4 comments about Juxtapoz Illustration (Juxtapoz) (Juxtapoz).

1. I bought this book so that I could get a collection of great Illustrators and because Juxtapoz is awesome. This book is awesome if you want basically a picture book of artists. Theres a short description of each artist followed by 4-6 works of each one. No long biographies, just artwork to look at.



2. this book is great to leaf through, it is filled with brilliant illustrators such as David Choe and James Jean, amongst many, many others. The page format allows the images to breathe without the book being too cumbersome to hold. If you are a fan of contemporary illustration, you should have this book already.



3. I am a big fan of the magazine and this book is just mind blowing, Page to page full of artworks and different artist, some featured in the magazine and some new comers never seen before. If you love juxtapoz get the book you wont be disapointed. The makers of Juxtapoz really have out done themself's this time. Even if you have never heard of the magazine or don't like the magazine you will love this book.



4. Even if you're not a subscriber to the legendary Juxtapoz magazine, this is a must-purchase for anyone even mildly interested in the modern 'pop surrealism' or 'low brow' art movements. Some of my very favorite artists appear in here.
   
   All in all, this is chock-full of absolutely stunning works of art. Buy it now if you have any unusual artistic aesthetic tastes whatsoever. This is dirt-cheap for a nicely hardbound book with great printing and sturdy paper.
   
   Disclaimer: One of my main goals is to have my work appear in the magazine or the Great 'FSM' willing, an esteemed publication such as this, so if I sound like a fan-boy, I must admit the shoe fits... ;)
   
   PS: I plan to pick up the other books in the series too, they have a tattoo one out now as well but others are on the way. Check 'em out.

1 comments about Participation (Documents of Contemporary Art).

1. Until I read this book I could not give myself permission to have my own ideas about some of the world's greatest art pieces and give my educated opinion about them. Umberto Eco's 1st essay is a wonder!

5 comments about From Hell - New Cover Edition.

1. From Hell is a literary tour de force, one of many from legendary comics scribe Alan Moore. From Hell tells the (deeply researched) story of Jack the Ripper, but it is so much more than that. Quite simply, it is a story of London--the city is the book's primary focus and it soon becomes a living, breathing character in the mind of the reader. The amount of thought, effort, and research put into this massive volume is quite astounding and a testament to Moore and artist Eddie Campbell's profound skill at their craft. From Hell, along with Watchmen, is Moore's greatest work and should be read by all. It is a wonder to behold, I'd even go so far as to call it life-changing.



2. From Hell is kind of confusing for the first four or five chapters. You really don't have too much of a clue what's going on and who every character is. However, after the first murder, it really starts to weave all of the confusing parts of the first few chapters together and make sense of them. Alan Moore does a great job of showing what the Jack the Ripper murders might have been like, and also showing what the man may have been like himself. The ending wraps everything up quite nicely, and is really profound. From Hell is just more proof of why Alan Moore is widely considered the best in the business.



3. Like many, I knew the vague outlines of the Ripper murders. They occurred sometime in the mid-to-late 1800s in England, the victims were prostitutes, the crimes brutal beyond comprehension, and the perpetrator never caught or even identified. To this rather shallow appreciation, I applied Alan Moore's' "From Hell." I can now say definitively that I know much more about Victorian England - its mores and technology, its deference to royalty, its odd groups, its appearance and the way its lower classes struggled to survive. Whether I know more about the Ripper is another question.
   
   From the scattered shards of the case, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell have put together a near-masterpiece. They weave a quasi-plausible tale that enmeshes royalty, Masonic orders, mad doctors, the easy women of the West End and grinding poverty. That the story is 90% supposition and 10% fact is no matter. Once inured to the gritty and gruesome story telling, the reader is propelled by the tale's drama and pathos. The book employs dozens of real-life characters, including William Gull, royal physician; Netley, his slow-witted coachman; William Sickert, the struggling painter; Abberline, the dogged investigator; Prince Eddy, weak-willed grandson of Victoria. But Moore and Campbell's most noble work is in limning the sordid lives of the victims. Constantly in debt to their landlords, they sell themselves for a few pence - either in a back alley up against a fence or in an out-of-the-way horse stall. The reader often encounters them -- the two Marys, Elizabeth, Annie and Catherine -- chatting with friends, enjoying a glass and fighting with their live-ins. No longer are they merely nameless victims of a brutal and fascinating (probably male) maniac, but women with histories, fears, aspirations and loves of their own. This willingness to acknowledge the personhood on the victims of crime is by itself a great contribution to the story.
   
   Moore and Campbell pull no punches. Expect full nudity, turgid genitalia and sexual frankness where it is called for. Expect equally frank depictions of the savage butchery of the murders themselves. Also expect a conspiratorial approach that ought not to be taken as the final word on the story behind the murders in Whitechapel. The deluding rantings (whether of the authors or their characters) about Dionysian priests, sacred architecture and Masonic deities ought not to be taken seriously as historic. But they do give the book much of its creepy fascination.
   
   The book's main limitation was in its artwork, whose often borderline artistic quality sometimes made the action hard to follow. Thankfully, the art was rendered in black and white. This made its goriness more tolerable, but made it difficult to determine what was going on - what was that black mass being pulled out of a body? The story, too, had its problems. Killing the women was easy to understand, but the mutilations, even under the aegis of being the ritualistic actions of a psychopath, made less and less sense as the horrors progressed and did not fit the facts very well. The perpetrator was mad, yes, but madness has a logic that was sometimes absent from this tale.
   
   Toward the end of the book, a prose section allows Moore to provide the reader with a lens into his approach. He evidently took his information from the many books that have sprung up about the case, many of which sound pretty fringy, if you ask me. And that's before Moore applied his sinister magic to them. Moore is frank about inventing dialog and scenarios to fill in the gaps in the corpus of factual evidence. A little bit of research will show the determined reader that Moore bent many facts way out of shape to fit them into his thesis. This does violence to the truth, something I do not normally condone. But the flip side is that the reader becomes acquainted with the late Victorian era in a way whose verisimilitude (outside of the farfetched conspiracy) is shockingly persuasive.
   
   Taken for what it is - a mostly imaginary retelling of an all too real tale of bloody murder, "From Hell" is enormously entertaining and compelling. Read it if you have the stomach for large doses of humanity at its most bestial and the ability to swallow conspiracy theories with a grain of salt.



4. Moore and Campbell have delved deeply into the story of Jack the Ripper, to present a version of what might have happened, based on what they knew and discovered in the research.
   
   While odd looking to start with, the artwork seems to fit the squalor of the times once you start reading, and the density of the work is pretty impressive.



5. Thick as a phone-book and often difficult to navigate. 'From Hell' is a comic that demands a lot from the reader and not is possible to finish over a single visit at the restroom. But it will yet be a highly rewarding experience for whoever who dares to give it a try.
   
   In one of his most ambitious works Alan Moore gives his version of the still unsolved crimes of Jack The Ripper. Stories of the police, the prostitutes, citizens of London and the killer himself are neatly meshed together with a enthusiastic analysis and ideas that appears very realistic though most is fiction. Comics are rarely seen as intelligent or complex as this.
   
   Eddie Campbell's drawings has this raw and unpolished look that suits the story just perfect and he makes a great deal of portraying the locations, the people and the gruesome killings in details. The killings are extreme and not for the weaker but they naturally also plays an important part and should certainly not ever be left out.
   
   Now, just imagine the enormous research both must have done for this book!

5 comments about Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.

1. While "Delirious" has its fair share of archispeak, Mr. Koolhaas pulls off an intelligent, fun and thought-provoking take on the early 20th century building culture of New York.
   
   One of the quirkier aspects of "Delirious" is Mr. Koolhaas's analysis of Coney Island: an "incubator for Manhattan's incipient themes." As a reader, one initially questions the inclusion of such a trashy place in such a lofty manifesto. However, as the chapter progresses, you start to see Mr. Koolhaas's iconoclastic brilliance. He pays an amazing homage to "the laboratory" that was Coney Island, illuminating the vital role it played in the building philosophies that would emerge later in Manhattan.
   
   Scattered throughout "Delirious," also, are compelling supporting images that Mr. Koolhaas clearly spent a lot of time digging up. In fact, flipping through the book for the images alone makes for a near-equivalent, and fun, learning experience.
   
   However, unlike his tasteful use of images, Mr. Koolhaaas's flamboyant use of scholarly English makes his writing difficult to digest at times:
   
   "It is probably inevitable that a doctrine based on the continual simulation of pragmatism, on a self-imposed amnesia that allows the continuous reenactment of the same subconscious themes in ever new reincarnations and on inarticulateness systematically cultivated in order to operate more effectively..."
   
   Given Mr. Koolhaas's journalism background (and assumed mastery of writing), I suspect he made the conscious decision to remain somewhat inaccessible to preserve his "lofty" image. While such a decision may be understandable, his brilliance as a writer often gets overshadowed by the sheer irritation of trying to understand him.
   
   Ultimately, "Delirious" proves itself to be a very intelligent synopsis---just as delirious and congested the themes Mr. Koolhaas puts forth. For the most part, it's a pleasure to read, and it also reflects the exhaustive research on Mr. Koolhaas's end. Much like Mr. Koolhaas's buildings, "Delirious" is on the cusp of being as grand as it intends to be.



2. through the exhaustive historiography of the phases of congestion coney island brought to manhattan, koolhaas provides a rather cynical view of the Grid as being an ulimatley neutral zoning system of constraining ideas that represent the continual decline of a phantastically realistic civilization, represented as mutated symbols of architecture in the "void" of repeated "pregnancies."
   
   it's really well written. funny. uses, like above, a somewhat inefficient vocabulary but remains in the same vein throughout. it is also a graphic design hubris consuming every page, even the left-justified text, showing off koolhaas's interpretation of the importance to combine scholarship and marketing.
   
   buy it. it's a very good book.



3. A very inventive concept of New York's "culture of congestion" and how people are affected by the architecture they create. It is heavily researched and exhaustive, and after pretty much the third page I agreed with his concept of NY being "totally fabricated by man". What could of been a fascinating article becomes a spastic, heavy-handed read with a sledgehammer effect to your brain. (However,for those of us reading it for school, there are plenty of pictures that fill up the almost devastatingly vast 300+pages quickly.) It will scramble your brain with its thousands of nearly bumper-stickerish statements ("It hides life." "The Mountain MUST become architecture.") written with pretentious glee. However, I believe an independent scientific study has concluded that when pretending to read this book on the train people around you will assume your IQ is 40% higher than truth.



4. koolhaas is a bit over-the-top for me, but this I think is is best work. it's worth checking out if only for the story of coney island. once you get past blisteringly pretentious phrases like "coney island is a fetal manhattan", you'll find it gloriously entertaining as both a narrative and theoretical work.



5. This is by far Koolhaas's most accessible work, as it is rooted so clearly in detail from the city's past. Further, the book is simply brilliant. His take on urban history is to Jane Jacobs what Socrates is to common sense. New York is a special case of modernism that sprang from a special constellation of poltiical and technological forces that collectively create a cultural "big-bang" at the turn of the century. Read it. Blow your mind.

5 comments about Grammatically Correct.

1. I wish I had read Grammatically Correct years ago. It is an excellent resource. L.Scott Boise, Idaho 8-9-2008



2. First, my hardback version came poorly bound and the pages are likely to begin falling out soon. Second, the book indeed presents some good grammar rules, but it is rather simplistic overall (i.e., 8th grade like), so do not expect anything too great or cool grammar constructions to impress your peers. Lastly, I found several grammar problems in the text itself (e.g., on page 90 it states "These [should be there] is essentially no difference in meaning between these pairs of sentences"), which is quite shocking for a grammar book!



3. I have wanted to replace these books. I think they are essential in helping you write any and everything.



4. This product will be of assistance to anyone who is writing articles,books or even just business letters. It has been a great help to me.



5. The 3 books I've recently purchased via Amazon are far too old. I feel taken advantage of. Henceforth, I shall be buying books on line only from sellers who furnish the copyright & latest revision dates.

5 comments about Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters: 100 Great Drawings Analyzed, Figure Drawing Fundamentals Defined.

1. This book is a great addition to the student of drawing's library. The author does a superb job of analyze some excellent examples of classical drawing and elucidates the formal and structural concepts in each. Although this book does not provide very much in the way of "step by step" style technical instruction, it does provide the reader with a way of conceptually approaching a drawing.
   
   The author demonstrates where the great artist used a cylinder, or a sphere to conceptualize a part of the subject's anatomy. He shows how lines are modulated to give varying degrees of tone and shape to the figure. Many of these ideas will stew around in your head as you approach your own drawing projects. Eventually, you will notice that you are more aware of certain parts of the form and that these are being incorporated into your work. Overall, this book is a very interesting and enjoyable way of delivering basic drawing concepts to a student reader.



2. This is an excellent text/reference for drawing enthusiasts, or students of drawing. Both the way it is broken down, and uses examples from the masters to illustrate the concepts offer a really solid grounding in how line is used to describe space, shape and tone.



3. This is one of the "timeless" drawing reference books every artist should look at when he/she needs inspiration. Hale picks some of the most dynamic life drawings by the old masters--Leonardo, Ingres, etc.--and disects them in terms of composition, tone, thrust, etc. He is right on in his suggestions that artists should study human and animal surface anatomy to understand the figure. I found his discussion of light and shadow especially instructive.



4. More of a philosophical approach to drawing than instructional. But, often i find it enlightening to learn HOW to think...more so than WHAT. A great artist can synthesize his ideas rather than simply comprehend them. This book exemplifies and necessitates this philosophy.



5. I like that he has a full page to show the drawing and on the facing page he has a smaller version with commentary. He places capital letters on the drawing so you can see exactly which line or shape he is discussing.

5 comments about Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color.

1. Really terrific book! I highly recommend it for anyone beginning in oil paintings as well as seasoned painters. It is down to earth, great instruction and his paintings are beautiful! You can definitely see his growth in his painting in his second book - also terrific, however the second book - Painting Inside and Out - reads in places like an advertisement for a couple of companies and products - didn't appreciate that much, but otherwise - also a fantastic book - even for the photos alone -



2. I have been painting and studying art for many decades - this is a really great book! I keep re reading!



3. Great book, was told about this from an art instructor, saying this was one of the best you can buy and have in your library.



4. I purchased this book because of all the great reviews it received. I was not impressed. Everything was way too simplistic. If you're an intermediate or professional painter, you will not learn anything from this book that you don't already know.
   
   Also, where was the light and color? I must've missed those pages.



5. AWESOME book packed to the full with inspiring paintings & photos, really practical tips for the would be painter, and help over all those overwhelming and sometimes insurmountable difficulties confronting the aspirant oil painter. Replaces mystery with method. I'm really thrilled to have discovered Kevin Macpherson's approach to painting "plein air" and am already seeing the fruits of applying it.

5 comments about Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting.

1. This book is a must for artists who want to learn the correct way to paint the landscape. It not only teaches the important concepts of landscape painting, but also gives reasons for the concepts. Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting will be a study guide and reference book for me.



2. This book is full of important information on how to approach landscape painting.
   I will read this book over and over again
   very recommended!!!



3. Carlson's Guide truly is the bible of landscape painting. It's loaded with invaluable information for landscape artists, but studio artists will get so much out of it, too. Over the years, I've returned to the book again and again, and I always find some fresh insights that help me resolve whatever issues I'm dealing with that during that period. If you're looking for a sophisticated text that goes beyond the basic fundamentals like value, color, shape, etc. covered in most art instruction books, this one is for you.



4. A great reference and interesting reading for all phases of landscape painting, Carlson's guide has been referred to by art instructors, and novice painters alike. If there was only one landscape book you had the money to buy, this would be it. All black and white examples. Easy to understand concepts.



5. I BOUGHT THIS LITTLE GEM, ON THE RECOMMEDATION FROM MY LAST EN PLEIN AIRE INSTRUCTOR, KEN DeWAARD. HE HAS TAUGHT ME MORE, IN HIS WEEK WORKSHOP ABOUT PAINTING, THAN I HAVE LEARNED FROM ALL THE WORKSHOPS I HAVE TAKEN DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS. AND THE BASIS OF HIS TEACHING METHOD? HE WORKS TO PASS ON ONLY THE "PEARLS" OF WISDOM, LEARNED FROM MANY OF THE PAST MASTERS, WITHOUT CLUTTERING YOUR MIND WITH ALOT OF NOT-SO-RELEVENT INFO.
   [HE TOLD ME THAT MOST OF HIS QUOTES COME DIRECTLY FROM CARLSON'S BOOK!]
   ....THE ENTIRE CLASS OF SEASONED ARTISTS CLAIMED THAT, BY THE LAST DAY, THEY HAD GROWN SO MUCH IN ABILITY AND UNDERSTANDING, THAT NO ONE WANTED THE CLASS TO END. SO, IF YOU ARE NEW AT ART, BUY THIS BOOK AND KEEP IT, UNTIL YOU HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE TO UNDERSTAND THE JEWEL THAT IT IS. .... ITS BITS OF ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, BUT ITS NOT A PICTURE BOOK..
   ANYWAY, I'VE DONE COMMISSIONED PORTRAITS FOR 30 YEARS. AND YET, WITH THE COMPACTED INFO IN THIS BOOK, AND BY PAINTING THE NATURAL COLORS OF OUTDOORS, I AM FINALLY STARTING TO GROW AS AN ARTIST.

5 comments about Anatomy for the Artist.

1. The purchase I made was everything listed when I bought it. It was in perfect conditon, and look forward to doing business with them in the future! Thank you!



2. This is a beautiful books full of beautiful pictures of incredibly beautiful people.
   Aren't beauty and perfection what artists are, in essence, desperate to capture? Well, this aestetically superior book gives us a glimpse of what levels of perfection the human body can attain. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fine arts, or to anyone simply sensitive to the human body's unsurpassed beauty.



3. A must for any serious art student. Sarah Simblet also has a Sketchbook for the Artist that I recommend.



4. Great way to get familiar with the human body, different positions than the boring usual, a book for more advance artists looking to improve and to know those little details only a model or this book could reveal to you.



5. Excellent book for studying the human body! This book retails for $40.00 in a book store.

5 comments about Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature.

1. This lovely, large book was all I had hoped for--and MORE. Great value for the price. I am thrilled to have photos of Andy Goldsworthy's works to look at any time. I had researched buying a print to frame and found few available. The photos in this book could actually be put in frames! The color and detail is beautiful. Friends, adult children, and grandchildren gravitate to this book with each visit. My granddaughter even recognized a coincidental similarity between Andy's "OVERLEAF" and the stacks of "discontinued" grapevines in my back yard. Andy's work is helping us all tune in more deeply to the wonders around us.



2. while i bought this book for another, i find it to be pretty good. some pictures aren't up to todays digital quality, but its still great to look at. you won't be disappointed.



3. AMAZING - INSPIRING - AWESOME. This book was purchased in tandum with the video "Rivers and Tides". I don't think I could just pick one or the other. What one begins, the other ends and the relationship is perfect. Be inspired - spend time, REAL TIME - looking at these images and reading about his work and his methods. You will look at the world a new way. I am a professional photographer and the photography is gorgous. You can't miss this one.



4. I was instantly attracted to the cover. I would have liked two things before I purchased. The date of publication and to have access to more pictures in the book. It was a gift and it is loved. I love you people...I love free shipping....it is now a HUGE factor in whether I purchase on line or get in my car and go to the book store.



5. I plan to acquire more Andy Goldsworthy albums. His photo art calms the mind, eyes and soul...look at it while listening to your favorite calming music!