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.

    

    Written by Misty Mawn, these pages will inspire anyone who wishes to open up more to the process of making art.  The book begins with art exercises in drawing and painting that include portraiture, contour drawing, backgrounds, layering, and working with a still life, followed by collage and image transfer techniques. The second section offers exercises and projects in stamp carving, paper pottery, sculpture, origami, paper doll making, and surface design. These tactile explorations offer an enjoyment of the process as well as wonderful handmade projects. The last section shares a variety of approaches to visual journaling. There are instructions for binding your own journal, prompts and ideas for working on your pages, and a variety of exercises using photography and poetry as ways to inspire and inform your journal keeping.  You'll also find a set of gift book plates and a beautiful paper doll designed by the author and printed on perforated cardstock in the back of the book.Tap into your inner creativity and explore new artistic processes with Unfurling!

    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

    Jenö Barcsay, a professor who taught applied anatomy at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts, offers a detailed portrayal of the body for the fine artist in 142 full-page plates. From the entire skeleton and the joints in and out of motion to all the muscles and even facial characteristics, every body part appears in close-up and from varying perspectives. Accompanying the images are brief discussions of male and female anatomical construction, explaining precisely the articulations and movement of the foot, the arm, the trunk, the spinal column, and the skull. In many cases, two sketches appear side by side: one just lightly traced in, and marked with letters to show how proportions and perspective were figured, and another fully finished drawing. Without the indispensable information contained on these illuminating pages, painters cannot observe with understanding all the attitudes, positions, and movements of which the body is capable—and produce a truly magnificent work of art. Features a new concealed spiral that keeps the book open as you work!

    This fun and creative book features 52 map-related activities set into weekly exercises, beginning with legends and lines, moving through types and styles, and then creating personalized maps that allow you to journey to new worlds. Authors Jill K. Berry and Linden McNeilly guide readers through useful concepts while exploring colorful, eye-catching graphics. The labs can be used as singular projects or to build up to a year of hands-on creative experiences. Map Art Lab is the perfect book for map lovers, creative/DIY-inspired, designers. Artists of all ages and experience levels can use this book to explore enjoyable and engaging exercises. Everyone loves maps. And what's not to love? They are beautiful and fascinating, they teach you things, they show you where you are, places you long to go, and places you dare to imagine.

    The author instructs in coil, slab, mold, and pinch techniques to produce pots, bowls, vases, tiles, and other decorative pieces. She also advises on acquiring basic tools, mixing and preparing clay, and using coloring agents. Newcomers to pottery crafting will especially appreciate her tips for making projects easier to accomplish, such as use of a hairdryer at regular intervals for drying out too-wet clay, and easy methods for keeping clay soft and pliable. Step-by-step color photos with detailed captions guide handcrafters through each project from start to finish. Many photos are of the cutaway type to show correct hand positions for controlling the clay, both inside and outside the form. Here's the book that takes the mystery out of handbuilding in clay, demonstrating each step in the pottery-making process. More than 400 color photos.

    Author JoAnneh Nagler wants you to welcome your creativity and continue to make art—but to do so with a plan. In this groundbreaking book, she provides step-by-step strategies to teach writers, sculptors, painters, musicians, designers, and other artists how tohave a well-supported, well-lived life—and make art at the same time.Learn how to:Answer your own artistic callings and get to your art workGive up starving and struggling and build a supported, creative daily lifeManage time, money, and day jobs with easy-to-learn, simple toolsDevelop rock-solid creative work ethics and motivational skillsNo matter what kind of creative person you are, this book has the tools you need to live the life you’ve always wanted to live—right now, and for your whole life long.

    Wilcox casts away theory and looks at how pigments really work -- so artists can mix their own colors and get the most out of those greenish blues and purplish reds.

    This profusely illustrated book teaches serious beginners the fundamental skills of graphic design as an introduction to their formal study in fine art, illustration, computer game design, interior design, animation, and virtually all other avenues in the visual arts. The author advises on setting up a proper workspace and assembling the needed materials--everything from sketchpads and paints to affordable computer software. Chapters that follow present themes and related projects that instruct readers in The basics of line art for illustration and lettering Understanding color and tone and using color media Texture in art Spatial relationships and perspective Creating shapes and relating them to other elements of composition More than 200 color illustrations demonstrate art principles and practical techniques, and show students how to apply what they are learning in a wide range of media.

    This inspiring and encouraging book for both novice and experienced painters teaches how to create colorful, exciting, expressive paintings through a variety of techniques, combining basic, practical painting principles with innovative personal self-expression.Flora S. Bowley's fun and forgiving approach to painting is based on the notion that “You don't begin with a preconceived painting in mind; you allow the painting to unfold.” Illustrating how to work in layers, Flora gives you the freedom to cover up, re-start, wipe away, and change courses many times along the way. Unexpected and unique compositions, color combinations, and subject matter appear as you allow your paintings to emerge in an organic, unplanned way while working from a place of curiosity and letting go of fear.—Learn techniques for working with vibrant color and avoiding mud.—Make rich and varied marks with a variety of unexpected tools.—Break compositional rules.—Embrace nonattachment as a way to keep exploring.—Keep momentum by moving your body and staying positive.—Work with what's working to let go of struggle.—Connect more deeply to the world around you to stay inspired.—Embrace layers to create rich complex paintings.—Find rhythm by spiraling between chaos and order.

    On this painterly journey, Tracy Verdugo leads you from self-doubt to self-appreciation by helping you find your voice through a myriad of vibrantly-hued mark making, painting and self-reflection techniques. There are no mistakes here, only opportunities to learn and grow.- Learn the language of your own sacred marks by painting with personal symbology. - Discover the inspiration that exists around you, in your home, your community, the present moment. - 19 step-by-step exercises use popular mixed media materials such as pastels, acrylic paints, inks and more! - See how to use art making to plant creative seeds and cultivate your wildest dreams. Turn on your Paint Mojo and make an awesome, shiny, perfectly imperfect mark of you.

    We want to feel like explorers, adventurers in undiscovered territory. And that's exactly what sketching can bring to the travel experience.An Illustrated Journey captures the world through the eyes of 40 talented artists, illustrators and designers. You'll experience the wonder of seeing familiar sights through a fresh lens but, more important, you'll be inspired to set pen to paper and capture your own vistas.The really wonderful thing about a sketchbook is that it can be totally private. You don't have to have an ounce of talent to enjoy learning how to really see what's in front of you. But lucky for us, the sketchbooks captured here are lovely, creative, intimate windows into each artist's mind.So, whether you're just returning to the art of drawing, abandoned by most of us after childhood, or you're looking for inspiration to take your illustration work in a new direction, An Illustrated Journey will take you on a wonderful trip of the imagination. All you need to pack are a pencil and a piece of paper.

    Packed with wonderfully entertaining and often outrageous speculations about the nature of art, truth, and value, the world-renowned art forger--who died mysteriously before this book was published--details secrets of his techniques.

    Devised by an award-winning botanical artist who teaches at the Eden Project, this course takes you from basic drawing techniques to advanced skills required for the analysis of complex forms in watercolour. Following the syllabus of the botanical illustration course at the acclaimed Eden Project in Cornwall, this book offers you the opportunity to perfect the many techniques used to produce beautiful and informative plant portraits.Full of practical information, and with easy-to-follow exercises, the book includes: Pencil Drawing; Shapes in Nature; Plant dissection and bisection; Perspective; Use of tonal contrast; Line drawing and pencil shading; Colour and pigment mixing; Application of watercolour; Highlights and shiny surfaces; Composition and arrangement.