Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to Dramatically Improve Your Painting


Ian Roberts - 2007
    This work helps you learn to analyse paintings in terms of colour shapes of value, hue and intensity - the elements that make a painting. It also includes before/after examples to illustrate how use the rules for good composition.

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.

You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less


Mark Kistler - 2008
    With Emmy award-winning, longtime PBS host Mark Kistler as your guide, you'll learn the secrets of sophisticated three-dimensional renderings, and have fun along the way -- in just twenty minutes a day for a month. Inside you'll find:Quick and easy step-by-step instructions for drawing everything from simple spheres to apples, trees, buildings, and the human hand and faceMore than 500 line drawings, illustrating each stepTime-tested tips, techniques, and tutorials for drawing in 3-DThe 9 Fundamental Laws of Drawing to create the illusion of depth in any drawing75 student examples to encourage you in the process

The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are


Danny Gregory - 2005
    Handwritten and illustrated in color throughout.

Art, Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist


Lisa Congdon - 2014
    Build a career doing what you love. In this practical guide, professional artist Lisa Congdon reveals the many ways you can earn a living by making art—through illustration, licensing, fine art sales, print sales, teaching, and beyond. Including industry advice from such successful art-world pros as Nikki McClure, Mark Hearld, Paula Scher, and more, Art, Inc. will equip you with the tools—and the confidence—to turn your passion into a profitable business.LEARN HOW TO: • Set actionable goals • Diversify your income • Manage your bookkeeping • Copyright your work • Promote with social media • Build a standout website • Exhibit with galleries • Sell and price your work • License your art • Acquire an agent • And much more

20 Ways to Draw a Cat and 44 Other Awesome Animals: A Sketchbook for Artists, Designers, and Doodlers


Julia Kuo - 2013
    This is not a step-by-step technique book--rather, the stylized animals are simplified, modernized, and reduced to the most basic elements, showing you how simple abstract shapes and forms meld to create the building blocks of any item that you want to draw. Each of the 20 interpretations provides a different, interesting approach to drawing a single item, providing loads of inspiration for your own drawing. Presented in the author’s uniquely creative style, this engaging and motivational practice book provides a new take on the world of sketching, doodling, and designing.

Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier


Juliette Aristides - 2011
     The companion DVD enclosed inside, beautifully filmed in Florence, Italy, provides real-time drawing lessons so that any gaps in the learning process are filled in with live instruction.

Botanical Line Drawing: 200 Step-by-Step Flowers, Leaves, Cacti, Succulents, and Other Items Found in Nature


Peggy Dean - 2017
    It's used widely among artists of many types with both fine and bold lines, creating different variations. Botanical Line Drawing teaches you how to start with the simplest doodles, building into more elaborate, delicate illustrations. This book focuses on the extremely popular subject matter of the natural world and includes flowers, leaves, succulents, houseplants, trees, branches, mushrooms, and more. These simple line drawings will allow you to branch out and have fun with your own personal style, as well as inspire you to add flourishes to other projects.

Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor


Claudia Nice - 1995
    She shows you how to use dots, fine lines, brushstrokes, black and white, color--a mixture of mediums and techniques--to suggest: glass, cast iron, adobe and brick, sunrise and sunset, driftwood, leaf textures, basketry, surf and ocean, waves, enamelware, rainbows, wood grain, distant trees, eggs and onions, animal hair, and dozens of other textures! You'll learn how to use materials, from technical pens to paint brushes, colored inks to liquid acrylics. You'll discover ways to blot, spatter, stamp and otherwise alter and combine ink and watercolor for exciting texturing effects.

Colored Pencil Painting Bible: Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Ultrarealistic Effects


Alyona Nickelsen - 2009
    Artists of every level will be inspired by the amazing new techniques created by Alyona Nickelsen, presented in Colored Pencil Painting Bible for the very first time. Nickelsen’s innovations will delight readers and detailed you-can-do-it processes bring her striking results within reach for every artist. Take colored pencils beyond the ordinary with Colored Pencil Painting Bible!

Figure Drawing Without a Model


Ron Tiner - 1992
    Illustrated with the author's own work, it is designed to encourage artists of all levels of ability, including cartoonists and graphic artists.

Artistic Anatomy: The Great French Classic on Artistic Anatomy


Paul Richer - 1971
    The original French edition, now a rare collector's item, was published in 1889 and was probably used as a resource by Renoir, Braque, Degas, Bazille, and many others. The English-language edition, first published 35 years ago, brings together the nineteenth century's greatest teacher of artistic anatomy, Paul Richer, and the twentieth century's most renowned teacher of anatomy and figure drawing, Robert Beverly Hale, who translated and edited the book for the modern reader. Now Watson-Guptill is proud to reissue this dynamic classic with an anniversary sticker, sure to inspire drawing students well into our century.

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.

Color: A Natural History of the Palette


Victoria Finlay - 2003
    Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue “ultramarine” paint used by Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn’t afford to buy it himself. Since ancient times, carmine red—still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today—has come from the blood of insects.

Figure It Out!: The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People


Christopher Hart - 2009
    Not only does he draw them with incredible style and flair, he also has a friendly, accessible teaching style that makes his how-to books super-sellers. In this unique figure-drawing course, Chris avoids the usual anatomy lessons that intimidate aspiring artists and gets right down to the basics young illustrators need to get started. Starting with heads and facial expressions, he moves on to full figures, male and female, ideal and average, some in fashion poses and others in dynamic action. On every page, his practical advice and clear examples will help readers achieve terrific results — and have fun every step of the way.