Art Studio Secrets
More Than 300 Tools and Techniques to Inspire Creativity
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Award-winning illustrator and painter Marjorie Sarnat presents an outstanding refresher course in creative thinking, suitable for artists of every level. In this guide, she shares the tips and techniques she's discovered in the course of her personal experiences and explorations. These 300 quick, easily grasped text passages detail methods for adding inspiration and innovation to your creative process. The new, hands-on approaches to materials, painting surfaces, and texture applications can help you find a fresh angle for your style or break through a creative block. Every "secret" in this book is expressed in practical terms geared toward boosting your artistic abilities. From sharpening your drawing skills and applying media in unique ways to creating intriguing visual illusions and refining your choices of color and composition, this guide is loaded with advice and fresh ideas. You'll also find cost-saving ways to obtain and manage your art tools and supplies as well as scores of ideas for making art with creative kids.
The Art of Three-Dimensional Design
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Profusely illustrated guide shows how basic shapes and surfaces - plane, prismatic, cylindric, conical, spherical, and more - can be adapted and combined to create hundreds of new designs. Applications are endless. Also covers properties of various materials, tools, collaborating with other designers, more. Over 100 illustrations.
The Craftsman's Handbook
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Fifteenth-century handbook, written by a working artist of the day, reveals secrets and techniques of the masters in drawing, oil painting, frescoes, panel painting, gilding, casting, more. Direct link to artists of the Middle Ages. Translation, introduction by D. V. Thompson.
Creating Celtic Knotwork
A Fresh Approach to Traditional Design
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Whether you're a complete beginner or have already attempted to learn the art of Celtic knotwork, this is the book for you! Artists at all levels will treasure this guide, which not only demonstrates how to duplicate patterns from a rich and varied gallery of examples but also how to take the next step to creating your own unique designs.This newly revised edition of Creating Celtic Knotwork features a wealth of added material and revisions. Author Cari Buziak draws upon her extensive teaching experience to present easy-to-understand, well-illustrated instructions that explain all the basic techniques of Celtic patterns as well as the art's meaning and history. In addition to spirals, mazes, and step patterns, the designs include dragons, hounds, and other animals as well as human forms. Exercises and tips encourage experimentation that will allow you to develop your own variations on traditional forms. Information on drawing tools, painting materials, transferring patterns, and other practical aspects will help you get started right away.
Modern Pictorial Perspective
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
This slim and focused guide to understanding and analyzing perspective in drawing was written by T. Heaton Cooper, a longtime instructor at the Cleveland School of Art. It consists of 50 examples: every left-hand page features a graphic representation of the written descriptions on the opposite page, providing an improved understanding of the concepts via visual examples. Discussions and directions on foreshortening and shadows in relation to perspective complement the illustrations.
Students, art teachers, and artists wishing to improve their skills will find this book an ideal resource for study and reference. Its compact size will make it an easy addition to the paint box or sketch kit.
With Pen & Ink
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Educator and artist James Hall draws upon his extensive teaching experience to demonstrate how to develop a successful approach to the use of pen and ink. His two-part treatment addresses both decorative and pictorial drawing. Starting with outlines, composing, and the use of solids and hatching, Hall progresses to the renderings for more advanced practitioners of still lifes, architecture, and figures. A great companion for beginners, this volume can help develop a casual interest into a rewarding pastime. The clear, well-illustrated directions offer a "work at your own pace" method that builds in complexity with the reader's progress.
This expanded edition updates the original publication's century-old materials list, reflecting the currently available products that best support these traditional skills. Also included are additional gallery samples, selected from the author's original list of exemplary sources, for guidance and inspiration to assist in learning from these timeless teachings.
Mastering Drawing the Human Figure
From Life, Memory and Imagination
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
"This book is for all of those who love to draw the human form. It is for those who have never drawn a line, for those who are students who can draw to a certain degree, and for those professional artists who are proficient in drawing. It is also, of course, for those who teach drawing."
Thus begins the Introduction to this comprehensive handbook for drawing the human figure. Author Jack Faragasso - an internationally renowned art instructor, fine artist, and illustrator - taught at the Art Students League of New York for five decades. He is also the foremost instructor in the highly regarded Reilly system of drawing and painting, developed by Frank J. Reilly. Both a guide and a reference, Mastering Drawing the Human Figure features hundreds of illustrations with commentary that cover the basic structure of the head and body, light and shade, the proper use of line, conveying action, depicting drapery, and much more.
The Drawing Handbook
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Designed for beginning and amateur artists, this guide to the essentials of drawing features comprehensive, easy-to-follow lessons and more than 500 detailed illustrations. Frank Lohan, a renowned artist and popular instructor, conducts readers through each step of the creative process, from grasping the concepts of perspective and proportion to producing lifelike drawings of a variety of subjects-landscapes, architecture, animals, flowers, and faces. Step-by-step exercises focus on attaining the fundamentals of composition, visualizing the geometry of the subject, working with perspective, and mastering drawing techniques for both pencil and pen and ink. Each exercise includes gridded outline compositions to help students develop their drawing abilities. Suggestions for the selection and use of tools will assist in achieving professional-quality results.
The Figure in Composition
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
A valuable tool for intermediate artists, this volume treats the figure as a unit in the overall composition of a sketch or drawing. Discusses light and shade, draped figures, folds, movement, much more.
Notan
The Dark-Light Principle of Design
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
A guiding principle of Eastern art and design, focusing on the interaction between positive and negative space, demonstrated in 6 problems of progressive difficulty. Solutions will fascinate artists and designers of every calling and level of expertise, from painters and sculptors, potters and textile designers to architects and interior designers. 101 illustrations.
The Art and Technique of Pen Drawing
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
A practical course in pen and ink drawing, this helpful guide includes a comprehensive survey of the best pen work in existence. A wide diversity of styles are presented - from loose sketches to rich, engraving-like studies. Includes drawings by such masters as Dürer, Holbein, Doré, Gibson, Rackham, Pyle, Beardsley, and Klinger. 161 figures.
The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Medieval painters built up a tremendous range of technical resources for obtaining brilliance and permanence. In this volume, an internationally known authority on medieval paint technology describes these often jealously guarded recipes, lists of materials, and processes.
Based upon years of study of medieval manuscripts and enlarged by laboratory analysis of medieval paintings, this book discusses carriers and grounds, binding media, pigments, coloring materials, and metals used in painting.
It describes the surfaces that the medieval artist painted upon, detailing their preparation. It analyzes binding media, discussing relative merits of glair versus gums, oil glazes, and other matters. It tells how the masters obtained their colors, how they processed them, and how they applied them. It tells how metals were prepared for use in painting, how gold powders and leaf were laid on, and dozens of other techniques.
Simply written, easy to read, this book will be invaluable to art historians, students of medieval painting and civilization, and historians of culture. Although it contains few fully developed recipes, it will interest any practicing artist with its discussion of methods of brightening colors and assuring permanence.
"A rich feast," The Times (London). "Enables the connoisseur, artist, and collector to obtain the distilled essence of Thompson's researches in an easily read and simple form," Nature (London). "A mine of technical information for the artist," Saturday Review of Literature.
The Art of Cartooning
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Outstanding book offers beginners and professionals a complete manual for working in one of the world's liveliest art forms. Text traces origins of cartooning; furnishes tips for using proper tools and techniques; and provides suggestions for drawing the human figure, animals, and backgrounds; creating comic strips, editorial cartoons, and more. 75 illustrations.
The Artistic Anatomy of Trees
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Art students at every level will benefit from this profusely illustrated guide. It covers every aspect of trees and how to depict them with unusual clarity and precision. Topics include problems of balancing tree groups, relationship of light and shade, delicacy and weight, distance, tree color, and more. 515 illustrations.
The Painter's Methods and Materials
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Based on intensive study of paintings by the great masters, this volume covers techniques for painting on wood panels, paper, walls, and canvas. It explores the use of watercolors, balsams, resins, turpentine, varnishes, waxes, sizings, and various oils. Additional topics include light refraction, prismatic effects, and cleaning and preservation of pictures. 48 full-page plates.
Quick Sketching
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
"Quick sketching" stimulates the artist's ability to rapidly capture a subject's features, expressions, and movements as they are actually happening. A perfect introduction to this invaluable technique, this concise and uniquely organized guide easily helps artists of every capacity explore new ideas and methods for creating powerful, true-to-life works of art. Discover over one hundred masterfully drawn sketches that wonderfully illustrate the accompanying text. An effective path to acquiring the artistic essentials of the human figure and countenance, as well as busy backgrounds, Quick Sketching offers up innovative, workable methods for quickly-and beautifully-drawing: • adults • children • animals • interiors • portraits • landscapes . . . and more! Affordably priced and sure to be viewed and reviewed again and again, Quick Sketching is a worthy addition to the library of every artist!
The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Controversial but lasting thesis that design and great art can be created by application of easily followed mathematics. 118 illustrations.
Techniques for Painting Seascapes
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
This well-illustrated guide covers all aspects of painting coastlines and seascapes in oils-a challenge to even the most accomplished artists. Written by a prominent member of Cornwall's St. Ives Society of Artists, it ranges from suggestions for preliminary methods and composition to a complete demonstration in five steps. Additional topics include differences in color of the sea and wave forms, cliffs and island rocks, open sea painting, beach scenes, clouds over the sea, and creating moonlight effects. More than 70 illustrations, chosen for their technical and analytic value, complement the text.
Sketching Outdoors
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
A facility with pencil drawings is a valuable asset for painters in oil and watercolors, and a high-quality pencil sketch ranks as the artistic equal of the best painting. This guide offers beginners step-by-step demonstrations of how to depict clouds, trees, buildings, and other outdoor scenes. Famed for his landscape paintings, author Leonard Richmond provides pencil studies that demonstrate each stage of picture-making, from rough sketch to completed work. Students who copy and memorize the simpler studies can advance to the more complicated pictures, attaining skills that will assist them in drawing directly from life or nature. Using a variety of pencil techniques, Richmond shows how to re-create stormy and tranquil skies, foliage, driftwood and rocks along the seashore, and other outdoor scenery. Students will savor the rich diversity of these illustrative landscapes, which include scenes from England's Cornish coast, a homestead in New Mexico, a Vermont meadow, and the French countryside.
The Practice of Tempera Painting
Materials and Methods
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Historical background, step-by-step instruction, materials, permanence. Lucid, careful exposition of all aspects of authentic technique. 85 illustrations.
The Practice and Science of Drawing
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
This classic approach to the dynamics of drawing by a brilliant teacher is filled with insights and practical advice on line drawing, mass drawing, visual memory, materials, and much more. 84 plates and diagrams reinforce Speed's clear presentation.
The Elements of Drawing
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Timeless work by one of the greatest art critics of all time begins with bare fundamentals and offers brilliant philosophical advice from sketching to the laws of color and composition. 48 illustrations.
Secrets of Good Design for Artists, Artisans and Crafters
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Practical and aesthetically pleasing, this visual meditation on the constituents of good design considers all manner of construction, form, and ornamentation. It answers many questions about design choices, from basic to specific, with clear, concise, and practical directions. The book's appeal lies chiefly in the integrity of its own design, consisting of hand-lettered text and pleasingly styled and proportioned illustrations. Author Burl N. Osburn addresses basic questions - What are the qualities of good design, and how does balance affect design? What is good proportion, and how is ornament used? - and explores design choices in a variety of expressions. Featured arts and crafts include the use of wrought iron, methods of cutting wood, the decoration of clay and leather, the basic textile structures, the nature of the tapestry weave and design of block-printed textile, the development of repeat pattern and the geometry of repeating ornament, and attaining typographic unity. Students learn to analyze a project's requirements, draw up specifications, and design the final product. A valuable guide for teachers and students, this volume also constitutes a practical resource for professional and amateur artists and crafters.
The Know-How of Cartooning
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
This classic guide by a master animator and cartoonist - and long time Disney artist - is now available for the first time since its original publication in 1946. Author Ken Hultgren instructs by example in a guide that's suitable for beginners and advanced students alike.
The comprehensive range of instruction covers features and expressions, animals, foreshortening, perspective, lettering, caricature, animation, and various other aspects of cartooning. All subjects include step-by-step guides, several examples, and helpful hints and suggestions. Blank pages allow lots of room for drawing practice. Professional and amateur animators, cartoonists, caricaturists, and artists dealing with characterization will find this timeless manual an excellent and instructive companion.
Landscape Sketching in Pen and Ink
With Notes on Architectural Subjects
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Although geared toward professional artists, this accessible approach to landscape sketching will also appeal to amateurs. English artist Donald Maxwell's entertaining and straightforward attitude begins with the basics: "We will draw a brick. Anybody can draw a brick."
Following introductions to perspective, light and shade, and composition, Maxwell proceeds to demonstrate how to direct a picture's focus, and he discusses the challenges of ink as a medium. His observations are complemented and enhanced with illustrative examples of boatyards, bridges, churches, and country farms from throughout Great Britain that date from the early twentieth century. A concluding gallery features a bonus collection of twenty-five images by Frank Brangwyn, Joseph Pennell, Otto Fischer, and other contemporary masters of pen-and-ink landscapes. Specially added for this edition is a new Foreword written by Sonja Rozman and Gašper Habjanič, two landscape architects with a passion for drawing.
Watercolor: You Can Do It!
From Concept to Finished Painting
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
A complete watercolor instruction guide, this long-time bestseller is full of vibrant illustrations, examples of what to do and what to avoid, and tips that make the medium accessible. Written by a true master, it presents practical information on the basics of setting up a good painting - composition, color, and light - before discussing the medium's advantages and concluding with informative demonstrations.
Tony Couch emphasizes practice as the key to developing watercolor skills. Starting with equipment choices and methods for controlling paint on wet paper, he proceeds to discussions and illustrations of the elements and principles of design. Other topics include working with color and value, pulling together a composition, and acquiring techniques for handling watercolor. Easy-to-follow examples chart the progress from a rough sketch into a finished painting. Watercolor: You Can Do It! is an ideal companion for beginning to advanced artists, suitable for individual study as well as a text for art students and teachers.
Fantasy World-Building
A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
When artists and designers explore or create a fictional setting, the milieu must be completely fleshed out, explained, and designed. In this book, comic and gaming art veteran Mark A. Nelson explores and demonstrates his methods for fashioning visually stunning, believable environments for fantasy creatures and characters. Scores of images and step-by-step examples illustrate how variation and experimentation lead to fresh, original designs for otherworldly beings, their environments, and their stories. Nelson discusses how to find ideas and borrow from history to add the strength of realism to a fantasy world. In describing the best ways to establish a habitat, he offers specifics about climate, terrain, flora, and wildlife. He shares insights into founding societies in terms of their means of survival, manner of warfare, spiritual practices, style of dress, and levels of technology. All visual creatives who work with imaginative material - illustrators, comic artists, and writers - will take a lively interest in this source of inspiration and practical knowledge.
Art Alphabets, Monograms, and Lettering
Part of the Dover Art Instruction series
Chicago–based jewelry engraver J. M. Bergling (1866–1933) created thousands of letter styles, signets, monograms, and ciphers. A noted author on the subjects of lettering and heraldic design, Bergling created books that became standard references of his era. He assembled his first book, Art Monograms and Letters, with the hopes of inspiring other etchers, engravers, sign painters, and artisans. This volume contains selected illustrations from that publication in addition to his complete Art Alphabets and Lettering, which comprises 96 pages of layouts and letter styles ranging from simple to ornate.
Commercial artists, designers, calligraphers, engravers, amateurs, and professionals will prize this exclusive edition as a source of high-quality images and alphabets. This reference book features an appreciative Foreword by artist and author James Gurney, which places Bergling's works in historical context.