The Ultimate Brush Lettering Guide: A Complete Step-By-Step Creative Workbook to Jump-Start Modern Calligraphy Skills


Peggy Dean - 2018
    From choosing the best pens and paper and knowing the different styles of lettering, to adding color to your finished pieces--this book covers it all. The book includes templates for labels, cards, handmade bunting, and word collages. It even includes a how to guide for posting your best work on social media. Each lesson builds on itself, unlocking endless opportunities inside the playful art of brush lettering. As a self-taught artist who left her day job to pursue a creative life, Peggy Dean is the ideal teacher for artists and non-artists alike.

I Just Like to Make Things: Learn the Secrets to Making Money while Staying Passionate about your Art and Craft


Lilla Rogers - 2013
    These pages are grounded in the wisdom and experience gleaned from a long and buzzing career as creative juggernaut Lilla Rogers shares her analysis of leveraging various working styles and ways to keep your art fresh. Artist interviews provide inside details about the best jobs, as well as tips on how to work smart and stay creative. You’ll also find annotated case studies of several successful art jobs, in addition to coloring book pages, hand-drawn charts, and lots of crazy fun.Acquire real-life, professional advice from an artist known for setting the trend with I Just Like to Make Things!

Drawn to Stitch: Line, Drawing, and Mark-Making in Textile Art


Gwen Hedley - 2010
    When used effectively, line and mark-making convey texture, tone, form, movement, and mood. With Drawn to Stitch by your side, learn creative uses of line in embroidery and textile art.Artist and teacher Gwen Hedley shares a series of exercises designed to explore line’s potential as well as develop your creativity. Drawn to Stitch also covers line and mark-making tools, materials, and processes, including printing and mixed-media techniques. Gwen explores stitch, explaining how to interpret different line qualities from crisp and sharp to soft and diffused and from raised and overlaid to recessed and inlaid.Full of inspiring ideas, Drawn to Stitch is illustrated with stunning examples of stitched-textile work from leading artists.

The Sketchbook Challenge: Techniques, Prompts, and Inspiration for Achieving Your Creative Goals


Sue Bleiweiss - 2012
    Imagine a supportive community of artists sharing the innermost pages of their sketchbooks and offering you tips and techniques for overcoming creative blocks. That's what The Sketchbook Challenge is all about, and the popular blog of the same name has already inspired thousands. Inside this book, you'll find:   · Themes that will motivate you to start your sketchbook—and, more important, keep at it · Tutorials spotlighting such mixed-media techniques as thread sketching, painted papers for collage, digital printing, and much more · Strategies to get off the sketchbook page and start creating inspired art—whether you're into painting, collage, fiber art, or beyond. · In-depth profiles of artists who have taken the Sketchbook Challenge and used it as a launching pad for their own meaningful artwork

The Practice and Science of Drawing


Harold Speed - 1900
    One of these principles is what Harold Speed calls "dither," the freedom that allows realism and the artistic vision to play against each other. Very important to any artist or work of art, this quality separates the scientifically accurate from the artistically accurate. Speed's approach to this problem is now considered a classic, one of the few books from the early years of this century that has continued to be read and recommended by those in the graphic arts.In this work, Harold Speed approaches this dynamic aspect of drawing and painting from many different points of view. He plays the historical against the scientific, theory against precise artistic definition. He begins with a study of line drawing and mass drawing, the two basic approaches the artist needs to learn. Further sections carry the artistic vision through unity and variety of line and mass, balance, proportion, portrait drawing, the visual memory, materials, and procedures. Throughout, Speed combines historical backgrounds, dynamic aspects which each technique brings to a work of art, and specific exercises through which the young draughtsman may begin his training. Although not a technique book in the strict sense of the terms, The Practice and Science of Drawing brings to the beginner a clear statement of the principles that he will have to develop and their importance in creating a work of art. Ninety-three plates and diagrams, masterfully selected, reinforce Speed's always clear presentation.Harold Speed, master of the art of drawing and brilliant teacher, has long been cited for this important work. For the beginner, Speed will develop a sense for the many different aspects which go into an artistic education. For the person who enjoys looking at drawings and paintings, Speed will aid developing the ability to see a work of art as the artist meant it to be seen.

How to See, How to Draw: Keys to Realistic Drawing


Claudia Nice - 2010
    With Claudia's help, you can do it! In How to See, How to Draw, you will discover how to tap into your powers of observation, strengthen your hand-eye connection, and draw the world around you with new skill and accuracy. Just take it one step at a time.Claudia is an expert teacher, breaking down complex compositions into a series of achievable shapes and values that even beginners will understand. Through dozens of mini demonstrations, fun-to-do exercises and complete step-by-step instruction, you'll learn everything from basic drawing techniques to more challenging methods for rendering wonderfully rich, in-depth compositions.Her visual instruction details how to:Use a variety of drawing tools to suit your style and artistic intentLearn to let go of preconceived ideas so you can observe lines, shapes and spatial relationships as they actually areCreate strong compositions through comparison and proportional controlFind, fix and avoid common mistakes by using simple grids and guide linesUnderstand and work with perspective to create the illusion of depthReveal form through light and shadowExplore the potential of texture to create mood and movementClaudia's drawings illuminate a range of subjects, including portraits, landscapes, animals and still life. You can practice using her reference photos and drawings, or you can apply her exercises to your own subjects.Start today, Claudia's way! Following her masterful guidance, you'll see the world through new eyes and draw better than you ever have before.

Stray Sock Sewing: Making One of a Kind Creatures from Socks


Dan Ta - 2008
    Readers will learn how to make odd and endearing one-of-a-kind creatures from a variety of sock styles. Softcover F&W Media Inc

Kaleidoscope: Ideas & Projects to Spark Your Creativity


Suzanne Simanaitis - 2007
    Indulge your creative cravings Are you passionately curious? Let "Kaleidoscope" open new doors of creativity as you explore dozens of stories, exercises and instructive projects, all designed to feed, encourage and sometimes flex your creative muscle.Between the beautiful pages of "Kaleidoscope," you'll tap into the joy of drawing, be encouraged to create art in bed, create your own folded-paper shrine, discover the liberation of stream-writing, practice idea brainstorming, make your own duct-tape purse, learn to quiet the negative voice in your head, dream up your own creative studio space and much, much more.Inspiring art and eye-candy on every page - a "Kaleidoscope" of creative energy awaits you today.

The Tao of Watercolor: A Revolutionary Approach to the Practice of Painting


Jeanne Carbonetti - 1998
    100 color illustrations.

Composition: Understanding Line, Notan and Color


Arthur Wesley Dow - 1997
    A thought-provoking examination of the nature of visual representation, it remains ever-relevant to all the visual arts.A well-known painter and printmaker, Dow taught for many years at Columbia University and acted as a mentor to countless young artists, including Georgia O'Keeffe. His text, presented in a workbook format, offers teachers and students a systematic approach to composition. It explores the creation of freely constructed images based on harmonic relations between lines, colors, and dark and light patterns. The author draws upon the traditions of Japanese art to discuss a theory of "flat" formal equilibrium as an essential component of pictorial creation. Practical and well-illustrated, this classic guide offers valuable insights into modern design.

Art Starts with a Line: A creative and interactive guide to the art of line drawing


Erin McManness - 2018
    Art Starts with a Line is approachable for artists of any skill level, no prior drawing experience needed! This form of art requires minimal tools, making it both affordable and portable.   Following a brief introduction to tools and materials, as well as some easy exercises and techniques for warming up to basic drawing tools, you will explore a variety of subject matter. You'll draw plants and flowers, architecture and cityscapes, animals, and everything in between. These projects aren't restricted to black and white either! You'll find techniques for adding color with colored pencil, marker, pen, even digitally.  Art Starts with a Line presents everything you'll need to know to learn how to successfully create line drawings of all types. Whether your goal is to create a custom logo for a client, or to simply decorate your planner, it's all here.

ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer


Shoshana Berger - 2005
    As the stuff of life piles up and things spin out of control, we could all use a little help. These never-before-seen designs and how-tos are full of surprise and wonder. Learn how to turn everyday objects into spellbinding inventions to give away to friends or keep for yourself. Our simple self-improvement techniques will make you smarter, better-looking, and more well-adjusted. (RE) MAKE IT!This is the “sales copy” section. Here we will talk about how useful, delight-inducing, and excellently well put together this book is. If things have gone a little flat and you’re searching for inspiration, look no further. ReadyMade is full of fun projects for the whole family. It solves problems, cures dizzy spells, and holds open the door. It has a collegial, ’50s garage tinkerer sensibility. It read Popular Science as a kid and dreamt of building rockets. It launches with fiery trails. It soars. When it falls, it brushes itself off and starts over. It is the Captain of Creativity. Resistance is futile. This book is 100% hope.First project: Personalize this book and protect it from theft by cutting out this portion of the cover and replacing it with your own photo. (See page 16)

The Artist in the Office: How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week


Summer Pierre - 2010
    Based on the hit handmade 'zine, The Artist in the Office is an inspirational, interactive book for any artist living in the real world. It encourages small acts of creativity and a simple shift of perspective to help readers bring their artistic selves into the workplace and thrive in all aspects of their lives. Readers are prompted to undertake a wide range of liberating activities, from the mundane to the sublime, that won't put their 9-to- 5 job at risk, including: •Take lunchtime adventures to rouse your spirit: a bookstore, a flower shop, or a park •Pick one ordinary object each day and take pictures every time you see it: coffee mugs, shoes, office plants •Get up an hour early or stay up an hour later and devote the time to your creative work. Schedule it in like any other mandatory appointment or meeting •Collect doodles from Post-Its or notebooks and reassemble them in a sketchbook

Learning to Weave, Revised Edition


Deborah Chandler - 1995
    ""Learning to Weave" is a four-shaft weaving course which makes learning to weave, with or without a teacher, easy and fun."

Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt


Megan Nicolay - 2006
    This inspirational guide with DIY attitude has everything you need to know about the world’s great T-shirt: how to cut it, sew it, deconstruct it, reconstruct it, and best of all, transform it. • Features more than 100 projects (plus 200 variations) for customized tees, tank tops, tube tops, T-skirts—even handbags, a patchwork blanket, iPod cozies, leg warmers, and more. • Not a DIY expert? Not to worry. More than one third of the projects are no sew, meaning anyone who can wield a pair of scissors can put a personal stamp on her wardrobe. But the sewing basics are here too: backstitch and whipstitch, gather and ruche, appliqué and drawstrings. • And the mission statement for Generation T: Ask not what your T-shirt can do for you; ask what you can do for your T-shirt. And then Do-It-Yourself!