Learn about depth, scale, contrast, composition, and more.

    This complete guide helps you build your understanding of perspective to an intuitive level so you can draw anything you can imagine. Inside you'll find:Complete instruction on drawing in one-, two- and three-point perspective and four- and five-point curvilinear perspective (where "straight" lines are drawn as curves). Curvilinear perspective has not been taught in any other perspective book - until now!Full-color, step-by-step demonstrations move you beyond the theories and let you practice the techniques in real scenes.A special chapter on drawing curves helps you break out of the box and draw cylinders, ellipses, cars and, most importantly, people in perfect perspective.Shortcuts and tips show you how to create believable perspective in no time flat.No matter what your skill level, Vanishing Point offers you a new way of looking at perspective and lets you draw as though you have decades of drawing experience - even if you don't. You'll learn everything you need to know to pour your imagination on the page with power and confidence.

    So detailed and so accurate are these drawings that this book has long been a classic work of its kind. The animals are shown in three ways: external full views and dozens of details (paws, head, eyes, legs, etc.); beneath-the-skin drawings of musculature and of the positions and insertions of each muscle; and skeleton drawings of the bone structures that support and determine surface contours and configurations. In addition, special cross-sections dissect those portions of the animal — such as the head and limbs — that are most important to the artist. For this edition, Lewis S. Born of the American Museum of Natural History collected 25 plates from George Stubbs's Anatomy of the Horse, long unavailable; Straus-Durckheim's Anatomie Descriptive et Comparative du Chat; and Cuvier and Laurrillard's Anatomie Comparée. These plates, as fully annotated as the plates that make up the original book, supplement Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich with anatomical drawings of the monkey, the bat, the flying squirrel, the rat kangaroo, the seal, and the hare. Mr. Lewis also provided a new preface and added to the annotated bibliography, which now contains 66 items.

    Readers will love the opportunity to practice the creative art of hand-lettering in a way that inspires them and helps them relax.As an example of what’s inside, Workshop 1 encourages readers to renew & recharge by writing, “It’s me time,” with the easiest technique for a scripted, calligraphy look. Workshop 2 builds on the theme as readers use their skills from Workshop 1 to write, “Practice makes progress,” and add a new skill of drawing laurels and wreaths that take their calligraphy to the next level. With each workshop, readers are inspired with a brief introduction reminding them to relax and cultivate joy, then learn step by step how to letter each word of an example lettered design and draw embellishments. With plenty of practice space and a page to draw their own final design, this interactive workbook meets readers’ every need. High-quality, thick watercolor paper with perforated edging allows readers to tear out their finished hand-lettered art to display. This book goes beyond basic hand-lettering books to calm and relax, and goes beyond adult coloring books to teach a usable creative skill. It’s the perfect gift for yourself or friends and family who love crafts and coloring.

    In fact, many artists are discouraged by the time and expense it takes to mix and match colors, and achieve the right results. Even more frustrating is the vast range of colors available. Now there’s a ready-to-use visual directory that takes all the guesswork out of mixing and matching colors . . . making every artist an expert! Color Mixing Bible provides a basic color palette for each art medium, demonstrating an array of two-, three-, and four-color mixes, as well as offering full explanations of various paints and pigments.This invaluable guide features scores of tips and techniques for color mixing with oils, acrylics, watercolors, inks, pastels, and virtually every other art medium. It also includes in-depth information on how to determine the opacity and strength of a color, choose a color palette, mix whites, arrange and organize colors prior to mixing, use optical and physical mixing techniques, and much more! Plus, hundreds of color illustrations make everything simple. Whether one is an aspiring artist or working professional, Color Mixing Bible is an essential addition to every bookshelf.

    The creative possibilities are as unlimited as the world around you!

    In other words, to observe and draw what we actually see, rather than what we think we see. When it comes to drawing the human figure, this means letting go of learned ideas and expectation of what the figure should look like. It means carefully observing the interplay of form and light, shape and line, that combine to create the actual appearance of human form. In The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing, amateur and experienced artists alike are guided toward this new way of seeing and drawing the figure with a three-step drawing method.The book's progressive course starts with the block-in, an exercise in seeing and establishing the figure's shape. It then build to the contour, a refined line drawing that represents the figure's silhouette. The last step is tonal work on the inside of the contour, when light and shadow are shaped to create the illusion of form. Separate chapters explore topics critical to the method: gesture, which expresses a sense of living energy to the figure; light, which largely determines how we see the model; and form, which conveys the figure's volume and mass. Examples, step-by-steps, and special "tips" offer helpful hints and practical guidance throughout.Lavishly illustrated with the author's stunning artwork, The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing combines solid instruction with thoughtful meditations on the art of drawing, to both instruct and inspire artists of all levels.

    In this comprehensive guide, Phil Metzger demystifies perspective, presenting it simply as a matter of mimicking the way we see--like the way a distant mountain appears blue, or a road seems to narrow in the distance.The Art of Perspective offers simple but powerful techniques for achieving a convincing illusion of depth and distance, whether it's a few inches in a still life or miles in a landscape.- Start simple, with atmospheric perspective and intuitive techniques, and gradually progress to linear perspective and more complex challenges such as stairways, curves and reflections. - Use the engaging, step-by-step demonstrations and exercises to try out each essential concept for yourself, making lessons clearer and more memorable. - Learn theories that apply to all mediums, with specific advice for achieving effects using acrylic, oil, watercolor and pencil. - Get the inside scoop on professional tricks and shortcuts that make perspective easier than ever! Forget everything you think you know (or don't know) about perspective. This book builds an easy-to-follow, ground-up understanding of how to turn a flat painting or drawing surface into a living, breathing, dimensional scene that lures viewers in. No matter how you look at it, it's the ultimate guide to perspective for artists of every medium and skill level.

    The result is described as “a thought-provoking visual feast”.

    Based on Dr. Stephen LaBerge's extensive laboratory work at Stanford University mapping mind/body relationships during the dream state, as well as the teachings of Tibetan dream yogis and the work of other scientists, including German psycholgist Paul Tholey, this practical workbook will show you how to use your dreams to: Solve problems; Gain greater confidence; improve creativity, and more.

    Designed for painters, sculptors, and illustrators who use animal imagery in their work, Animal Anatomy for Artists offers thorough, in-depth information about the most commonly depicted animals, presented in a logical and easily understood format for artists--whether beginner or accomplished professional. The book focuses on the forms created by muscles and bones, giving artists a crucial three-dimensional understanding of the final, complex outer surface of the animal. Goldfinger not only covers the anatomy of the more common animals, such as the horse, dog, cat, cow, pig, squirrel, and rabbit, but also the anatomy of numerous wild species, including the lion, giraffe, deer, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, gorilla, sea lion, and bear. Included are drawings of skeletons and how they move at the joints, individual muscles showing their attachments on the skeleton, muscles of the entire animal, cross sections, photographs of live animals, and silhouettes of related animals comparing their shapes and proportions. He offers a new and innovative section on the basic body plan of four-legged animals, giving the reader a crucial conceptual understanding of overall animal structure to which the details of individual animals can then be applied. The chapter on birds covers the skeleton, muscles and feather patterns. The appendix presents photographs of skulls with magnificent horns and antlers and a section on major surface veins. Incredibly thorough, packed with essential information, Animal Anatomy for Artists is a definitive reference work, an essential book for everyone who depicts animals in their art.

    You choose whether to let the sun blaze or the rain pour, to move a maple tree here or make the trail wind over there, to subdue a hillside with quiet greens or make a forest glow with dazzling golds and reds. It's not only a matter of what to paint, but how to go about painting it.This book examines, one at a time, the three major elements of landscape painting: water, sky and land. You will be encouraged to try numerous ways of painting each one. Then you can choose the methods that best express how the outdoors speaks to you.Let this reliable collection of tips, techniques, ideas and lessons be your companion on a sure path to creative fulfillment and better watercolor landscapes.

    It is also a book they may want to keep out of view of their professors, for it expresses in clear and simple language things that tend to be murky and abstruse in the classroom. These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentation--from the basics of "How to Draw a Line" to the complexities of color theory--provide a much-needed primer in architectural literacy, making concrete what too often is left nebulous or open-ended in the architecture curriculum. Each lesson utilizes a two-page format, with a brief explanation and an illustration that can range from diagrammatic to whimsical. The lesson on "How to Draw a Line" is illustrated by examples of good and bad lines; a lesson on the dangers of awkward floor level changes shows the television actor Dick Van Dyke in the midst of a pratfall; a discussion of the proportional differences between traditional and modern buildings features a drawing of a building split neatly in half between the two. Written by an architect and instructor who remembers well the fog of his own student days, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School provides valuable guideposts for navigating the design studio and other classes in the architecture curriculum. Architecture graduates--from young designers to experienced practitioners--will turn to the book as well, for inspiration and a guide back to basics when solving a complex design problem.

    A series of progressive lessons demonstrates such essential skills as recording edges, creating dimension, adding accuracy, developing value, balancing compositional elements, and drawing the human face, both frontal and profile views. Step by step, readers learn how to create a reasonable likeness of an object and give it spatial depth using such simple black-and-white mediums as pens, pencils, charcoal, and graphite wash. Inspirational examples and tips for success from beginning students who have worked on the same material confirm readers’ successes, and allow readers to consider the advice and impressions of others at the same level.

    The Pop-Up Book offers a clear and practical guide to the pop-up papercrafts for all levels of artist, from home hobbyists to professional graphic designers and architects.Illustrated with specially comissioned photography, it includes specific projects with easy-to-follow steps, general techniques for greater personal experimentation and creativity, and a gallery of designs created by some of today's best pop-up artists for an inspirational finish.The forms and folds, scores and creases, that Jackson transforms into striking shapes and designs truly deserve acknowledgment.--Booklist