Successful colored pencil artists and teachers, Janie Gildow and Barbara Benedetti Newton answer the most commonly asked questions about colored pencil techniques.Over twenty easy-to-follow, step-by-step demonstrations show you how to:- Select the right tools, as well as set up your workspace to optimize efficiency and comfort - Effectively express yourself through color and value to create light, shadow and mood - Use and master basic essential colored pencil techniques - Create the look of realistic metal, including brass, copper and silver - Create glass that sparkles, mirrors that reflect and water that distorts - Create realistic texture, from slippery satin, fuzzy peaches and velvety roses to coarse linen and the bumpy surface of corn - Fix common mistakes and problems with easy-to-use solutions Whether you already enjoy working with colored pencils or are looking to try this exciting medium for the first time, this book will provide you with all the information you need to create your own colored pencil compositions.

    Valerie McKeehan, an Etsy standout, teaches us everything we need to know to create gorgeous hand-drawn chalk designs. In over 60 lessons, learn the ABCs of lettering (literally) and basic styles: serif, sans serif, and script. Next, how to lay out a design, combine various styles into one cohesive piece, and add shadows and dimension. Master more advanced letter styles, from faceted to ribbon to “vintage circus.” Use banners, borders, flourishes. And finally, 12 projects to show off your newfound skills, including a Winter Wonderland Snow Globe; a smartphone-themed birthday card to text friends and family; a one-of-a-kind party invitation to create, photograph, and mail; and a bake sale sign guaranteed to put everyone who sees it in the mood for a cupcake! The book is also a practice space, with three foldout “chalkboards”—the inside cover and foldout back cover are lined with blackboard paper.

    Encouraging you to make journaling a part of your daily routine, Keeping a Nature Journal is full of engaging exercises and stimulating prompts that will help you hone your powers of observation and appreciate new aspects of nature’s endlessly varied beauty.

     Homeowners and renters of all means dream of having a beautiful home. The media makes it look so easy, but many of us have less to work with and still long to live in style. Affordable Interior Design makes luxury an affordable reality. In this DIY home decorating handbook, Helmuth reveals insider tips and her tried-and-tested methods for choosing colors, creating a gallery wall, how to use accent tables, entry benches, rugs, and more! Helmuth has shared her affordable design advice and step-by-step approaches with millions through live teaching workshops, guest columns, television appearances, and interviews. Now, she has distilled her expertise into this practical guide. The chapters follow her secret design formula and include creating a design budget, mapping out floor plans, selecting a color palette, and accessorizing like a stylist. It’s time to start living in the home of your dreams without maxing out your credit cards. Learn how with Affordable Interior Design!

    

    This one is huge! Over 160 pages of easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to DO tips that will make you a better photographer!If you are tired of being the runner-up in all the local photography contests and want to start hearing "Ooohs" and "Aaahs" when people look at your photos, this one is for YOU!To give you an idea of what is included, here is the table of contents...Introduction:The Basics Of Photography:Key 1: Photography SimplifiedKey 2: Aperture And Shutter SpeedKey 3: Master Your Camera - Fast!Key 4: The Photographer's Secret WeaponKey 5: Creativity Can Be LearnedKey 6: A New Vantage PointKey 7: Put the "Wow" Factor In Your Photos!Key 8: Tell A StoryKey 9: Exposure - How Your Meter Works!Key 10: How To Shoot In Black And White Eliminate Camera Shake:Key 11: Your Shooting StanceKey 12: Tripod TipsKey 13: Use A Tripod Like A MonopodKey 14: How To Use A MonopodKey 15: Hands Off The Button!Key 16: Mirror, Mirror…Using On Camera FlashKey 17: The Ten Foot RuleKey 18: Intensify The Colors In Your PhotosKey 19: Eliminate "Red Eye!"Outdoors/Landscape PhotographyKey 20: Create Better Landscape PhotosKey 21: Shooting In Bad WeatherKey 22: Two Horizon Photo TipsKey 23: More On Level HorizonsKey 24: Stunning City Skyline PhotographyKey 25: Shoot Better sunset PhotosKey 26: How To Get Intense Sunset Photo ColorsKey 27: Filters To The RescueKey 28: The Indispensable Rubber BandKey 29: Recovering The GroundKey 30: Amazing WaterfallsKey 31: Making Clouds "POP!"Key 32: To Buy Or Not To Buy Colored FiltersKey 33: Storing Your FiltersKey 34: Using Kodak Yellow!Key 35: Fireworks And Lightning - Part 1Key 36: Fireworks And Lightning - Part 2Key 37: Flowers And Spider Webs - Part 1Key 38: Flowers And Spider Webs - Part 2Key 39: Turn AroundPet PortraitsKey 40: Pet Portraits - Great For Camera MasteryKey 41: Better Pet Portraits In 3 Easy StepsKey 42: In Pet Portraits The Ears Matter!Key 43: Problem AnimalsPortrait PhotographyKey 44: Tips For Improving Your PortraitsKey 45: 2 Easy Portrait Photography TipsKey 46: The "Photographic Ground Modification System!"Key 47: Visually Lose Weight!Key 48: The Ultimate Portrait Photography Tip!Key 49: Size MattersKey 50: Basics Of Lighting Portrait PhotographyAdditional Training:

    You’ll discover how to draw all types of dragons using nothing but a pencil. Drawing Dragons shows how to bring to life fierce warriors and bearded ancients as well as baby hatchlings and protective mothers. It also features a special section on adding claws, scales, horns, jewels and other unique details to your dragons.Learn to draw:• Ferocious, attacking dragons•Graceful sea dragons•Fire-breathing flying dragons•Wise, thoughtful dragons

    Card Captor Sakura. Magical Girl Rayearth. They’re magical girls, and they’re some of the biggest names in manga. Magical girls, ordinary schoolgirls given superpowers, are hugely popular in Japan and the United States. Now Christopher Hart shows fans everywhere how to draw these manga shoujo faves. Faces and body proportions, action poses, costumes, expressions, transformations, special effects—they’re all here, all in Hart’s distinctive step-by-step approach. So are magical fighting boys and everybody’s favorite, the cute, furry manga mascots. Hart demonstrates how to create funny mascots, magical boys, fighting teams, and supporting characters, plus how to design layouts. Magical girls show us that we all have special powers deep inside—now Manga Mania: Magical Girls and Friends let those special drawing powers reveal themselves at last!

    Contemporary artists, typesetters, and designers of all kinds are exploring new horizons in illustrated and hand-drawn lettering, digitally rendered lettering, and 3D lettering. This collection—large in scope but petite in size—surveys the recent lettering renaissance, showcasing a diverse range of talent in gorgeous, eye-catching examples and profiling today's innovators. In a stunning little package that expertly combines a handmade feel with a modern aesthetic, this is the ultimate inspirational collection of contemporary lettering for design buffs and type enthusiasts alike.

    Inside you’ll find a repository of styles you can explore with drawing letters. Learn the basics – from the rundown of art materials, font styles, and the process of turning letters into visual art. Get to see the work of some of your favorite local letterers and type artists. And lastly, check out tips on finding your own style and making your mark as a creative individual in the book.

    Are you tired of spinning your wheels as a content creator? It's time to get intentional so you can grow your audience and make more money doing what you LOVE.  Stop wasting time on what isn't working! Scale up your success with strategic plans for your writing and promotion this year.  You'll learn how to:  use simple analytics to narrow your focus create blog posts and other content your audience is hungry for utilize the power of microblogging reverse engineer your desired income plan launches without overwhelming your audience implement a working social media strategy ...and so much more! Whether you are a blogger, writer, podcaster, or YouTuber, you'll find helpul tips and resources to map out a successful year's worth of content. This in-depth planner also comes with a free printable content calendar with daily, weekly, and monthly planning pages to help you put your goals into action. If you are ready to see results for your creative work, this planner is the first step to success! Download your Yearly Content Planner and Strategy Guide today!

    It's an ancient art, dating as far back as Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, and today is enjoying a revival. Here is the first comprehensive guide available on mastering this beautiful yet demanding medium. In The Art of Encaustic Painting, readers will learn surefire ways to achieve vibrant color and create surfaces that look as light as a wash or as densely textured as impasto. They will see how to produce effects from abstract to figurative to minimal. Finally, they will discover dozens of clear, step-by-step directions detailing how to use these various encaustic techniques in their own art. This remarkable reference also includes 200 attractive full-color photographs of the author's own work, as well as stunning examples by such premier encaustic artists as Jasper Johns, Arthur Dove, and Nancy Graves.

    It's an insightful artistic philosophy that boils down the many technical principles of composition into a single master rule that's easy to remember and apply: Never make any two intervals the same.You can make every painting more interesting, dynamic and technically sound by varying intervals of distance, length and space, as well as intervals of value and color. The rule also applies to balance, shape and the location of your painting's focal point.Greg Albert illustrates these lessons with eye-opening examples from both beginning and professional artists, including Frank Webb, Tony Couch, Kevin Macpherson, Charles Reid, Tony Van Hasselt and more.You'll discover that the ONE RULE is the only rule of composition you need to immediately improve your work - the moment your brush touches the canvas.

    "You need tools, not rules." His book distills decades of experience into 50 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective. WRITING TOOLS covers everything from the most basic ("Tool 5: Watch those adverbs") to the more complex ("Tool 34: Turn your notebook into a camera") and provides more than 200 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 50 indispensable, memorable, and usable tools. "Pull out a favorite novel or short story, and read it with the guidance of Clark's ideas. . . . Readers will find new worlds in familiar places. And writers will be inspired to pick up their pens." -Boston Globe"For all the aspiring writers out there-whether you're writing a novel or a technical report-a respected scholar pulls back the curtain on the art." -Atlanta Journal-Constitution"This is a useful tool for writers at all levels of experience, and it's entertainingly written, with plenty of helpful examples." -Booklist

    The combined contents offer readers an unmatched collection of great ideas and techniques, from the latest supplies (papers, adhesives, paints, pens) to innovative layouts (mandalas, diagonals, cutouts, grids). Sidebars highlight specific genres, such as pillow books, nature journals, and illuminated manuscripts. Plus, newly added content includes journaling artist profiles along with galleries of their work, new techniques, and a new project where readers learn to make a journal from a butter box.