Oil paint is such a responsive and versatile medium that no two painters need use it in exactly the same way, and since its invention in Renaissance times it has never lost its popularity with artists. Amateurs also find it appealing, both because it is enjoyable to use and because mistakes can be so easily rectified. This compact book explains all the materials, techniques and different approaches to painting with oils. Step-by-step sequences show how to paint a range of themes, from still life to portraits and landscapes, with advice on more difficult subjects. There are also suggestions for presenting your finished paintings and how to go about getting your work seen and exhibited.

For today's in-demand figure artists - comic creators, animators, video game artists, concept designers, etc. - it is necessary to be able to quickly draw the human figure in a variety of action-packed poses. In Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators, David Ross shows readers how they can master freehand figure drawing without visual reference by using a modern twist on the classic technique of blocking out the human figure as a mannequin. Step-by-step lessons guide aspiring illustrators from basic poses (standing, running, jumping) to extreme motions (throwing punches, high kicking). For on-the-go artists, Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators allows them complete freedom to bring their figures to life at any time.

If you have always wanted to draw manga but weren't sure how to begin, this fun and simple step-by-step book will help kick-start your comic-drawing journey. Learn how to draw boys, girls and creatures (ordinary and extraordinary) in the manga style. Starting with basic shapes, professional manga artist Yishan Li shows how easy it is to turn circles, rectangles, squares and ovals into teens, kids, witches, wizards, monsters, animals and much more. Professional manga art from well-known comic creator Yishan Li Over 130 step-by-step drawings Easy method with great results

28 different characters, poses and expressions that offer a dynamic selection of Manga-style female figures. Drawing girls is a very popular subject within the manga genre and this book is perfect for anyone seeking to learn the basics of creating these delightful characters. Suitable for adults and children of all ages and abilities.

It's Bob Ross. The man with the gentle voice who can paint a landscape in thirty minutes right before your very eyes in your own living room.

Reaching millions of homes every day, Bob Ross is unquestionably America's favorite art instructor. Now avaiable in paperback, The Best of the Joy of Painting -- Bob Ross's first book -- contains sixty of his favorite paintings, all of them originally created during the Joy of Painting show.

Each painting comes complete with a full-color photo and a series of black-and-white instructional photos, accompanied by step-by-step instructions that guide you through the painting process. With this book in hand, you will be amazed at the ease and skill with which you can create your own Bob Ross original.

'There's no grandstanding or showmanship, just solid, honest instructions and demonstrations that produce solid, worthwhile results.' Artbookreview.net Paint convincing watercolour mountain scenes using just 3 colours, 3 brushes, a palette and a pad of paper. From only 3 affordable watercolour paints in red, blue and yellow you can mix a huge range of colours and paint beautiful landscapes you'll be proud to hang on your wall. Starting from the simplest of mountain scenes, Matthew builds your skills as you progress through the 9 easy projects in the book, and by the end you'll be amazed at what you have achieved. Clear instructions and step-by-step photographs show you how to add detail, shadow and distance to a scene, and there are numerous handy tips and helpful 'jargon busters' to help you learn the basic watercolour techniques. Before you know it, you'll have acquired all the skills you need to paint your own wonderful mountain scenes in watercolour. Matthew uses French ultramarine, cadmium yellow and alizarin crimson and sizes 12, 6 and 2 round brushes.

Vibrancy and impact are qualities that experienced watercolour artists aspire to, and this book provides a full course in how to push the boundaries of this popular medium. Packed with inspirational artworks that cover everything from landscapes and portraits to abstract watercolours, this is an exciting book that will not fail to enthuse artists of all abilities who are seeking new ways of expression through their art. The book begins with sections on materials and equipment, gathering ideas, sketching and colour, followed by in-depth explorations of line, shape and form, perspective and space that provide a fascinating insight into the author's method of working. The fabulous final section on creating impact will provide all you need to produce stunning artworks that seem to leap off the page. With five step-by-step projects to try out the techniques covered in the book, this is a truly inspiring guide that will encourage the reader into new ways of painting.

Simple step-by-step lessons for drawing 60 animals + video tutorials via QR codes! Drawing Class: Animals is a collection of 60 fun, beginner-level lessons for drawing whimsical animals in pencil and colored pencil. Written and illustrated by artist and author Heegyum Kim, the fun, easy lessons-one for every animal-present step-by-step illustrations and instructions demonstrating how each one is drawn in pencil, with each step showing how and where to add simple shapes to create a wide variety of comical creatures, including: Home and Farm: Cat, Dog, Horse, Pig Woodlands, Plains, and Grasslands: Brown Bear, Moose, Elephant, Wolf Crawlers and Fliers: Cricket, Dragonfly, Hummingbird, Quail Rainforest: Iguana, Jaguar, Sloth, Orangutan Sea, Shore, and Wetlands: Alligator, Walrus, Frog, Shark Legendary Creatures: Dinosaur, Dodo, Unicorn For extra inspiration, several colored pencil versions of each animal are shown, along with a special feature-QR codes that give you access to a bonus video tutorial for every animal! Sharpen your pencils-it's time for Drawing Class: Animals!

Boston-based urban artist Mike Daikubara gives beginners a crash course in location sketching that you can use in any city in Sketch Now, Think Later. Everyone wishes they could sketch stylish scenes, but busy lives leave almost no room for sitting down with a pad and pen to practicing. Many people give up on their potential hobby (and artistic outlet) because they feel they just don't have the time to lay the groundwork. Here's a secret though: you do! All you is a strategy for incorporate sketching into your daily life. Sketch Now, Think Later covers the tools, techniques and tips that author and Urban Sketching Correspondent of Boston Mike Daikubara has developed in his more than 15 years as a practicing artist, and will show you how to fully dive into any sketching situation with limited time and tools, and still be able to produce memorable, great looking, fun sketches!

Good drawings aren't always the ones that you've spent a lot of time over; some of the best pieces are swift, energetic studies that capture the feel of the subject in just a few well-placed lines. This book contains a series of exercises that develop the core skills for drawing buildings and cities, all of which can be completed in a quarter of an hour. Understand perspective Play with proximity and point of view Record details such as reflections and shadows Capture the character of buildings and cities

Witness paintings change from bad to good as well-loved master watercolorist and teacher Charles Reid shows you how to correct problems to create fresh, spontaneous works, while offering an intimate inside glimpse into his processes. With expert advice on everything from drawing and design to fine-tuning figure and landscape paintings, Charles Reid's Watercolor Basics will help you identify shortcomings in your paintings, fix recurring problems and become a better watercolorist--no matter your skill level.

Praise for the previous edition: "The book brings together the work of Margaret Evans, Paul Hardy and Peter Coombs to help you to master the pastel medium. The three artists bring a good balance of work to the book, with Peter Coombs and Paul Hardy covering landscapes and townscapes, while Margaret Evans concentrates on flowers. Sections on using a limited palette, composition, colour mixing and colours for painting flowers, are interspersed with 13 demonstrations accompanied by good, clear step-by-step photographs." - Leisure Painter This is a practical and comprehensive guide for all soft pastel painting enthusiasts, from the beginner to the experienced artist. It uses material from the following titles in the Step-by-Step Leisure Arts series: Painting with Pastels by Peter Coombs, Landscapes in Pastel by Paul Hardy, Flowers in Pastel by Margaret Evans and Light in Pastel by Paul Hardy. Starting with advice on materials, it moves on to pastel basics such as blending, adding tone and using a limited palette. There are sections on landscape painting featuring advice on composition and painting trees and water, capturing light in pastels with tips on colour mixing, and finally flower painting, with additional information on adding water to pastels. Throughout the book, the art of painting in pastels is taught through 13 beautiful, easy to follow step-by-step projects, and each section is accompanied by a selection of inspirational paintings by the three featured artists, in a rich variety of styles. Previously published as 9781844488612.

Unleash the Beasts

"For millennia historians, artists and scientists have chronicled their ideas and discoveries of mythological and magical monsters in encyclopedias known as bestiaries. From Asia to America, Japan to the jungles of South Africa, the vast menagerie of exotic and legendary creatures has populated the imaginations of all cultures for centuries."

Beautifully illustrated and fantastically detailed, "Dracopedia: The Bestiary" is a modern, but no less unsettling reimagining of the ancient version. It is an A-to-Z artist's guide to animals of the legendary world. Some, like the griffin and yeti, may be familiar to you. Others--like the enigmatic questing beast and ferocious manticore--may seem new and strange. Some may even haunt your dreams. Inside the bestiary, you will find:

• Secrets of each animal's evolution--origins, habitat, anatomy, diet and more.
• Fantastic illustrations created using pencil sketches and digital coloring.
• Four-stage demonstrations taking you from concept and design to under-painting and finishing details.

The best fantasy manga drawing instruction...now with focus on fantasy! Manga artist and popular YouTuber, Mina "MISTIQARTS" Petrovic, helps you bring your wildest manga fantasies to life. Let your creativity loose as you learn how to draw hair that glows like a rainbow, animals that take human form, strange and outrageous scenery, and so much more. Following a friendly, step-by-step approach, you'll learn how to achieve the sleek, beautifully simple look of manga with a fantasy twist in no time. Create your own unique manga fantasy characters, creatures and mascots Design otherworldly fashions, fierce weapons, cool hairstyles and accessories Put it all together into dynamic fantasy scenes and settings You'll find important basics on feature placement and body proportions, expert tips on everything from fixing mistakes to creating exciting compositions, and six start-to-finish demonstrations on drawing manga fantasy characters from sorcerers to samurai. This book has everything you need to strike the perfect balance in your art between compellingly believable and utterly fantastic.

Landscape painting is one of the most popular subjects for painters working in the medium of oils - from classic masters to contemporary artists. In The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, established Watson-Guptill author and noted instructor/painter Suzanne Brooker presents the fundamentals necessary for mastering landscape oil painting, breaking landscapes down into component parts: sky, terrain, trees, and water. Each featured element builds off the previous, with additional lessons on the latest brushes, paints, and other tools used by artists. Key methods like observation, rendering, and colour mixing are supported by demonstration paintings and samples from a variety of the best landscape oil painters of all time. With The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, oil painters looking to break into landscape painting or enhance their work will find all the necessary ingredients for success.

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Drawing Figures! To draw an anatomical figure, you don't need a stack of weighty anatomy books. Just take it step by step! In How to Draw People, author Jeff Mellem teaches beginning artists how to draw the human figure, from stick figure to anatomically accurate person, in clear, easy-to-follow lessons. More than just a reference, this book provides the step-by-step instruction to teach you to draw the human figure and the anatomical knowledge to draw it realistically. In each chapter, called "levels," you'll learn core concepts for drawing the human figure. Each new chapter builds on the previous one to give you the skills you need to add complexity to your drawing. By the end of each chapter, you will be able to draw the figure with greater detail. By the end of Level 5, you will be able to draw an expressive figure with defined muscle groups in a variety of poses both real and imagined. Clear goals to progress from stick figure to anatomically correct Exercises and assignments to practice new skills Level-Up Checklists in each chapter to assess your skills before moving on With clear step-by-step demonstrations and check-ins along the way, How to Draw People is the beginner's guide to drawing realistic figures.

This practical and supremely useful manual is the first comprehensive, hands-on introduction to Japanese ceramics. The Japanese ceramics tradition is without compare in its technical and stylistic diversity, its expressive content, and the level of appreciation it enjoys, both in Japan and around the world. "Inside Japanese Ceramics "focuses on tools, materials, and procedures, and how all of these have influenced the way traditional Japanese ceramics look and feel. A true primer, it concentrates on the basics: setting up a workshop, pot-forming techniques, decoration, glazes, and kilns and firing. It introduces the major methods and styles that are taught in most Japanese workshops, including several representative and well-known wares: Bizen, Mino, Karatsu, Hagi, and Kyoto.
While presenting the time-tested techniques of the tradition, author Richard L. Wilson also accommodates modern technologies and materials as appropriate. Wilson has gathered a wealth of information on two fronts--as a researcher of Japanese pottery and art history, and as a potter who has studied and worked for years with master Japanese potters. In his introduction, he provides a short history of Japanese ceramics, and in closing he looks beyond traditional methods toward ways in which Western potters can make Japanese methods their own. Richly illustrated with 24 color plates, over 100 black-and-white photographs, and over 70 instructive line-drawings, "Inside Japanese Ceramics "is indispensable for potters as well as connoisseurs and collectors of Japanese ceramics. Above all, it is an invitation to participate--to study, make, touch, and use the exquisite products of the Japanese ceramic tradition.

Colored Pencil Painting Portraits provides straightforward solutions to the problems that artists face in creating lifelike images and will prime readers on the intricacies of colour, texture, shadow and light as they interplay with the human form. This comprehensive guide packed with step-by-step demonstrations considers working from photo references versus live models; provides guidance on posing and lighting, as well as planning and composing a work; discusses tools, materials and revolutionary layering techniques; and offers lessons on capturing gesture and expression and on rendering facial and body features of people of all age groups and skin tones.

This is a fully revised and updated new version of a popular RSPB handbook to the art and joy of drawing birds. John Busby beautifully conveys his own remarkable ability to capture the grace and motion of living birds, illustrating his ideas and suggestions with many examples of his own work. He also uses illustrations from over 45 other talented bird artists to demonstrate a variety of principles and techniques. The text covers a wealth of topics, including choice of media, sketching from life, composition and different ways of interpreting the subject matter. This is a beautiful and inspiring book which will appeal to aspiring artists and anyone who has ever been entranced by the beauty of birds.

Artists wishing to capture the excitement and power of the sea in their artwork will find this book invaluable. Judith Yates uses a mix of traditional and more experimental techniques to create her dynamic seascapes, all of which are explained in clear, step-by-step sequences, annotated examples and Judith's stunning artworks. With sections on colour, composition, and creating atmosphere, this book is a comprehensive approach to painting the tumultuous ocean with a mix of acrylics, watercolour and acrylic inks. Judith's varied, mixed media approach gives this book wide appeal to watercolour and acrylics artists looking to expand their creative horizons. This book demystifies all aspects of painting the sea, including details on the form and anatomy of a wave; bringing light, atmosphere and drama into the sky; and choosing colours to create a mood. It also provides a great source of inspiration to artists who are drawn to the sea as a subject for their own paintings.

An Artist's Field Guide to the World's Great Dragons! Creatures of great beauty and terrible ferocity, dragons have been featured and revered for centuries. Of the thousand-plus species still in existence, none have inspired more folklore and artistic awe than the eight species of Great Dragons. Within these pages, these fire-breathing monsters of legend - the rock stars of the dragon world - come to life through the work of artist and adventurer William O'Connor. Not since the original Dracopedia has there been such a beautifully illustrated and meticulously researched guide on the subject, with special focus on the distinctive features of each species - from the broad horns of the Icelandic white dragon to the elaborate neck frills of the Ligurian gray. Based on the author's expeditions to sanctuaries around the globe and consults with prominent regional experts, Dracopedia The Great Dragons presents never-before assembled facts and instruction to help you capture the heart-beating grandeur of these magnificent monsters. Inside, find everything you need to know to capture the essence of your favorite dragons through your artwork: Learn about the habits, anatomy and natural history of 8 fierce and fantastic dragons Each profile features sketches, drawings and start-to-finish creation of a stunning artwork, illustrating key concepts that apply to any medium Discover special techniques for achieving dramatic lighting effects, powerful compositions and the incredible sculptural forms and textures of dragons Includes a gallery of dragons and a foldout comparison poster

Watercolours are the first choice for many painters, but few master the full potential of the medium. This book encourages you to be bold and colourful. Written by an internationally respected artist and teacher, it offers practical ways of working with watercolours, and shares ideas and thoughts that can make your painting methods more exciting and adventurous. With over 180 illustrations, it is a beautiful book that will be invaluable for both new and experienced painters alike.