of the central conflicts informing these case studies is that while it remains immensely difficult to envision anything outside of the current system of consumer capitalism, there is nevertheless a powerful desire to take it apart in piecemeal ways. We see the longing for new social and political narratives, new forms of communion and sociability, and new imaginings of the possible, longings that are currently unmet by mainstream culture, but that are taking expression in myriad ways at the local level. Taken as a whole, this collection examines what our grand ideals and playful daydreams tell us about ourselves.

In Mythical Beasts: An Artist's Field Guide to Designing Fantasy Creatures, thirty talented artists show you how to sketch, draw, and render thirty mythical creatures. Learn how to create some of the best-known fantasy creatures including the werewolf, unicorn, and of course the fantasy staple the dragon. Also included are lesser-known mythical beasts such as the Slavic Leshy, Japanese Jorogumo, and the Congolese Dingonek. Each creature has its own chapter which covers its history, how to render main elements, and variations, and one large final illustration. If you are a fan of mythology and fantasy, then Mythical Beasts is the book for you!

Featuring historic woodblock prints of elegant Japanese women, this adult coloring book is the perfect stress-reliever for fans of Japanese art and fashion. Beautiful Women Japanese Prints Coloring Book celebrates 200 years of women in Japanese art--from the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of eighteenth and nineteenth-century traditional Japan to modern shin hanga prints of the early twentieth-century jazz era. This lavish fine art coloring book features 22 images of women from all walks of life--from court ladies to housewives--at work, at play and in contemplation. With a wonderful section of prints of varying artistic complexity, this book is the perfect way to enjoy a slice of Japanese culture while having fun creating your own art. When your masterpiece is complete, simple tear it out at the perforation to frame and display. A copy of the richly colored original print sits opposite your "canvas" to use as a reference, if desired, and each print is accompanied by a fascinating introduction to the context or the artist behind the work.

Terry Harrison's painting style and easy-going humour makes painting fun and enjoyable. Pick up a brush, pull out one of the included outlines, and before you know it, you'll have a painting you can be proud to hang on your wall! This collection of Terry Harrison's highly-successful Ready to Paint books expands on the rock-solid painting advice in the originals by including all of Terry's clever and simple techniques. Together with more information on his preferred materials, the book makes painting the huge range of landscapes and rural scenes included approachable and enjoyable. The book includes pull-out outline paper that you can transfer to watercolour paper as well as full instructions on how to do so for each of the 15 step-by-step projects, and Terry's beautiful artworks are scattered throughout for inspiration.

Draw the cutest kawaii pictures every day for a whole year and never be bored again! This fun book for the young, and young at heart, covers the widest range of kawaii motifs ever - 365 of them no less! In the kawaii universe, everything is small and cute. Just by adding eyes and a mouth, even the most mundane object can be brought to life and become an adorable character... umbrellas smile, cupcakes wink, chairs snooze and pencils laugh. Learn the secrets of kawaii drawing, from getting the right proportions to creating personality with different facial expressions and adding depth with layers of colour. Then follow 365 step-by-step sequences showing you exactly how to build up a huge range of motifs, starting with simple shapes and progressing to add details and colours. Each sequence is entirely visual, with no complicated instructions to read, so it really is easy to create your own kawaii characters straight away. All you need is paper and some pens! Themes featured include animals, food, plants, clothes, household objects, musical instruments, people, vehicles, buildings and landmarks, weather icons and even space motifs. Inside you'll find an array of animals such as a singing bee, a giggling ladybird, a sweet swan, a cute penguin, a hungry hamster, a cheeky monkey, a stinky skunk and a red-nosed reindeer. There are also plants and flowers, all with their own adorable kawaii features, including a lily pad, rose, sunflower, daisy and dandelion. Be tempted by a range of tasty treats, like fried eggs, hot dogs, pizza, cupcakes, croissants and sweets, as well as various colourful fruits and vegetables. Even some everyday household objects, such as a fridge, bed, bathtub and armchair, have been given the kawaii treatment! There's something for every season, with a selection of weather and holiday-themed motifs. You'll love recreating famous landmarks like Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty in cute kawaii style too! With this huge selection, you're bound to find the perfect design for any occasion! This adorable value-packed book will entertain endlessly and let you embrace the Japanese culture of cuteness every day of the year.

Kawaii is a Japanese word that translates to "cute," and popular YouTube artist Pic Candle shows you how to doodle your way to adorable in this miniature, portable, and even cuter version of her best-selling Kawaii Doodle Class. This master class in cute features nearly 100 lovable, huggable characters and includes simple step-by-step illustrations and instructions, search-and-find puzzle patterns that you can color, inspiration boards that show you how to give your characters different facial expressions and zany accessories, and drawing pages to get your doodle party started. Your adorable drawing subjects include tacos, sushi, smoothies, clouds, rainbows, cacti, and more. Soon you'll be enhancing your notebooks, stationery, artwork, and more with your own unique kawaii world. Mini Kawaii Doodle Class is now in session! Learn how to draw even more cute things with these other fun books in the Kawaii Doodle series: Kawaii Doodle Class, Kawaii Doodle Cuties, Mini Kawaii Doodle Class, and Mini Kawaii Doodle Cuties.

In The Great Zentangle Book, Certified Zentangle Teacher Beate Winkler provides simple and clear directions for creating 101 classic tangles. Captivating creative minds the world over, the art of the Zentangle evokes meditation practices to create seemingly complicated line drawings that are actually easy to learn. These 101 step-by-step Zentangle patterns will help you relax while creating approachable and beautiful works of art. Beginners will learn everything about getting started-from materials and tools to basic terminology and techniques. Those who have tangled before will gain inspiration from the variations presented by Winkler and her tangling friends from around the globe, including Zentangle founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. Along with tips for mastering the craft and behind-the-tangle stories from designers, this compendium of patterns will provide you with hours of instruction. With The Great Zentangle Book, keep up to date on current Zentangle trends with new, delicate bijou tiles and find inspiration for your own Zentangle artwork while learning fascinating information and techniques. Relax, and set your creative mind free as each pen stroke brings you a little closer to your center.

Welcome to the wonderful world of painting with gouache, with the creative guidance of popular artist and illustrator Zoe Ingram. In this comprehensive beginner's guide, Zoe shares everything she possibly can about getting started with gouache painting. Why gouache? Because this exciting paint medium creates opaque effects making it more vibrant and graphic than traditional watercolours, meaning you can layer it, paint on dark backgrounds and much more. Gouache is one of the easiest of paint mediums to use. It's very forgiving and fun to use and is also versatile. Gouache paint can mimic watercolour and can give the opacity of oil paint if used with less water. You can use it to paint large, smooth, flat blocks of background colour and the finest lines and details. Gouache paint also dries quickly too, which is a big bonus! Starting at the very start, Zoe takes you through the basics and explains what tools and materials you'll need, then explores a wide range of techniques and finally, there are a host of fun and vibrant step-by-step projects that you can follow along with or use as a springboard for your own ideas. Zoe Ingram's distinctive art makes this book a visual treat, as she shows you how she paints a variety of subjects, from birds and bugs, to flowers and foliage, to abstract collages, hand lettering and patterns. Along the way you'll learn about colour theory, colour mixing, sketching, washes, mark making, line work, overlaying, working on dark backgrounds, how to get crisp edges, how to add details, different approaches to collage and even how to digitise your work so that you can create repeat patterns and custom prints. In the projects section you can follow along step-by-step as Zoe paints a very handsome pheasant, a funky beetle pattern, a trendy houseplant, colourful caterpillars, bright butterflies, jumbled geometric patterns, a striking owl, pretty florals, creative lettering, a curious cat and a free-flow abstract floral piece - after which there will be no stopping you! Beautifully illustrated, expertly explained and a riot of colour, this book will kickstart your love affair with gouache, so all that's left is deciding how to pronounce it... "gooash"..."gwash"..."goo-uhsh"?!

Spiroglyphics is even more incredible than anything Thomas has done before. Each oversized design starts its life as a featureless spiral, but as you fill in the lines you find yourself creating a surprising, eye-popping portrait of a wonderful animal. Fun to create and amazing to look at, Spiroglyphics will blow your mind, and make amazing artworks for your wall! In this book, Thomas creates incredible puzzles of animals. Includes: Alpaca Butterfly Cat Dog Duckling Eagle Fox Lion Tiger And many more!

Claire Waite Brown provides all the key techniques such as mixing, blending, scumbling, sgraffito, hatching, and feathering in over 100 visual sequences. There is advice on composing your painting, using colour, adding highlights and shadows and creating textured effects. The step-by-step demonstrations range from landscapes and flowers to portraits and still life. You'll find plenty to inspire you with this captivating medium with beautiful examples in full-colour photography.

Many people would love to learn to draw for pleasure, but don't know where to start. Being faced with a blank page can be daunting - even for a professional artist. In Sketchbook Challenge, illustrator Molly Egan shares prompts and ideas to get you started, encouraging risk-taking and experimentation. The book is split into three sections: Warm Up, for 5- to 10-minute exercises designed to stretch your muscles; Weekday, for guided creative drawing prompts for limited time; and Weekend, for open-ended, in-depth creative explorations. In addition to the exercises, Molly provides details on how to build an art kit and encourages artistic exploration beyond the pages of the book. Sketching is fun and therapeutic, and Sketchbook Challenge will be the springboard to unleash your creativity and discover your own style.

Draw, narrate, and create your own manga adventure with this interactive workbook featuring blank fill-in panels so you can set up your very own comic.

What’s behind those big, bright eyes? Why is the student attacking the master? What’s inside that box? That’s up for you to decide with Make Your Own Manga!

Featuring six fully illustrated stories from two acclaimed artists along with blank template panels to create your own drawings and dialogue, Make Your Own Manga will inspire you to inject your own imagination into the storyline of each manga comic. Now you can create your own heroes and villains, heartbreaks and desires instead of just reading about them on the page. All you need is a healthy imagination to complete the manga within these pages. The power to create is in your hands!

This unique and beautifully illustrated colouring book features images and scenes inspired by the ever-fascinating Tudor dynasty. It will provide hours of joy and relaxation, and is a great way to unwind after a hectic day. Quiet your mind and colour your way to peace, while nurturing your creativity and love of Tudor history. Suitable for children.

Over 500 illustrations; instructional text. "Best book on artist's anatomy."-Art Students League News.

If you love the Kawaii style but don't know where to start, this is the book for you! 10 Step Drawing: Kawaii will help you turn simple shapes into cute drawings in this popular style in just ten easy steps. Create over 50 different characters from a cuddly penguin and a magical unicorn to a cheeky bubble tea and a cute cupcake, by following the step-by-step instructions. Learning to draw has never been so simple!

Folk Art is a colouring book for adults that contains 30 amazing art activities involving patterning, shading and colouring. Each vibrantly detailed, charming and international folk illustration offers an easy way to de-stress, while allowing you to unleash the artist within.Thaneeya McArdle's transcendental art explores a visual language of shape, form, line and colour, and can be easily personalised with felt- tips, coloured pencils, crayons, gel pens, or watercolours.Beautifully coloured finished examples are provided, along with a handy guide to basic art techniques, from patterning and combinations to shading and colour theory.Both traditional and contemporary artworks are included, inspired by the living cultures of indigenous people around the world.This therapeutic colouring book is printed on high-quality, extra-thick paper that won't bleed through, and all of the pages are perforated for easy removal and display.

Extinct worlds live again in palaeoart: artworks of fossil animals, plants and environments carefully reconstructed from palaeontological and geological data. Such artworks are widespread in popular culture, appearing in documentaries, museums, books and magazines, and inspiring depictions of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals in cinema. This book outlines how fossil animals and environments can be reconstructed from their fossils, explaining how palaeoartists overcome gaps in fossil data and predict 'soft-tissue' anatomies no longer present around fossil bones. It goes on to show how science and art can meet to produce compelling, interesting takes on ancient worlds, and it explores the goals and limitations of this popular but rarely discussed art genre.

For beginners up, everything you need to know. Includes 28 teaching videos to view online. This combined book and video-guide to drawing manga will allow artists of ANY ability to master this hugely popular drawing style. The 256 page book is packed with step-by-step tutorials on every aspect of manga drawing, basing the instructions around traditional sketching and colouring techniques, and including digital tools for rendering and finishing artwork. The author is highly accomplished professional artist Sonia Leong, who is also creating 28 two-minute video demonstrations designed to link specifically to the content of this book. These video clips are hosted online, and accessed from the book's pages using QR codes (or URLs), making this one of the most user-friendly manga tutor books on the market. Readers will learn how to build up characters from basic shapes and measurements, get the anatomy and poses absolutely right, add crucial design elements to enhance drawings and stories, render artwork in different styles and mediums (including digital), and even start to create comic pages and sequences- for publication in print or online.

From the author of the best-selling art book, Pure Watercolour Painting and guest judge on Channel 5's Watercolour Challenge, Peter Cronin. Sketching is more than just drawing quickly. It is training your eye and hand to work together, to respond immediately and naturally to the scene before you. Starting from a clear, simple method to bring all the senses into play, successful author and acclaimed artist Peter Cronin shows the reader how to bring artistry and economy to their sketching; making for swift and impressive results. Whether sketching as the basis for painting, or simply for pleasure, this book teaches the reader all they need to know. Numerous simple step-by-step exercises as well as larger projects lead the complete beginner through the book, building towards more complex and rewarding artworks. The book teaches how to sketch with a range of media, starting from graphite pencil and including information and exercises on charcoal, pen and ink and others. In the best-selling Absolute Beginner series, this book is suitable for absolutely everybody who wants to take their sketching skills further and become an accomplished artist.

Zentangle[registered] is an easy-to-learn method of pattern drawing that reduces stress while promoting creativity. This book will introduce readers to the basic theory of Zentangle and provide instructions for drawing over 100 tangle patterns from such Certified Zentangle Teachers as Suzanne McNeill, Sandy Steen Bartholomew and Marie Browning. This beautiful book is filled with examples of Zentangle drawings as well as other art projects and compelling stories from those who have improved their well-being through Zentangle.

This guide introduces aspiring manga artists to drawing chibi characters--wide-eyed caricatures beloved for their cartoonish exaggeration. Drawing Cute Manga Chibi walks you through the steps needed to draw these adorable characters, while sidebars offer expert tips, pointers on the pitfalls to avoid, and how to use details to bring your drawings to life. In this book, readers will learn how to imagine and express: Facial expressions Body posture Hairstyles Different ages Poses Bringing your characters into full-color Different character identities--from a punk rocker to a samurai Author and Japanese manga artist Ryusuke Hamamoto (Ryu Moto) is best known for his design and creation of the Petit Eva character--who even makes an appearance in this book! In Drawing Cute Manga Chibi, he shares his personal tips, showing you how to break the "rules" of figure drawing in order to create these bobbleheaded cuties. Artists of all ages and levels will have fun creating original characters or reimagining their friends and family as kawaii chibi drawings.

This pocket-size drawing journal is packed with just as much clever, creative fun as the original bestselling 642 Things to Draw. All 642 drawing prompts inside invite doodlers to draw teeny tiny things-from 'a keyhole' and 'a marble' to 'an atom' and 'your house, from space.' Sure to keep creative folks inspired on the go, or wherever the doodle bug strikes!