Grab your mess kit - we're starting a Journal Revolution.Overthrow your inner critic's tyranny of fear and rules, and discover fresh techniques and inspiration to rant, whisper, beg, stomp or sing your truths. Celebrate your rough edges with a revolutionary new approach to art journaling, as you learn to vividly express your uncensored emotions and boldly record your deepest secrets.Each chapter pulses with honest humor, art and writing guidance, and easy ways to create vibrant, edgy art. Once you've been through basic training, you'll practice these Tactical Maneuvers with dynamic projects such as Feel The Beat: Your Life Soundtrack personalized CD covers, retro-looking Fauxlaroid pictures worth a thousand words, and framed canvas Writings on the Wall. Along the way, Sound Off! exercises help you trek confidently into new territory.Featuring a bonus gallery of art by Rosie O'Donnell and members of the Art Army, Journal Revolution will have you marching to the beat of your most creative drummer, knowing that everything in your life really is part of "the journal."

    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.

    This book emphasizes a simplified understanding of surface anatomy, in order to clarify the mechanics of the figure, facilitate invention, and ultimately create a skill-set that can be successfully applied to other media. In addition, this book focuses very strongly on practical usage, making sure the artist is able to assimilate the steps presented here into a cohesive working process. (Fourth printing, September 2011)

    Although most books we use are produced commercially, many of us are drawn to the book form in its various guises, and are interested in exploring how to make books of our own, whether as a vehicle for telling stories, as scrapbooks, or as notebooks and journals.This guide provides the essential ingredients for designing and making your own books, from simple binding and finishing techniques to complex complete products. Projects are designed to suit a variety of skill levels from beginner to advanced, and use a step-by-step approach to learning the necessary skills.Each project begins with basic techniques and progresses through to thought-provoking applications of those techniques. Each technique includes an example of a finished book that fully and beautifully utilizes the methods described by the techniques.This book explores more experimental binding and page treatment techniques, and has a comprehensive gallery of ideas outlining the skills and materials needed to apply techniques often reserved for professionals.

    This art instruction book will accompany the acclaimed Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist.James Gurney, New York Times best-selling author and artist of the Dinotopia series, follows Imaginative Realism with his second art-instruction book, Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter. A researched study on two of art's most fundamental themes, Color and Light bridges the gap between abstract theory and practical knowledge. Beginning with a survey of underappreciated masters who perfected the use of color and light, the book examines how light reveals form, the properties of color and pigments, and the wide variety of atmospheric effects. Gurney cuts though the confusing and contradictory dogma about color, testing it in the light of science and observation. A glossary, pigment index, and bibliography complete what will ultimately become an indispensable tool for any artist.This book is the second in a series based on his blog, gurneyjourney.com. His first in the series, Imaginative Realism, was widely acclaimed in the fantastical art world, and was ranked the #1 Bestseller on the Amazon list for art instruction."James Gurney's new book, Color and Light, cleverly bridges the gap between artistic observation and scientific explanation. Not only does he eloquently describe all the effects of color and light an artist might encounter, but he thrills us with his striking paintings in the process." --Armand Cabrera, Artist

    Its simply larger, better illustrated, and more in depth than any similar title on the market. In elaborate detail, it focuses on superheroes and their atmospheric world filled with speed and movement. Every aspect of creating cartoons is taught: the supplies, developing mood, and the techniques that endow characters with personality. See how to draw a variety of faces (female, heroic, cute, gaunt), and give the appearance of age. From the skeleton to the torso, to the arms, hands, and legs, follow every stroke that goes into producing bodies of all shapes and sizes. Finally, theres instruction on sending those figures into running, jumping, punching, kicking action in a fully realized scene. With advice so thorough, any amateur can become a pro.

    A member of the prestigious Magnum agency since 1954, he has photographed all over the world and his images have been the subject of many books and exhibitions.Containing over 500 pictures, over half of which have never been published before, Elliott Erwitt Snaps is a unique and comprehensive survey of his work. From famous images such as Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon arguing in Moscow in 1959 and Marilyn Monroe with the cast of the movie The Misfits, to his many more personal images of places, things, people and animals, Erwitt's unmistakable, often witty, style gives us a snapshot of the famous and the ordinary, the strange and the mundane over a period of more than half a century, through the lens of one of the period's finest image-makers.The book is arranged in nine chapters, each with a one-word title: Look, Move, Play, Read, Rest, Touch, Tell, Point, Stand. For Erwitt, whose photography is a study and celebration of life, these are the basic actions of life - the things people do. The photographs are not intended to illustrate the words, but the words act as a means of grouping and organizing, making broad connections and also playing with pun and ambiguity, in keeping with the visual games Erwitt plays.

    This collection presents fifty large-scale artworks from the American master's color field period (1949–1970) alongside essays by Rothko's son, Christopher Rothko, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator of painting and sculpture Janet Bishop. Featuring illuminating details about Rothko's life, influences, and legacy, and brimming with the emotional power and expressive color of his groundbreaking canvases, this essential volume brings the renowned artist's luminous work to light for both longtime Rothko fans and those discovering his work for the very first time. A textured case and large-scale tip-on on the front cover round out this sumptious package.

    Each one is unique; you can't paint one wrong! Painted Blossoms will encourage you to welcome creativity with ease as you discover ways to tend the garden within. In addition to watching yourself grow through seven different stepped-out flower projects, you'll learn basic design elements, how to get unstuck from the mud, how to carve your own stamps, cut your own stencils and more.A sampling of what you'll add to your creative toolshed:Techniques for creating a wide variety of flower shapesThe know-how to incorporate key design elements into your floral paintingsHow to absorb inspiration beyond the garden to include your favorite symbols, intentions and storiesTips and advice from over a dozen established artists--each with a unique floral styleNurture today what's waiting to bloom within you with Painted Blossoms!

    These methods are so easy that anyone--from doodler to advanced artist--can master them in minutes! Step by step, you'll learn how to capture the look of metal, glass, weathered wood, skin, hair and other textures. Two detailed start-to-finish demonstrations show you how to use these textures to create drawings that look so real they seem to leap right off the page.

    With styles ranging from cute to elegant and sweet to sophisticated, these mixed-media projects will transport your art from the studio to the runway!Collage Couture features:- 22 super-pretty projects, from collages on canvas to framed shadowbox art to gifts for your fashionista. Play with your materials--paper, paints, ink and markets--to create pieces you'll be happy to display and share. - Illustrations and easy instruction for creating fashion sketches and silhouettes. And don't forget the details: learn how to add eyes, lips, hair and, of course, clothing! - Tips and advice on setting the mood in your studio, from enhancing your art space with flowers and china to wearing a tiara as your work! Why not feel as pretty as your art?Indulge your inner girly-girl with Collage Couture!

    These journals are filled with not just attractive, well-composed pages, but pages that are filled with personal, meaningful content.True Visions is focused on ways to bring authenticity and meaning into one's art journaling. The book will examine themes and topics common to all while offering activities and exercises to create rich meaningful content. Each chapter will highlight familiar subject areas such as life events, spirituality, childhood, and even an artist's favorite writings. Within each topic, readers are given guided activities and exercises for developing content, provided one or two artistic techniques, and are shown inspiring examples of work by a variety of talented art journal artists.

    Artists will begin with some warm-up exercises and basic drawing instruction. From there, they'll embark on creating projects with doodles that get progressively more advanced through the book, starting with a gift tag and ending with elaborate doodling projects on wood and fabric. Sprinkled between projects are fun prompts and exercises designed to spark creativity, as well as beautifully designed practice pages to hone drawing and doodling skills. From cover to cover, this whimsical book is packed to the brim with ideas, while an elastic band keeps the book securly closed when not in use.

    But what about the elements that make up a picture? Using the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as an example, Molly Bang uses boldly graphic artwork to explain how images -- and their individual components -- work to tell a story that engages the emotions: Why are diagonals dramatic? Why are curves calming? Why does red feel hot and blue feel cold?

    'Visual Chronicles' provides a no-fear guide to expressing one's deepest self with art & words.