Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective, and Depth


Gilles Beloeil - 2013
    Art Fundamentals addresses key basic subjects such as color and light, composition, perspective and depth, anatomy, and portraying emotions in a series of insightful chapters. Find out about color relationships and how to choose colors that work well together. Learn about the Rule of Thirds, Rule of Odds, Golden Triangle, and Divine Proportions, all of which are key when it comes to creating a realistic and dynamic composition. Discover the power of storytelling in an image and how the slightest tilt of an eyebrow can transform happiness into anger.Written by some of the most experienced artists in the games and film industries, including Gilles Beloeil (Assassin's Creed series) and Andrei Riabovitchev (Prometheus and X-Men: First Class), this title gives newcomers the tools they need to get them started on their artistic journey and offers veterans a chance to brush up on their theory.Gilles Beloeil is a senior concept artist and matte painter at Ubisoft Montreal who has spent the last several years working on titles in the best-selling Assassin's Creed video game series.Andrei Riabovitchev works for MPC in the United Kingdom as a concept artist and has an impressive résumé that includes Prometheus, X-Men: First Class, and Snow White and the Huntsman.

The Watercolor Artist's Bible


Marylin Scott - 2005
    The stylish design of this book, along with the interior photographs, illustrations and diagrams, make the learning process simple and fun for beginning painters and provides useful tips for more advanced artists.This book is divided into three sections. In the first section, you will find practical advice on choosing the necessary tools and equiopment as well as hints on mixing colorsâ?¬â?one of the trickier skills to master until you have learned some of the basic properties of color. Next, the techniques used in watercolor painting are explained in detail, from the most basic like laying washes and reserving highlights to some of the more unusual and exciting methods like wax-resist or spattering paint.Tutorials and more than 100 step-by-step sequences demonstrate how to paint a wide range of subjects, including landscapes, buildings, people and still life. Over 180,000 copies sold worldwide.

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School


Matthew Frederick - 2006
    It is also a book they may want to keep out of view of their professors, for it expresses in clear and simple language things that tend to be murky and abstruse in the classroom. These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentation--from the basics of "How to Draw a Line" to the complexities of color theory--provide a much-needed primer in architectural literacy, making concrete what too often is left nebulous or open-ended in the architecture curriculum. Each lesson utilizes a two-page format, with a brief explanation and an illustration that can range from diagrammatic to whimsical. The lesson on "How to Draw a Line" is illustrated by examples of good and bad lines; a lesson on the dangers of awkward floor level changes shows the television actor Dick Van Dyke in the midst of a pratfall; a discussion of the proportional differences between traditional and modern buildings features a drawing of a building split neatly in half between the two. Written by an architect and instructor who remembers well the fog of his own student days, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School provides valuable guideposts for navigating the design studio and other classes in the architecture curriculum. Architecture graduates--from young designers to experienced practitioners--will turn to the book as well, for inspiration and a guide back to basics when solving a complex design problem.

How Art Can Make You Happy


Bridget Watson Payne - 2017
    This easy, breezy handbook is full of insight that will help regular people begin a more inspiring and less stressful relationship with art. With tips on how to visit museums, how to talk about art at cocktail parties, and how to let art wake you up to the world around you, this little guide makes it possible for anyone to fall in love with art, whether for the first time or all over again.

Meggs' History of Graphic Design


Philip B. Meggs - 1983
    Under the new authorial leadership of Alston Purvis, this authoritative book offers more than 450 new images, along with expansive coverage of such topics as Italian, Russian, and Dutch design. It reveals a saga of creative innovators, breakthrough technologies, and important design innovations.

Anatomy for Fantasy Artists: An Illustrator's Guide to Creating Action Figures and Fantastical Forms


Glenn Fabry - 2005
    The author, a highly successful fantasy artist, teaches the basics of human anatomical drawing and musculature, as well as perspective and composition. He then instructs on ways to distort, develop, and transform the human figure, giving it features that range from monstrous or magical to super-agile or larger than life. Detailed artist�1/2s references and step-by-step instructions show how to build bodies that truly stretch the imagination�1/2mighty alien warriors, kick-boxing cyber-punks, and mega-muscled superheroes, to name just a few. Art students also learn how to show their characters in many different dynamic action poses, such as flying, spinning, punching, and jumping, as well as how to express each character�1/2s emotions through facial expressions. More than 300 color illustrations.

Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art


Mary Gabriel - 2018
    Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting -- not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come. Gutsy and indomitable, Lee Krasner was a hell-raising leader among artists long before she became part of the modern art world's first celebrity couple by marrying Jackson Pollock. Elaine de Kooning, whose brilliant mind and peerless charm made her the emotional center of the New York School, used her work and words to build a bridge between the avant-garde and a public that scorned abstract art as a hoax. Grace Hartigan fearlessly abandoned life as a New Jersey housewife and mother to achieve stardom as one of the boldest painters of her generation. Joan Mitchell, whose notoriously tough exterior shielded a vulnerable artist within, escaped a privileged but emotionally damaging Chicago childhood to translate her fierce vision into magnificent canvases. And Helen Frankenthaler, the beautiful daughter of a prominent New York family, chose the difficult path of the creative life. Her gamble paid off: At twenty-three she created a work so original it launched a new school of painting. These women changed American art and society, tearing up the prevailing social code and replacing it with a doctrine of liberation. In Ninth Street Women, acclaimed author Mary Gabriel tells a remarkable and inspiring story of the power of art and artists in shaping not just postwar America but the future.

Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form


Eliot Goldfinger - 2004
    Designed for painters, sculptors, and illustrators who use animal imagery in their work, Animal Anatomy for Artists offers thorough, in-depth information about the most commonly depicted animals, presented in a logical and easily understood format for artists--whether beginner or accomplished professional. The book focuses on the forms created by muscles and bones, giving artists a crucial three-dimensional understanding of the final, complex outer surface of the animal. Goldfinger not only covers the anatomy of the more common animals, such as the horse, dog, cat, cow, pig, squirrel, and rabbit, but also the anatomy of numerous wild species, including the lion, giraffe, deer, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, gorilla, sea lion, and bear. Included are drawings of skeletons and how they move at the joints, individual muscles showing their attachments on the skeleton, muscles of the entire animal, cross sections, photographs of live animals, and silhouettes of related animals comparing their shapes and proportions. He offers a new and innovative section on the basic body plan of four-legged animals, giving the reader a crucial conceptual understanding of overall animal structure to which the details of individual animals can then be applied. The chapter on birds covers the skeleton, muscles and feather patterns. The appendix presents photographs of skulls with magnificent horns and antlers and a section on major surface veins. Incredibly thorough, packed with essential information, Animal Anatomy for Artists is a definitive reference work, an essential book for everyone who depicts animals in their art.

Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings


Yoko Ono - 1970
    Back in print for the first time in nearly thirty years, here is Yoko Ono's whimsical, delightful, subversive, startling book of instructions for art and for life."A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality.""Burn this book after you've read it." -- Yoko Ono"This is the greatest book I've ever burned." -- John Lennon

Cartoon Animation


Preston Blair - 1980
    By following his lessons, you can make any character—person, animal, or object—come to life through animated movement!Animation is the process of drawing and photographing a character in successive positions to create lifelike movement. Animators bring life to their drawings, making the viewer believe that the drawings actually think and have feelings. Cartoon Animation was written by an animator to help you learn how to animate. The pioneers of the art of animation learned many lessons, most through trial and error, and it is this body of knowledge that has established the fundamentals of animation. This book will teach you these fundamentals. Animators must first know how to draw; good drawing is the cornerstone of their success. The animation process, however, involves much more than just good drawing. This book teaches all the other knowledge and skills animators must have. In chapter one, Preston Blair shows how to construct original cartoon characters, developing a character’s shape, personality, features, and mannerisms. The second chapter explains how to create movements such as running, walking, dancing, posing, skipping, strutting, and more. Chapter three discusses the finer points of animating a character, including creating key character poses and in-betweens. Chapter four is all about dialogue, how to create realistic mouth and body movements, and facial expressions while the character is speaking. There are helpful diagrams in this chapter that show mouth positions, along with a thorough explanation of how sounds are made using the throat, tongue, teeth, and lips. Finally, the fifth chapter has clear explanations of a variety of technical topics, including tinting and spacing patterns, background layout drawings, the cartoon storyboard, and the synchronization of camera, background, characters, sound, and music. Full of expert advice from Preston Blair, as well as helpful drawings and diagrams, Cartoon Animation is a book no animation enthusiast should be without.

Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to 'In Search of Lost Time'


Eric Karpeles - 2008
    Not only are there frequent references to specific works of art, but certain characters are also evoked by comparison to particular paintings. Bloch’s appearance as a boy is likened to the portrait of Mehmet II by Gentile Bellini; Odette de Crécy strikes Swann by her resemblance to a figure in a Botticelli fresco. Even the lesser figure of a certain Mme. Blattin becomes the subject of Proustian mischief by being described as “exactly the portrait of Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo.” Eric Karpeles has identified and located the many paintings to which Proust makes reference and sets them alongside the relevant text from the novel; in other cases, where only a painter’s name is mentioned to indicate a certain style or appearance, Karpeles has chosen a representative work to illustrate the impression that Proust sought to evoke.With some 200 paintings beautifully reproduced in full color and texts drawn from the Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright translation, as well as concise commentaries on the evolving narrative, this book is an essential addition to the libraries of Proustians everywhere. The book also includes an authoritative introduction and a comprehensive index of artists and paintings mentioned in the novel.

The Power of Myth


Joseph Campbell - 1988
    A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people. To him, mythology was the "song of the universe, the music of the spheres." With Bill Moyers, one of America's most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power Of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit.

An Outline of European Architecture


Nikolaus Pevsner - 1943
    Through several revisions and updates during Pevsner's lifetime, it continued to be a seminal essay on the subject, and even after his death, it remains as stimulating as it was back in the mid-twentieth century. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-1983) was one of the twentieth century's most learned and stimulating writers on art and architecture. He established his reputation with Pioneers of Modern Design, though he is probably best known for his celebrated series of guides, The Buildings of England, acknowledged as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. He was also founding editor of The Pelican History of Art, the most comprehensive and scholarly history of art ever published in English. A revised and updated full-color edition of the classic study of the history of European architecture

The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday


Rob Walker - 2019
    Our lives are in constant tether to phones, to email, and to social media. In this age of distraction, the ability to experience and be present is often lost: to think and to see and to listen.Enter Rob Walker's The Art of Noticing--an inspiring volume that will help you see the world anew. Through a series of simple and playful exercises--131 of them--Walker maps ways for you to become a clearer thinker, a better listener, a more creative workplace colleague, and finally, to rediscover what really matters to you.

Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers


Leonard Koren - 1994
    Describes the principles of wabi-sabi, a Japanese aesthetic associated with Japanese tea ceremonies and based on the belief that true beauty comes from imperfection and incompletion, through text and photographs.