The margins sometimes spill over with hurriedly scrawled shopping lists and phone numbers. The cover may be travel-worn and the pages warped from watercolors. Open the book, and raw creativity seeps from each color and line. The intimacy and freedom on its pages are almost like being inside the artist's mind: You get a direct window into risks, lessons, mistakes, and dreams.The private worlds of these visual journals are exactly what you'll find inside An Illustrated Life. This book offers a sneak peak into the wildly creative imaginations of 50 top illustrators, designers and artists. Included are sketchbook pages from R. Crumb, Chris Ware, James Jean, James Kochalka, and many others. In addition, author Danny Gregory has interviewed each artist and shares their thoughts on living the artistic life through journaling.Watch artists—through words and images—record the world they see and craft the world as they want it to be. The pages of An Illustrated Life are sometimes startling, sometimes endearing, but always inspiring. Whether you're an illustrator, designer, or simply someone searching for inspiration, these pages will open a whole new world to you.

    Simply apply paint with a soft rubber brayer, make your marks and pull your print. It's that simple! Wipe the plate down with a spritz of water and a paper towel, and you're ready to go again.In this premier guide, artist Joan Bess--inventor of the concept for the Gelli plate--unleashes the fun through more than 60 step-by-step techniques. Create intriguing patterns using tools like sponges, textured rollers and homemade combs. Learn how to incorporate stencils and rubber stamps. Experiment with metallic paint, dimensional paint and gel medium. Become a texture-hunter, creating a wide world of effects using embossed papers, natural objects, rubber bands, lace, corrugated cardboard, metal tape, die cut letters...anything goes!Even beginners can enjoy immediate gratification--just grab a textured surface, smoosh it into your painted Gelli plate, and you'll have a stack of amazing prints in no time. For experienced printmakers, the inspirations in these pages will push you to experiment, adapt, combine and layer. It's easy, fun and totally addicting!Printmaking just got easier!- Expert tips from the creator of the Gelli plate - 60+ awesome step-by-step techniques - Ideas for incorporating stamps and stencils, using ghost prints, salvaging uninspired prints, and more - 26-page gallery shows the many wonderful ways artists are incorporating Gelli printing into their work

    Over 100 illustrations spotlight dozens of different varieties, including Oak, Willow, Pine, and Palmetto. Topics include shading techniques, composition, portraying shadow and light, and approaches to outlining.Author and illustrator Victor Perard, a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was an art instructor at New York City's Cooper Union for twenty years. This informative volume reflects his extensive teaching experience and provides practical advice for artists at every level.

    Popular stone artist F. Sehnaz Bac, a seasoned archaeologist who markets her painted Sassi dell’Adriatico (Stones of the Adriatic) on Etsy, presents step-by-step instructions for creating 30 fantastic designs. Full-color photographs accompany directions for painting themes that range from trees, flowers, and animals to mandalas, geometric patterns, holiday motifs, and more.Starting with the basics — including finding and choosing stones as well as tools and materials — the guide offers a variety of techniques, including painting stones with colors or inks, painting on natural stone, and sealing the finished work. Projects range from simple to advanced and include suggestions for indoor and outdoor display, as well as instructions on how to style wearable objects such as pendants. A complete selection of templates provides motifs for every project as well as ample inspiration for developing your own designs."The instructions are clear and engaging, while the photos are lovely and inspiring. Rock painting has become a really fun family activity for us all." — Sharing Craft Ideas"This is brilliant, fun, and truly inspirational! Highly recommend it." — splashesintobooks

    In 1989, when Dr. Betty Edwards revised the book, it went straight to the Times list again. Now Dr. Edwards celebrates the twentieth anniversary of her classic book with a second revised edition.Over the last decade, Dr. Edwards has refined her material through teaching hundreds of workshops and seminars. Truly The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, this edition includes:the very latest developments in brain researchnew material on using drawing techniques in the corporate world and in educationinstruction on self-expression through drawingan updated section on using colordetailed information on using the five basic skills of drawing for problem solving

    For those who have always wanted to or tried and failed to learn to draw it provides simple step-by-step instruction, plus easy-to-follow practice exercises, and provides the motivation and inspiration readers need to be successful. For those who already draw, Everyday Sketching and Drawing offers another technique to add to their drawing arsenal.Why do so many adults come to view drawing as difficult or fraught with anxiety? Traditional art instruction is often bogged down with jargon, rules, and admonishments that unintentionally stifle the joy of drawing for its own sake.Steven Reddy's new and easy approach to drawing instructs sketchers to document their unique and compelling lives in realistic yet playful sketches that record the places, spaces, and objects that help define them as individuals. He reminds artists to slow down, notice, and attend to the sketch-worthy scenes and subjects that are unstaged and always there in our everyday lives. He offers a versatile technique that can lead to a skill that fills sketchbooks with the visual details that differentiate one life from another. This approach is a meditative, relaxing alternative to academic concerns about perspective, proportion, and accuracy. Reddy encourages artists to capture in whimsical but detail-specific illustrations their unique, subjective interpretation of their visual surroundings.Steven Reddy's drawing method produces extremely detailed and realistic scenes of objects and scenes in everyday life in a relatively short period of time (60 minutes to 3 hours or more, depending on the sketcher's preference). Modifying a technique utilized by Old Master oil painters, the drawings pass through 5 clearly articulated stages where each step focuses on one visual concept at a time.

    Author and mixed-media artist Pam Carriker proves that art and life can coexist peacefully, productively, and happily. Making things every day can be a joyful reality instead of just wishful thinking.Each chapter in Art at the Speed of Life includes both essays and project ideas from a variety of contributors, including Suzi Blu, Lisa Bebi, Christy Hydeck, Paulette Insall, Cate Calacous Prato. The projects are inspiring, yet easy to complete on a tight schedule, and include techniques such as assemblage, image transfer, and collage. A bonus seven-day journal project helps you track your work as you go. With a unique combination of time management tips and advice, inspiring essays, and projects designed to fit into busy schedules, Art at the Speed of Life will help you live your dream of making art every day.

    Following the huge success of her previous book, Experimental Flowers in Watercolour, she now explores ways to interpret landscape. Packed with stunning examples of her colourful, expressive work, this book encourages you to experiment with the same techniques in your own watercolour painting to develop a personal style. Techniques covered include combining water-based paint and ink with other media such as gesso and collage to create dramatic effects; manipulating paint with materials such as plastic wrap (clingfilm); tearing, layering and reassembling paintings into watercolour collages; and developing textures and marks made using fabrics and other found objects. Throughout the book Ann offers her personal commentary on how her paintings were created, giving us a unique insight into the mind of the artist.Both practical and inspirational, this glorious book is the ideal companion for watercolour painters who want to take their work a step further.

    This volume highlights the research and findings of this natural scientist. Powerful modern microscopes have confirmed the accuracy of Haeckel's prints, which even in their day, became world famous. Haeckel's portfolio, first published between 1899 and 1904 in separate installments, is described in the opening essays. The plates illustrate Haeckel's fundamental monistic notion of the -unity of all living things- and the wide variety of forms are executed with utmost delicacy. Incipient microscopic organisms are juxtaposed with highly developed plants and animals. The pages, ordered according to geometric and -constructive- aspects, document the oness of the world in its most diversified forms. This collection of plates was not only well-received by scientists, but by artists and architects as well. Rene Binet, a pioneer of glass and iron constructions, Emile Galle, a renowned Art Nouveau designer, and the photographer Karl Blossfeld all make explicit reference to Haeckel in their work.

    Improve your drawing skills, expand your creativity, and learn new art techniques—and have loads of fun doing it!—with Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals.

    Unlike the typical watercolor textbooks, this unique, beautiful volume is a field book of inspiration, creative ideas, how to's, and projects, all from an artist's perspective. Each creative exercise features a technique, shows step-by-step photographs, and includes a clever idea for a gift or project that can be made from the painted samples.

    In this captivating guided journal, readers are encouraged to explore their world as both artists and scientists. The mission Smith proposes? To document and observe the world around you. As if you've never seen it before. Take notes. Collect things you find on your travels. Document findings. Notice patterns. Copy. Trace. Focus on one thing at a time. Record what you are drawn to. With a series of interactive prompts and a beautifully hand-illustrated two-color package, readers will enjoy exploring and discovering the world through this gorgeous book.

    Using the theme of "home," each artist designed five altered art rooms to complete an individual 9"x12" 'house' that closes like a book or can stand accordion style. Each house is a part of a larger whole; a neighborhood of twelve unique and fascinating art-full houses, varying in execution, theme, and style, yet united as part of the larger neighborhood. Each "house" is a unique interpretation on the theme, reflecting the artist's style and incorporating the mixed media techniques for which each artist is most well known. The thirteen artists have created an inspiring collage technique workbook for readers. The back of the book includes a blank "house" template and a clip-art gallery of home-themed imagery that readers can alter and use in their own collage work.

    From screen printing to collagraphy to sun printing, the techniques are shown with step-by-step photographs and can be done without printing presses or special papers. A variety of projects are included to demonstrate a wide range of possible creations, such as fabric-arts books, hand-printed calendars, wall-art collages, aprons, holiday books, greeting cards, and more. For further inspiration beyond the projects, a gallery of completed works by the author and other artists make up the final portion of this resource.

    The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery is the only book currently on the market that provides fascinating tips and creative ideas solely focused on this new form of art. An in-depth discussion manipulation techniques is supplied, making this an essential handbook for all artists and crafters looking for creative ways to alter and enhance various types of imagery in new and traditional ways, and then to integrate this altered art into their work.