Here nearly 200 illustrations--over 100 in color--make a fascinating collection.

    Her innovative ideas are now collected and elaborated on in this unique volume. Carla offers a year's worth of assignments, projects, ideas, and techniques that will introduce more creativity and nonsense into your art and life. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists offers readers a fun way to learn and gain expertise in drawing through experimentation and play. There is no right or wrong result, yet, the readers gain new skills and confidence, allowing them to take their work to a new level.

    Using only pen and paper, you will learn to make 24 basic Zentangles as well as inspiration for incorporating these designs into your art. Zentangles can be used to decorate wearables and home decor objects as well as cards, scrapbook pages and journals. Best of all, you can do this even if you have never drawn anything before.

    In composition, it recognizes the separate but equally important identity of both a shape and its background.Since their introduction in the West, the intriguing exercises associated with Notan have produced striking results in every branch of Western art and design. This book, by two American artists and teachers who made an intensive study of Notan, was the first basic book on the subject in the West, and it remains one of the definitive texts. Through a series of simple exercises, it places the extraordinary creative resources of Notan easily within the grasp of Western artists and designers.Clearly and concisely, the authors demonstrate Notan's practical applications in six problems of progressive difficulty — creative exercises that will fascinate artists and designers of every calling and level of expertise. Along with these exercises, the book includes many illustrations of the principle of Notan, among them images as diverse as a sculpture by David Smith, a Samoan tapa cloth, a Museum of Modern Art shopping bag, New England gravestone rubbings, Japanese wrapping paper, a painting by Robert Motherwell, a psychedelic poster, and a carved and dyed Nigerian calabash. Painters, sculptors, potters, jewelry, and textile designers, architects, and interior designers all will discover — or rediscover — in these pages an ancient principle of composition that can help them meet creative challenges with fresh new perspective.

    Containing more than 200 swatch designs in her signature style, this is a must-have manual for beginning and experienced stitchers alike.

    She and other artists have opened their sketchbooks to share their favorite subjects, ranging from nature's paraphernalia to aging buildings, crashing waves and beloved pets. You will travel the world through sketches and stories, through deserts and deep woods, cities and small towns. Along the way, you'll pick up helpful tips and clever, on-location improvisations for making your sketching sessions pleasurable, safe and productive.- Chapters focus on sketching subjects close to home, on travels, in nature, in urban settings and from everyday life. - 10+ artists share favorite sketches, tips and techniques. - 15+ demos reveal on-the-spot sketches as they come together. - Includes expert advice on getting the best results from a range of mediums, including graphite, ink, colored pencil, watercolor and gouache.The Artist's Sketchbook is pure delight, full of passion and possibility, ideas and inspirations. You'll learn ways to be prepared, simplify, still your inner critic, embrace the here and now, and in doing so, discover wonders you never thought to look for.

    From temperance quilts to the AIDS quilt, there’s a rich history of individuals and communities using fabric and thread to connect with others and express themselves, both personally and politically. Why We Quilt blends bits of this history with the stories and work of today’s leading quilters, highlighting themes of tradition, community, consumerism, change, and creativity. With a unique die-cut cover and a richly layered design, this book will enthrall designers, quilters, and all types of handcraft enthusiasts.

    Each artist is represented by a full-page colour plate of a definitive work, accompanied by explanatory and illuminating information on the image and its creator. Glossaries of artistic movements and technical terms are included, making this a valuable work of reference as well as a feast for the eyes. By breaking with traditional classifications, The Art Book presents a fresh and original approach to art: an unparalleled visual sourcebook and a celebration of our rich and multi-faceted culture.

    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.

    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.

    Card Captor Sakura. Magical Girl Rayearth. They’re magical girls, and they’re some of the biggest names in manga. Magical girls, ordinary schoolgirls given superpowers, are hugely popular in Japan and the United States. Now Christopher Hart shows fans everywhere how to draw these manga shoujo faves. Faces and body proportions, action poses, costumes, expressions, transformations, special effects—they’re all here, all in Hart’s distinctive step-by-step approach. So are magical fighting boys and everybody’s favorite, the cute, furry manga mascots. Hart demonstrates how to create funny mascots, magical boys, fighting teams, and supporting characters, plus how to design layouts. Magical girls show us that we all have special powers deep inside—now Manga Mania: Magical Girls and Friends let those special drawing powers reveal themselves at last!

    Not only will Violette inspire you with her own journal pages, she'll teach you techniques for creating your own unique pages.You'll learn to:Create juicy backgrounds and whimsical borders for your pages to help get the ideas flowingLove doodling, even if you think you can't drawMake image transfers of photos or even your own artworkDevelop your own fanciful lettering and so much more!Create freely, express yourself and enjoy the journey with Journal Bliss!

    In this book, she shows readers how to see overlooked, everyday objects in a new way, and how to "MacGyver" them into easy to use printing blocks and tools. Readers learn to create 52 print blocks and stamp tools, all from inexpensive, ordinary, and unexpected materials--string, spools, bandaids, flip flops, ear plugs, rubber bands, school erasers, and a slew of other repurposed and upcycled items. The book also shows how to use those simple tools to make gorgeous, multi-layered prints and patterns that can be used to enhance journal covers, stationery, fabrics, accessories, and more.

    You will become familiar with a wide variety of media and approaches to drawing, learn how to work through "creative blocks," and discover ways to scan and layer your illustrations using a computer.

    The 27 projects and 30 variations feature vintage ephemera soldered within glass, for finished works that tell a romantic or whimsical story. All exhibit Sally Jean Alexander's signature style - a style that brings new life to antique papers, vintage photographs, found projects, scavenged text, and more.