Miniatures are not simply small paintings: special techniques are used to achieve their unique glow and luminosity. This book explains how to paint in detail in a small format with colour and precision. It gives an introduction to the history and traditions of miniatures set by Holbein, Hilliard and Oliver. Advice is given on materials, paints, bases and framing and there are step-by-step demonstrations of stippling and hatching, watercolour and oil painting, and colour mixing. There is a focus also on portraits, still life and silhouettes. Drawing on her extensive experience, Pauline Denyer-Baker shares her passion for painting miniatures, and inspires both beginners and more experienced artists to master and enjoy this historic art form.

Drawing and Painting People - A Fresh Approach is about confident and defiant art. Written by a practising artist and tutor, it contains inspiring examples, thought-provoking insights and practical advice about how to become more expressive and adventurous with your work. It is a book for people who are serious about painting and want to develop work that is personal and exceptional in quality. An unpretentious, non-academic approach to painting and drawing Avoiding 'painting by numbers' Strategies for independent working, building confidence and taking risks Examples from notable artists The body as an inspiring muse

Following in the successful paw and hoof prints of The Daily Zoo: Volume One comes another exotic menagerie of creative fauna from Hollywood artist Chris Ayers. The Daily Zoo 2 offers more furry and feathered friends along with continuing reflections on his life as an artist and cancer survivor. And, as with Volume 1 and perhaps more so, regardless of your artistic experience, this book will leave you inspired to grab the nearest pencil, pen, brush or crayon and start drawing ... for fun and perhaps as a way to bring healing!

The Artist's Handbook has become an indispensable reference work for thousands of practising artists all over the world. This fifth edition has been prepared by Steven Sheehan, Director of the Ralph Mayer Center, Yale University School of Art. It has been systematically revised and expanded to take account of the latest research. Once again, it has been edited for the British market.

Veteran carver and instructor Al Streetman cleaned up his shop and came up with yet another hot book, this one presenting a thin cast of characters carved from leftover wood scraps. Streetman takes novice and advanced carvers alike through a step-by-step process of carving and painting these unique creations made from piles of narrow leftovers. The task is made simpler with 126 photos and more than 25 illustrations, including the cutout patterns for 20 unique figures, such as Santas, elves, and the featured pirate project. In addition to sharing Al's tips and secrets regarding head, hand, and body carving, this informative book provides detailed suggestions regarding carving tools, paintbrushes, and paint colors.

Watercolour painting is an absorbing, meditative art-from that many people would like to enjoy but don't attempt to because they believe they can't paint or simply don't know where to begin. An encouraging voice and a clear, easy-to-follow approach is often all that's needed to give people the confidence to get started and keep going. That's exactly what this book provides. Paul Clark, an enthusiastic and accomplished painter who runs his own art school, explains the fundamentals in a friendly and accessible way. He shows readers what they really need in terms of tools and materials - starting with a limited colour palette that can be mixed to create the vast majority of colours required. He then explains and illustrates the basic techniques, before presenting ten of his paintings that put those techniques into action. Each painting is broken down into stages, with clear instructions and photographs for readers to follow, plus plenty of helpful tips. In addition, there are three feature spreads that focus on particular areas of interest for beginners, including special effects, painting trees and painting skies.

Award-winning artist Nita Engle's breakthrough approach to watercolor shows readers how to combine spontaneity and control to produce glowing, realistic paintings. Her method begins with action-filled exercises that demonstrate how to play with paint, following no rules. Subsequent step-by-step projects add planning to the mix, demonstrating how to turn loose washes into light-filled watercolors with textural effects achieved by spraying, sprinkling, pouring, squirting, or stamping paint. Engle's approach, and her results, are dramatic and dynamic; now watercolor artists can create their own exciting paintings with help from "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself."

Inside this friendly guidebook you'll find plenty of easy-to-follow advice from best-selling colouring book artists. Their tips and tricks will have you drawing like an accomplished "colorista" in no time.Discover the differences between gel pens and marker pens. Learn the best way to use watercolour pencils. Understand why expensive materials are different to those that are cheaper. Master exciting techniques like patterning, blending, cross-hatching, shading and other cool ways to "up" your colouring experience.

A stunningly illustrated, project-based book on drawing and painting for the beginner. Divided into three sections: drawing, watercolour, and oil painting, it includes more than 30 original projects for you to try, such as a vase of flowers in pencils, a stormy scene using watercolours, and a Tuscan terrace in oils. It presents practical and easy-to-follow text with over 475 step-by-step photographs clearly showing the creation of each picture.

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.

Breaking the Surface

Pondering how to begin a new piece of art? "Surface Treatment Workshop" has the answer The authors of "Image Transfer Workshop" are back to show you 45 stepped-out mixed-media techniques that will add depth and texture to your artwork. These techniques are the perfect jump-off point for creating art you will love to look at, and, in some cases, touch

In this comprehensive guide, you ll find:

• 45 techniques. Exciting new applications such as the use of WonderUnder, pulled paper and plaster-dipped gauze will provide you with fresh ideas--many previously unpublished.
• Multiple variations. Each technique features swatches and descriptions to take the techniques in multiple directions with multiple mixed-media products.
• Inspirational style. Fully stepped-out projects from two artists will show you how to combine the techniques into finished works of art that can go in any artistic style.

Perfect for kids and crafters, this fun guide will teach you how to paint flowers, cottages, houses, and towns on stones! New painters wanted! No experience necessary! With Lin Wellford's instruction, thousands have discovered the thrill of turning rocks into works of art. Her bestselling books have helped to awaken interest in modern rock painting. It's the perfect hobby-fast, fun, and inexpensive. Rock Painting Flowers, Cottages, Houses, and Towns offers a variety of easy projects designed to introduce basic painting techniques yet still appeal to seasoned painters. Learn to paint your favorite scenery elements, including: Daisies Tulips Petunias Daffodils Pansies Mums Wreaths of Roses Flower Baskets Cottages A-Frames Chalets Gnome Homes Barns Country Church Small Town Shops Farmhouses Produce Markets Colonial Style Buildings Tudor-Style Homes Victorian Mansions Rock Villages With tips on proper proportion and perspective, these projects will brighten any home or garden. Grab a brush, find a stone, and get ready to rock! Experience the magic of this fun and exciting art activity.

Delve into the enchanting world of dragons, wizards, and warriors with Beginner's Guide to Fantasy Drawing - an accessible, entertaining introduction to creating fantasy concepts with only a few simple traditional tools and no prior drawing knowledge needed. Beginning with the key subjects of draftsmanship, anatomy, and poses, before venturing into the step-by-step creation of quintessential fantasy subjects such as elves and orcs, this book enables readers of any skill level to draw magical characters and epic monsters with confidence. Packed with insightful tips, exciting tutorial projects, and fundamental art theory simply explained by industry professionals, this attractive volume is a perfect beginning to your fantasy art journey.

Have you spent years admiring manga drawing and wondering how to draw cool stuff, but you haven't known how to make it on your own? This book by Danica Davidson and illustrated by the amazing Melanie Westin will guide you to drawing your own manga. These two help you find your why and include how to draw for adult beginners in this book. They also include how to draw anime for beginners, how to draw cartoon comic strips, how to draw tigers, and more. This cartoon drawing guide will be especially useful for the beginner cartoon artist. This belongs on any anime bookshelf and can help readers create a book. Learn more about the art of manga with Danica Davidson and Melanie Westin in Manga Art for Beginners: How to Create Your Own Manga Drawings.

Happy Campers is a colouring book for adults that contains 30 amazing art activities, all designed to take you on a delightful camping adventure involving patterning, shading and colouring. Each vibrantly detailed illustration of fun on the open road 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.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.

Find Your Daily Peace and Relax Your Mind With TheLatestKate's Art Therapy ActivitiesA gently supportive and encouraging coloring book by Kate Allan, creator of TheLatestKate and author of You Can Do All Things, perfect for those dealing with anxiety. Soothing art therapy from an empathetic source. In You Deserve Nice Things, Kate draws strengths from her own struggles with depression and anxiety. Each design gently argues against negativity that can come from low self-esteem and helps you on your journey towards managing anxiety. Experience real anxiety relief through art therapy activities. Each page of the You Deserve Nice Things coloring book offers a supportive animal friend with a message of comfort, understanding, and mindfulness. Find inner peace and tranquility while coloring these uplifting, cute animals. Inside, you'll find: 96 coloring pages, full of inclusive illustrations suitable for all ages and skill levels. A collection of fun and sweet drawings that sparkle with comfort and provide anxiety relief Stress-relieving art therapy activities that will help you find relaxation from the daily grind of life If you enjoyed coloring books that help with managing anxiety like Amazing Dogs: Adult Coloring Book or Mindfulness Coloring Book for Adults, you'll love You Deserve Nice Things. Check out Kate Allan's affirmation books You Can Do All Things, You're Strong, Smart and You've Got This and It's Your Weirdness that Makes You Wonderful, as well as her Thera-Pets card deck!

Featuring eye-catching geometric designs by artist Marleigh Culver, this kit invites you to relax through the meditative process of painting by number. When completed, you'll have three beautiful abstract paintings to gift or display. Includes three pre-printed art boards, six pots of acrylic paint, two paintbrushes, and an instruction guide. Perfect for anyone looking for creative ways to unplug and slow down!

Leading equine illustrator Jennifer Bell has revised this beautiful and ever-popular book, which is designed to assist budding artists of all ages. Its encouraging text and inspiring illustrations will help the reader understand basic horse anatomy and the mechanics of movement, as well as the art techniques necessary to draw and paint horses with success.

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.

The Watercolour Sourcebook is a compilation of four selected titles from the What to Paint series, chosen specially to illustrate the wide range of scenes and subjects that can be captured in watercolour. The works of four master watercolourists - Geoff Kersey, Terry Harrison, Peter Woolley and Wendy Tait - are brought together in a collection of 60 beautiful, detailed projects on the subjects of trees, woodlands and forests; landscapes; hills and mountains and flowers respectively. Each project results in a full painting that is accompanied at the end of the book by a full-size outline that can be copied and applied to the artist's own watercolour paper using tracedown paper and pencil. The Watercolour Sourcebook aims to provide a wealth of inspiration to the painter who struggles to decide upon their subject matter, and arms the artist with everything they need to know about what they're about to paint, from colour palette to useful techniques.

Open this book as an absolute beginner, and come away as a proud portrait artist

Mark and Mary Willenbrink's"Absolute Beginner" books have helped thousands of novices tap into their inner artists. In this book, Mark and Mary help the beginning artist take on portraits, showing that absolutely anyone can draw faces. Their encouraging, easy-to-follow instruction style makes learning fun--you'll be amazed by how quickly you achieve impressive results.

You may be a beginner now, but not for long "Drawing Portraits for the Absolute Beginner" covers everything from warming up with sketches, and capturing facial expressions, to framing your finished work. Page by page, you'll build the skills and confidence you need to draw lifelike portraits of your friends and family.

What's Inside:

• A simple two-stage approach to drawing portraits: sketch a likeness, then build up values to bring it to life
• Step-by-step instruction for drawing eyes, noses, mouths, hairstyles, hands, glasses and other tricky elements
• 13 complete demonstrations featuring a range of ages and ethnicities
• Tips for evoking more personality in your portraits by using props, costumes and accessories

The ultimate guide to creating the most popular form of manga--shoujo
If you're reading this, you already love shoujo. But now you'll be able to take the next step and actually write and draw your very own. The teen characters that populate the genre are outrageously cool, including magical girls, demon gals, cat girls, J-rockers, handsome teen boys, Goth boys, and the increasingly popular elegant older young men that shoujo fans adore.
No one can top Christopher Hart in helping you learn some fundamental art techniques that will bring shoujo characters, which are more realistic and less cartoon-like than other styles of manga, to life. His drawings in this book reflect the coolest and latest style Tokyo has to offer, and the easy-to-follow steps are designed for the beginner.
From coloring to character development, "Manga for The Beginner""Shoujo" has your back on every detail as you learn to create the most beloved of all manga. You may start off as an "otaku "(a manga fan), but you'll end up a "mangaka" (a manga artist)

Coloring pages and vinyl stickers?! Artist Brita Lynn Thompson shares 40 unique and inspiring patterns that will help you flex your creative spirit and enjoy the present moment. The Dream in Color coloring book features fun patterns and motivational sayings that will brighten your mood, encourage you to seek adventure, and inspire you to live life with a sense of wonder. Coloring is also a creative form of mindfulness that will help you relax and chill out as you color each page. Each page of artwork in this book was beautifully designed so you can frame it or share it with friends. Plus 40+ bonus stickers to decorate surfaces like your laptop, water bottle, surf board, or car! Inspirational quotes include: * Dreams Don't Work Unless You Do * Make Today an Adventure * Dance Beneath the Stars Artist Brita Lynn Thompson, a.k.a. @zenspiredesigns, is known for her zenful designs and patterns. Dream in Color features: * Thick, premium quality paper * Perforated edges for easy removal and framing