Tiki Pop


Sven A. Kirsten - 2014
    Americans embraced these visions and incorporated fantasy into reality: mid-century fashion, popular music, eating and drinking, and even architecture were influenced by the Tiki trend. With unfettered enthusiasm—ignoring scholarly authenticity and political correctness—American artisans molded the Tiki into their own image, creating a mid-century pop culture genre that was forgotten until the 2000s, when urban archeologist Sven Kirsten wrested the figure of the Tiki from obscurity with his pioneering TASCHEN books The Book of Tiki and Tiki Modern. This book traces the development of Tiki as romantic vision and kitschy cultural appropriation, from its earliest beginnings when James Cook “discovered” the Pacific Islands in the second half of the 18th century to Herman Melville’s South Sea adventure stories like Moby Dick and Gauguin’s exuberant, exotic paintings to the jungle fantasies of the Hollywood dream factory. Published in connection with an exhibition at the prestigious Musée du quai Branly in Paris, Tiki Pop the culmination of Sven Kirsten’s research efforts. With his widely lauded visual style, the author places venerable ancient godheads next to their Polynesian pop counterparts. With hundreds of previously unpublished images, the story of Tiki the 20th-century pop icon unfolds from its earliest beginnings to its spectacular downfall in the dawning awareness of the Western world’s colonial misdeeds.

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts


Debra J. Dewitte - 2011
    Short chapters can be read in any order, with new vocabulary defined on the page as it occurs. Eight “Gateways to Art” images (from around the world and all eras) support the common course goal of learning to interpret art in multiple ways and help students build on what they already know. The text is balanced and global, with over 1,000 illustrations—from around the world, and from everyday life.

This is Magritte


Patricia Allmer - 2016
    His life is infused with bizarre moments: a surreal journey oscillating between fact and fiction that he always conducted as the straight-faced bowler-hatted man. The events of Magritte's childhood played an important part in creating the surrealist, but it was his popular culture borrowings from crime fiction, advertising and postcards that has made his work instantly recognisable. The often unreliable nature of Magritte's accounts of his own life have transformed his public image into a kind of fictional character rather than a 'real person'. He would shape his own life story to be its own surreal work of art. This Is Frank Lloyd Wright brings his projects and persona into vivid focus. Wit and visual punch have been the hallmarks of the This Is series to date; the first architectural title in the series will give readers an up-close look at Wright's progress from difficult childhood, to struggling apprenticeship, to early success, through mid-life setbacks and on to late-life comeback. Beautiful specially commissioned illustrations documenting the important events in his life sit alongside photographs of Wright's most iconic buildings (including Fallingwater and New York's Guggenheim Museum).

Colored Pencil Solution Book


Janie Gildow - 2000
    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.

Drawing Dragons: Learn How to Create Fantastic Fire-Breathing Dragons


Sandra Staple - 2008
    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

Collage Journeys: A Practical Guide to Creating Personal Artwork


Jane Davies - 2007
    It can be a wonderful art form and a means of self-expression. Collage Journeys presents a series of innovative workshop assignments, each designed to relate the technique and format of a collage to its subject. Gathering materials, generating ideas, painting with paper, working in layers, using text, keeping a visual journal—project by project, new collage skills are explored. Stunning finished pieces offer additional ideas and inspiration. For anyone who has ever wanted to take collage to the next level‐adding meaning, subtext, and style—Collage Journeys offers the journey of a lifetime.

Unnatural Talent: Creating, Printing and Selling Your Comic in the Digital Age


Jason Brubaker - 2013
    While the publishing industry struggles to adapt to the rapidly changing digital world, independent artists now have the ability to build a successful and lucrative brand completely on their own with a little hard work and some Internet savvy. Now there's nothing stopping you from getting your book in front of thousands or even millions of people. Suddenly you can't blame anyone for not giving you a chance. You can only blame yourself for not trying. So roll up your sleeves, sharpen your pencils and fire up your Internet because we are about to make and sell comics! Jason Brubaker's graphic novel reMIND raised over $125,000 in pre-order sales on Kickstarter, won the Xeric Award and made ALA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens List. This book is a collection of his thoughts, strategies and practical lessons developed during his experience writing, drawing and self-publishing reMIND.

The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax


Joanne Mattera - 2001
    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.

Pop Sculpture: How to Create Action Figures and Collectible Statues


Tim Bruckner - 2010
    Joe took toy soldiers to a whole new level by giving them the ability to pose via moveable parts, as well as interchangeable clothing and accessories, the business of creating pop sculpture icons for the mass market was off and running. Superheroes came next, followed by TV show and movie characters, most notably those from Star Wars. Today, action figures exist for sports stars, rock stars, even presidents.With today's blockbuster success of animated films, action figures and collectibles have become a behemoth industry--with a growing need for skilled artists who can bring these characters to life. So how do you get started?The trio of veteran industry insiders who authored this book take you on an incredibly thorough journey that begins with drawing conceptual drafts and continues through rough sculpting and honing the final product. Along the way, you'll learn how to research your character, shape casts from a variety of materials including wax and resin, make accessories, articulate characters so that they are poseable, paint them, and ultimately convince an art director to buy and manufacture them. Whether you want to make small PVC toys, collectible statues, or larger high-end collectibles, Pop Sculpture offers step-by-step demos and words of wisdom from the pros.

Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins


Jacques Derrida - 1990
    Selected by Derrida from the prints and drawings department of the Louvre, the works depict blindness—fictional, historical, and biblical. From Old and New Testament scenes to the myth of Perseus and the Gorgon and the blinding of Polyphemus, Derrida uncovers in these images rich, provocative layers of interpretation. For Derrida drawing is itself blind; as an act rooted in memory and anticipation, drawing necessarily replaces one kind of seeing (direct) with another (mediated). Ultimately, he explains, the very lines which compose any drawing are themselves never fully visible to the viewer since they exist only in a tenuous state of multiple identities: as marks on a page, as indicators of a contour. Lacking a "pure" identity, the lines of a drawing summon the supplement of the word, of verbal discourse, and, in doing so, obscure the visual experience. Consequently, Derrida demonstrates, the very act of depicting a blind person undertakes multiple enactments and statements of blindness and sight. Memoirs of the Blind is both a sophisticated philosophical argument and a series of detailed readings. Derrida provides compelling insights into famous and lesser known works, interweaving analyses of texts—including Diderot's Lettres sur les aveugles, the notion of mnemonic art in Baudelaire's The Painter of Modern Life, and Merleau-Ponty's The Visible and the Invisible. Along with engaging meditations on the history and philosophy of art, Derrida reveals the ways viewers approach philosophical ideas through art, and the ways art enriches philosophical reflection. An exploration of sight, representation, and art, Memoirs of the Blind extends and deepens the meditation on vision and painting presented in Truth and Painting. Readers of Derrida, both new and familiar, will profit from this powerful contribution to the study of the visual arts.

Betty Page Confidential


Stan Corwin Productions - 1994
    Betty Page Confidential includes a biography of the reclusive goddess, an official Betty Page trivia quiz and 100 photos.Betty Page Confidential is the ultimate book on this 1950s icon.

Gustav Klimt, 1862–1918: The World in Female Form


Gottfried Fliedl - 1990
    Gustav Klimt's art is thoroughly fin de siècle.It expresses the apocalyptic atmosphere of Vienna's upper-middle-class society — a society devoted to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and the cult of pleasure. The ecstatic joy which Klimt (1862-1918) and his contemporaries found — or hoped to find — in beauty was constantly overshadowed by death, and death therefore plays an important role in Klimt's art. Klimt's fame, however, rests on his reputation as one of the greatest erotic painters and graphic artists of his times. Particularly his drawings, which have been widely admired for their artistic excellence, are dominated by the erotic portrayal of women. Klimt saw the world "in female form." Author Gottfried Fliedlalso discusses the Secession movement and Klimt's role within this important group of artists.

The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season One)


Phil Szostak - 2020
    Filled with concept art, sketches, and interviews with key crew and creatives, including executive producer/showrunner/writer Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Lion King) and executive producer/director Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels), The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian will provide readers with an exclusive and definitive look at a whole new universe of Star Wars characters, locations, and vehicles.The Mandalorian follows the adventures of galactic gunslinger Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and the Child (affectionately nick-named "Baby Yoda" by fans) as they traverse the outer systems of the galaxy and form unlikely partnerships with a ragtag group of mercenaries and outsiders – including Alliance shock trooper Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Ugnaught scavenger Kuil (Nick Nolte), and reprogrammed bounty droid IG-11 (Taika Waititi) as they're put on a collision course with the villainous Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). In The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, readers will encounter early visual and conceptual ideas for these new characters and unexplored frontiers filled with crime syndicates, bounty hunters, and smugglers.Led by executive creative director Doug Chiang (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), the incomparable group of artists, designers, and dreamers known as the Lucasfilm art department "visualists" came together on this years-in-the-making Disney+ series to develop fresh takes on the iconic visual language of Star Wars. The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is the only book to explore the artistic vision for this groundbreaking series, taking readers on a deep dive into the development of ineredible new worlds. Exclusive interviews with the filmmakers and the Lucasfilm visualists provide a running commentary on The Mandalorian's innovative art and design, revealing the inspiration behind the look and feel of the series.

Jan Saudek


Jan Saudek - 1998
    Internationally famous Czech photographer Jan Saudek is no exception, and equally as uncompromising in pursuit of his own unique vision. For over four decades Saudek has created a parallel photographic universe, a two-dimensional home full of longing, peopled with the most extraordinary characters and colored by desire. The timeless strength of his hand-tinted photographs lies in their poetic compositions and their forceful?at times ribald?pictorial language, with its overtones of medieval genre pictures and Baroque mythology. Rejecting the traditional beauty in his famous nude photographs, Saudek shows the distinctively different: old women, fat women, children; real people in tableaux vivants that remind us of everything from surreal early movies to fin-de-siecle carnival nights. They exist outside time, a uniquely colored and almost mythical theater of dreams. Covering his debut in the 1950s through his lesser-known work to recent images, this dazzling collection offers us the true "velvet revolution," fertile and unsettling images from the dreams we might still have. The author: Daniela Mr?zkov?, critic and editor of the Czech magazines Revue fotografie and Fotografie-Magaz?n, is the author of sixteen books on photography published in the Czech Republic and abroad, and the curator of around fifty photography exhibitions. She has been a member of international juries, and has authored film and television documentaries on photography and photographers. She hasfollowed Jan Saudek's work since his early years and is the author of Saudek's first Czech monograph, The Theatre of Life.

Inside the Magic: The Making of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them


Ian Nathan - 2016
    Rowling’s all new adventure, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to the big screen.Inside the Magic: The Making of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them introduces filmmaking fans to Newt Scamander, Magizoologist, and the principal characters, locations, artifacts and beasts that he encounters in 1920s New York. Explore the filmmaking magic behind MACUSA, the secretive American counterpart of the Ministry of Magic; and the magical secrets of Newt’s case.Each section contains profiles of the key characters, with revealing insights from Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, and many others, together with sections on set design, costumes, make-up, special effects, art department & props (especially wands!), which are illuminated by interviews with David Heyman, David Yates, Stuart Craig, Colleen Atwood and a magical army of other crew. Packed with exciting photos that reveal the filmmaking process in discerning detail, and officially licensed by Warner Bros. Consumer Products, this is the definitive adult companion book to the film, and perfect introduction to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.