Off-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Photographers


Neil van Niekerk - 2011
    Seeking to address the various challenges of off-camera lighting, professional photographers and advanced amateurs alike will find a range of confidence-building instruction, beginning with basic how’s and why’s of lighting for creative effect, the types of equipment available and instruction about their proper use, clear definitions of various technical concepts such as managing shutter speed and controlling flash exposure, using ambient light as well as natural sunlight during a shoot, and incorporating off-camera flash into a portrait session. Concluding this lesson plan is a look at five different real-life photo sessions, each employing a different flash technique. Here, photographers get a deeper understanding of each concept put into practice, marrying the elements of lighting with the natural elements presented by the shoot.

The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Landscapes


Gordon MacKenzie - 2006
    You choose whether to let the sun blaze or the rain pour, to move a maple tree here or make the trail wind over there, to subdue a hillside with quiet greens or make a forest glow with dazzling golds and reds. It's not only a matter of what to paint, but how to go about painting it.This book examines, one at a time, the three major elements of landscape painting: water, sky and land. You will be encouraged to try numerous ways of painting each one. Then you can choose the methods that best express how the outdoors speaks to you.Let this reliable collection of tips, techniques, ideas and lessons be your companion on a sure path to creative fulfillment and better watercolor landscapes.

The Zentangle Untangled Workbook: A Tangle-a-Day to Draw Your Stress Away


Kass Hall - 2013
    Now in The Zentangle Untangled Workbook, you'll get enough Zentangle instruction and inspiration to last all year long. Filled with dozens of new tiles and four never-before seen tangles designed especially for this book, you'll be using Zentangle in ways you never dreamed. Create shapes, letterforms, borders, even Zendalas as you master each new tangle, all while reducing stress through the intentional act of creating repetitive patterns. Perfect for artists of all levels, this workbook will immerse you in a daily meditation of Zentangle. Insides you'll find: Seven step-by-step demonstrations to help you get started. Inspiration and guidance on how to use those tangles to create unique and beautiful tiles throughout the year. More than 400 blank or partially started tiles so you can practice all year inside this book and without the fear of the blank page. It's time to tangle!

Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are


Danny Gregory - 2015
    For aspiring artists who want to draw and paint but just can't seem to find time in the day, Gregory offers 5– to 10–minute exercises for every skill level that fit into any schedule—whether on a plane, in a meeting, or at the breakfast table—along with practical instruction on techniques and materials, plus strategies for making work that's exciting, unintimidating, and fulfilling. Filled with Gregory's encouraging words and motivating illustrations, Art Before Breakfast teaches readers how to develop a creative habit and lead a richer life through making art.

Complete Starter Guide to Whittling: 24 Easy Projects You Can Make in a Weekend


Woodcarving Illustrated - 2014
    It’s so easy to get started in this relaxing and rewarding hobby. All you need is a knife, a twig, and this book!We’ve assembled a team of 12 leading woodcarvers to bring you a complete starter guide to whittling. They present 24 easy whittling projects that you can make in just a weekend, complete with step-by-step instructions, how-to photographs, ready-to-carve patterns, and helpful tips.Start off with fast and fun projects that build confidence and teach fundamental carving techniques, like a simple flying propeller or a 5-minute owl. Then move on to create whittled wonders like a musical frog or a slingshot. We show you how to whittle complex designs in easy steps, so that you’ll soon be carving attention-getting favorites like chain links or the classic ball-in-a-cage.

Your Artist's Brain: Use the Right Side of Your Brain to Draw and Paint What You See - Not What You Think You See


Carl Purcell - 2010
    Your Artist's Brain shows you how to portray even the most complex subjects by focusing on what you really see - not what you think you see.Expert art instructor Carl Purcell shows you how to overcome dependency on the intellectual brain and listen carefully to the more observant artist's brain.With Your Artist's Brain, you'll learn visual skills and artistic techniques that will instantly make you a better artist, no matter what your medium.- 22 step-by-step demonstrations on key relationships between shapes, spaces, subjects, backgrounds, angles, sizes, values and more - Easy examples and fun exercises teaching you how to see and design great compositions - Points to Remember sidebars that allow you to quickly grasp each conceptMaximize the power of your artist's brain today and embark on the path to creating better art.

Everyday Sketching and Drawing: Learn the Five-Step Technique to Illustrating Your Life


Steven B. Reddy - 2018
    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.

Pen and Ink Drawing: A Simple Guide


Alphonso Dunn - 2015
    It explores basic materials and instruments; fundamental properties of strokes and pen control; key elements of shading; and indispensable techniques for creating vibrant textures. As a bonus, a chapter is devoted to what the author refers to as, the secret Line of Balance. This book is not just written to instruct but also to intrigue and inspire enthusiasts of pen and ink drawing.

Creative Authenticity: 16 Principles to Clarify and Deepen Your Artistic Vision


Ian Roberts - 2004
    These crippling fears are laid to rest through insightful discussions of personal experiences, the struggles of famous artists, and the rewards of producing art that comes from an authentic creative core. Providing sensitive reassurances that these struggles are normal, these essays encourage artists to focus on the development of their crafts and find inspiration to work through self-doubt.

Horses of the Sun


Robert Vavra - 1995
    As in Vavra's most popular books, all are alone and running free in glorious natural settings: a white Arabian in a sun-washed desert; a black Friesian galloping in snowdrifts; a gray Andalusian amid violet flowers; a chestnut Arabian prancing in autumn leaves.These lush photographs are accompanied by poetry and are followed by text and drawing that profile each breed, highlighting the particularly outstanding traits of each horse depicted. Vavra pays special attention to the Andalusian, providing an essay on its romantic history. Presented on natural, handmade paper, Horses of the Sun fuses the beautiful simplicity of Vavra's earlier works with a new, fresh image of horses. For anyone who loves horses or simply appreciates the finest of photography, Horses of the Sun is a lovely gift -- a paean to this most beloved of animals.

Hand Lettering: Simple, Creative Styles for Cards, Scrapbooks More


Marci Donley - 2009
    They provide examples of a dozen alphabet styles, as well as many decorative details. Color photography reveals more than merely the necessary brush and pen techniques—it also shows a vast range of ideas for using calligraphy in new and surprising ways.

The Flower Chef: A Modern Guide to Do-It-Yourself Floral Arrangements


Carly Cylinder - 2015
    Even professionals will find ways to update their techniques! This book teaches you everything you need to know about flower arranging including tips on how to buy and care for flowers, how to cut and prepare them, and how to use floral foam, vases, and various other decorative elements in your arrangements. Filled with beautiful photographs and easy-to-follow instructions on how to create over 80 different arrangements, this is the go-to guide to floral design that every flower lover will want to add to their collection.

Art Through the Ages: A Concise History


Helen Gardner
    The story of art unfolds in its full historical, social, religious, economic, and cultural context, deepening students' understanding of art, architecture, painting, and sculpture. This Concise version features color photographs, a stunning design, and the most current research and scholarship. What's more, the ancillary package that accompanies GARDNER'S ART THROUGH THE AGES: A CONCISE HISTORY features a wealth of tools to enhance your students' experience in the course. With each new copy of the book, students receive a copy of the ArtStudy CD-ROM-an interactive electronic study aid that fully integrates with the text and includes hundreds of high-quality digital images, plus maps, quizzes, and more.

Sketchy Stories: The Sketchbook Art of Kerby Rosanes


Kerby Rosanes - 2016
    With a legion of over a million followers, Kerby has been a source of inspiration to artists, designers, and art-lovers all over the world with his stunning art and inspirational messages like "Never Quit Drawing" and "Be Awesome Today." Now fans can glimpse the personal sketchbook of Kerby Rosanes with Sketchy Stories, a beautiful facsimile reproduction of his original sketchbook, loaded with secret doodles, elaborate sketches, and whimsical lines and detailed patterns. Interspersed with his artwork, Kerby also includes techniques, tips, inspirations, influences, and more. The ideal gift for fans of Kerby Rosanes or anyone who is ready to be creatively inspired.

Digital Landscape Photography: A guide to better landscape photos


Kim Rormark - 2016
    As a landscape photographer you will find great subjects everywhere. Despite this, taking great landscape photos is more of a challenge. In fact landscape photography is one of the most difficult genres in photography to get right.This book discuss the basics and what you can do to improve as a landscape photographer. This is a beginners guide but intermediate landscape photographers will also find useful information in the book.Correct exposure and sharp images are the two biggest struggles for landscape photographers. The book covers both topics. Topics covered in the book:What to look for when buying a camera for landscape photographyLearn basic camera settings and understand exposureDifferent lenses and how focal length impact on your landscape imagesThe importance of light and time in landscape photographyHow to compose striking landscape photosHow to choose you image editing softwareImplement the tactics discussed in the book and you will immediately improve your landscape photography. Get started now!