No matter what your orientation, EVERYbody's a little "Aqua-sexual," especially when the subject is Mermaids Illustrator Edward Reed takes a moist and salty excursion into the deep to showcase that rarest and most sea-going of mythical creatures in this glorious gallery of full color portraits Creatures of such mythical delight become as real as the girl-fish next door Come get a net-full of delights

Art collector Anil Relia had always admired the miniature paintings of the Nathdwara school, which grew out of the religious devotation of the Pushti Marg (Path of Grace). On one of his trips to this pilgrimage town, he encountered 'manorath' paintings, whose unusual visual elements attracted his attention immediately. Originally part of the Pushti Marg popular culture, manorath paintings were often commissioned by devout followers as an indelible record of a pilgrimage trip to Nathdwara. Manorath ("mind's vehicle") paintings are a visual representation of the pilgrim's wish to enter into mutual communication with a divine Pushti Marg icon. The popular manoraths in this collection, which employ mixed media and photo-realism techniques, illustrate worshippers in the presence of Shrinathji. These images had a deep emotional resonance for worshippers because they embodied both the corporeal pilgrimage to Nathdwara and also the inner devotional experience itself. As author Isabella Nardi demonstrates, the paintings in this collection are not merely souvenirs of a pilgrimage trip; they represent the worshipper's journey to Nathdwara for a 'darshan' with their beloved and revered deity. With pilgrims as patrons, these manoraths are truly portraits of devotion.

A collection of spicy stories written and illustrated by cult icon Mitch Byrd. Byrd's attention to detail and sense of humor is matched only by his love of the female form - in ALL it's myriad shapes and sizes! If you're looking for waif-like, timid fashion model-types - look elsewhere! Mitch likes his stories epic, and his ladies even larger! Remember - big girls don't cry - they kick ass!

Artists and naturalists will master their ability to render lifelike depictions of a wide range of wildlife in a variety of still and action poses in this unique instructional. Amberlyn begins by offering a discourse on animal anatomy, basic animal structure and characteristics, and the animals' natural environment. Such details are examined and explored through more than 300 detailed animal studies.
More advanced topics include drawing the three major animal categories: carnivores/omnivores (wolves, coyotes, weasels, raccoons, and bears), hoofed mammals (deer, elk, moose, caribou, and sheep), and small mammals (rabbits, squirrels, mice, beaver, and armadillo). Readers will transform their mediocre interpretations into drawings that truly capture the essence and subtleties of the animal, its mood, and its habitat.

There is a popular and romantic myth about Rembrandt and the Jewish people. One of history's greatest artists, we are often told, had a special affinity for Judaism. With so many of Rembrandt's works devoted to stories of the Hebrew Bible, and with his apparent penchant for Jewish themes and the sympathetic portrayal of Jewish faces, it is no wonder that the myth has endured for centuries.
"Rembrandt's Jews" puts this myth to the test as it examines both the legend and the reality of Rembrandt's relationship to Jews and Judaism. In his elegantly written and engrossing tour of Jewish Amsterdam--which begins in 1653 as workers are repairing Rembrandt's Portuguese-Jewish neighbor's house and completely disrupting the artist's life and livelihood--Steven Nadler tells us the stories of the artist's portraits of Jewish sitters, of his mundane and often contentious dealings with his neighbors in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, and of the tolerant setting that city provided for Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews fleeing persecution in other parts of Europe. As Nadler shows, Rembrandt was only one of a number of prominent seventeenth-century Dutch painters and draftsmen who found inspiration in Jewish subjects. Looking at other artists, such as the landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael and Emmanuel de Witte, a celebrated painter of architectural interiors, Nadler is able to build a deep and complex account of the remarkable relationship between Dutch and Jewish cultures in the period, evidenced in the dispassionate, even ordinary ways in which Jews and their religion are represented--far from the demonization and grotesque caricatures, the iconography of the outsider, so often found in depictionsof Jews during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Through his close look at paintings, etchings, and drawings; in his discussion of intellectual and social life during the Dutch Golden Age; and even through his own travels in pursuit of his subject, Nadler takes the reader through Jewish Amsterdam then and now--a trip that, under ever--threatening Dutch skies, is full of colorful and eccentric personalities, fiery debates, and magnificent art.

What makes a classic so timeless? The exquisite curves? The overall design? The ability to go from zero to sixty in neck-snapping seconds? And no, we're NOT talking about cars! Baron Von Lind knows how to create pin-up art that's as bewitching and alluring as anything created in the last century! This second gallery of new pieces celebrates the Baron's need for luscious ladies in lingerie and not-so-innocent smiles on beautiful faces!

Taken from the earlier book "Priceless Florida" (and modified for a stand-alone book), this volume discusses the fresh- and saltwater systems of Florida, including lakes and ponds; rivers and streams; springs; aquatic caves; estuarine waters and seafloors; submarine meadows, sponge, rock, and reef communities; and the Gulf and Atlantic Ocean. Introduces readers to the trees and plants, insects, mammals, reptiles, and other species that live in Florida's unique water ecosystems, including chicken turtle, barking treefrogs, osprey, herons, bass, crayfish, conchs, cordgrass, and railroad vine. Discusses the food chain and the interconnectedness of all species.

Featuring more than 600 sketches depicting a diverse assortment of animals drawn in classic cartoon styles, Draw Like an Artist: 100 Cartoon Animals is a must-have drawing and visual reference book. For student and aspiring artists, illustrators, character designers, and more, this modern step-by-step drawing guidebook demonstrates fundamental art concepts like proportion and anatomy as you learn to draw a wide array of cartoon-style animals and their poses and expressions, all shown from a variety of perspectives. Each set of illustrations takes you from beginning sketch lines to a finished drawing. Artist and author Keilidh Bradley's expert drawing technique will make this a go-to sourcebook for cartoonists, artists, and designers for years to come. Draw Like an Artist: 100 Cartoon Animals is a library essential for any artist interested in learning the fundamental techniques for drawing animals in classic cartoon styles. The books in the Draw Like an Artist series are richly illustrated visual references for learning how to draw classic subjects through hundreds of step-by-step images created by expert artists and illustrators.

Once again, Alazar, the undisputed king of kink combines his fiendishly clever mind with his bottomless well of deviant talents and produces an all-new gallery of things that make us all go "ooooh"! Carnal cartooning is brought to heights of hotness! Don't forget your "safe word"! OUCH!

Margot E. Fassler's richly documented history-winner of the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval Academy of America-demonstrates how the Augustinians of St. Victor, Paris, used an art of memory to build sonic models of the church. This musical art developed over time, inspired by the religious ideals of Hugh and Richard of St. Victor and their understandings of image and the spiritual journey. Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-Century Paris demonstrates the centrality of sequences to western medieval Christian liturgical and artistic experience, and to our understanding of change and continuity in medieval culture. Fassler examines the figure of Adam of St. Victor and the possible layers within the repertories created at various churches in Paris, probes the ways the Victorine sequences worked musically and exegetically, and situates this repertory within the intellectual and spiritual ideals of the Augustinian canons regular, especially those of the Abbey of St. Victor. Originally published in hardover in 1993, this paperback edition includes a new introduction by Fassler, in which she reviews the state of scholarship on late sequences since the original publication of Gothic Song. Her notes to the introduction provide the bibliography necessary for situating the Victorine sequences, and the late sequences in general, in contemporary thought.

Described by David Lodge as "the most gifted and innovative writer of her generation," Muriel Spark had a literary career that spanned from the late 1940s until her death in 2006, and included poems, stories, plays, essays, and, most notably, novels. The extensive bibliography of her works included in this collection reveals the astonishing output of a powerful and sustained creative spirit. Hidden Possibilities gathers a distinguished group of writers from both sides of the Atlantic to offer an informed overview of Muriel Spark's life and work. Critics have often read Spark in a somewhat narrow context-as a Catholic, a woman, or a Scottish writer. The essays in this volume, while making connections between these contexts, cumulatively situate her in a broader European tradition. The volume includes interviews with Spark that cast light both on the course of her professional life and on her notably distinctive personality. Contributors: Regina Barreca, Gerard Carruthers, Barbara Epler, John Glavin, Dan Gunn, Robert E. Hosmer Jr., Joseph Hynes, Gabriel Josipovici, Frank Kermode, John Lanchester, Doris Lessing, David Malcolm, John Mortimer, Alan Taylor, and John Updike.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, MAIL ON SUNDAY, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR THE SUNDAY TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 'Explosively enjoyable, bursting with life and art ... A central figure as wild and beguiling as any character in literature' CRAIG BROWN William Feaver, Lucian Freud's collaborator, curator and close friend, knew the unknowable artist better than most. Over many years, Freud narrated to him the story of his life, 'our novel'. Fame follows Freud at the height of his powers, painting the most iconic works of his career in a constant pursuit of perfection, just outrunning his gambling debts and tailor's bills. Whether tattooing swallows at the base of Kate Moss's back or exacting a strange revenge on Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger, Freud's adventures were always perfectly characteristic. An enfant terrible till the end, even as he was commissioned to paint the Queen, what emerges is an artist wilfully oblivious to the glitter of the world around - and focussed instead on painting first and last. 'A dazzling tour de force' THE TIMES 'A wonderfully vivid chronicle' OBSERVER 'Does justice to Freud's pitiless genius' DAILY MAIL

This instructive book presents excellent line drawings and annotations of anatomical structure for the beginning artist. Explaining the subject in simple terms and with an extensive series of illustrations, the author identifies body parts and demonstrates physical activities through his sketches. Following notes on proportion and drawing, chapters cover the human skeleton, head and neck, torso, arm, hand, leg, foot, and muscles of the body. Numerous illustrations show various views of the same structures and actions in order to impress construction and form upon the student.

Indulge yourself with this stunning collection of pin-ups! The art of pin-up glorifies the female form, and John Gladman celebrates beautiful girls from all walks of life. He has a refreshing, timeless style, bringing back the art of the tease at a time when innocence has been lost. Glamour and art meet photography to create John's recognizable and unique look. His imagery is tasteful yet sexy, stirring up sensuality and allure. He has revered and admired the female form throughout his life span, learning posing from the great artists of the past, paying attention to every detail during posing from the hand placement, the arch of the back, to the expressions and nuances, creating an art piece that appears as natural happenstance. John has a modern flair mixed with vintage themes honoring the classic era of the mid-twentieth century.

As we approach the bicentennial, in 2017, of the birth of Henry David Thoreau, there is considerable debate and confusion as to what he may, or may not have, contributed to American life and culture. Almost every American has heard of Thoreau, but only a few are aware that he was deeply engaged with most of the important issues of his day, from slavery to "Manifest Destiny" and the rights of the individual in a democratic society. Many of these issues are still affecting us today, as we move toward the second quarter of the twenty-first century. By studying how various American artists have chosen to portray Thoreau over the years since the publication of Walden in 1854, we can gain a clear understanding of how he has been interpreted (or misinterpreted) throughout the years since his death in 1862. But along the way, we might also find something useful, for our times, in the insights that Thoreau gained as he wrestled with the most urgent problems being experienced by American society in his day.

Identifying a beautiful image in nature is easy, but capturing it is often challenging. To truly seize the essence of a photograph shot out of the studio and in the world requires an artistic eye and impeccable set of photographic techniques. John and Barbara Gerlach have been teaching photographers how to master the craft of photographing nature and the outdoors through their workshops and best-selling books for more than twenty years. Now, equipped with brand new images to share and skills to teach, this celebrated photo team is sharing their latest lessons in the second edition of Digital Nature Photography. Notable revisions in this new edition include introducing the concepts of focus stacking and HDR, as well as expanded discussions of multiple exposure, wireless flash, RGB histograms, live view, shutter priority with auto ISO, hand-held shooting techniques, and the author's equipment selections. The inspiring imagery in this book covers a broader range of subjects than before including ghost towns, the night sky, animals, and sports, in addition to the classic nature photographs we expect from this very talented author team. This book is a comprehensive guide to one of the broadest subjects in photography, explained and dymystified by two respected masters.

Floral morphology is key for understanding floral evolution and plant identification. Floral diagrams are two-dimensional representations of flowers that replace extensive descriptions or elaborate drawings to convey information in a clear and unbiased way. Following the same outline as the first edition, this comprehensive guide includes updated and relevant literature, represents the latest phylogeny, and features 28 new diagrams. Diagrams are presented in the context of the most recent classifications, covering a variety of families and illustrating the floral diversity of major groups of plants. A strong didactic tool for observing and understanding floral structures, these diagrams are the obvious counterpart to any genetic study in flowering plants and to the discussion of major adaptations and evolutionary trends of flowers. This book is invaluable for researchers and students working on plant structure, development and systematics, as well as being an important resource for plant ecologists, evolutionary botanists and horticulturists.

"Acrylic Made Easy: Portraits" is a fitting addition to Walter Foster's new dynamic technique and project-driven series devoted to introducing aspiring artists to the fun and engaging world of acrylic painting. Painting portraits is a fundamental subject for any beginning-to-intermediate artist. With a fresh and simple approach, "Acrylic Made Easy: Portraits" teaches fine artists everything they need to know about setting up and rendering beautiful, dynamic portraits in acrylic. Beginning with an introduction to a variety of tools and materials, artists will learn how to select the right brushes, palettes, paints, paper, and surfaces for their work. "Acrylic Made Easy: Portraits" also provides valuable information about color theory and mixing for skin tones, planning a composition, and achieving proper perspective. Additionally, artists will learn a range of basic painting techniques, including glazing, scumbling, and stippling, as well as how to paint from photographs, create ambient lighting, arrange a composition, work with multiple subjects, and more. Through simple step-by-step projects, artists will discover how to approach a portrait, beginning with a sketch and progressing to a beautiful finished piece of acrylic artwork. With a diverse range of subjects, artists will find guidance, tips, and stunning artwork to inspire on virtually every page.