4 comments about Drawing for Designers.

1. This book shows ways things are drawn, sculpted, and rendered. It even shows a little about how some things are made. I recommend this book if you want to do in the Industrial Design area.



2. Got this as a text book for one of my daughter's Visual Communications classes, sophomore year in college. She really enjoys it and says that it is one that she will not sell back because it has many things that she will be able to refer back to. A good one for her professional library.



3. A good book of value to budding designers as well as those more advanced. a great reference, well worth a look. tom p.



4. The reason for the 4 stars instead of the 5, is because it's a nice overview book on the process designers go through when creating new designs, but it doesn't really go in depth in terms of sketching techniques or the "how to", in the way I expected it when looking at the title: "Drawing for Designers".
   
   I think this book is great for people new to the design process, first year students for example or people looking to make a career change and want to know more about industrial design, but people with more experience will be left wanting to see more.

5 comments about The New Creative Artist.

1. This book was recommended reading while I was on amazon buying another book.
   I would highly recommend it. I could not put it down till I have overviewed it all. Now back to chapter one and still on chapter one. It is full of good hints. Not only are there hints on how to unleach your inner artist but also basic psychology and philosophy read many times before ... and now hitting home. Jackie



2. If you want more creative starter ideas then you can handle this is the book for you. You won't need another idea book for sometime it is packed with ideas.



3. The New Creative Artist: A Guide To Developing Your Creative Spirit
   
   Here is another WOW spiral-bound book!!! It is full of COLOR,a lifetime of ideas, activities, and opportunities to s-t-r-e-t-c-h. The coverage of the Design Element is full: Line, Shape, Value, Color, Size, Pattern, Movement, Harmony, Contrast, Rhythm, Repetition, Gradation, Balance, Dominance, Format Options, Compositional Choices, Design Strategies, and touches on when to give the rules a rest. If that isn't enough, there's lots more! I especially look forward to working through the section: The Realism-Abstraction Connection during my next artistic transition. A beautiful book!
   
   Patricia Eastman



4. This book wasn't as good as "celebrating your creative self."
   
   It was a little wordy with inspirational messages. Not as much about technique and new ideas as I was hoping.



5. This book will get any creative body with a block back into their creative hobby. She gives so many great ideas, like that you should write down all the great creative ideas you think of and put them in to a jar. That way, whenever you can't think of something to get your creative juices flowing, just grab your jar and do whatever the piece of paper says!
   
   On a sidenote: I also love that the binding is ring - so that you can fold the book flat and not worry about pages closing on you when you are trying out something new - but that it is also protected by a larger cover so the ring binder doesn't fall apart like they usually do - THANK YOU PUBLISHER!
   
   Anyhow, great buy for any artist or artists' library - a book I will forever reference...I only wish that Leland explained more of the techniques behind rare art forms (but that would add a whole other book!).

1 comments about Show and Tell: Exploring the Fine Art of Children's Book Illustration.

1. The illustrations are reproduced beautifully. The biographies are well written and give you a sense of the personalities of the illustrators, as well as some useful information on technique. Loved it.

1 comments about Advanced Painter Techniques.

1. If you are serious about using Painter X, by all means buy this book. Don`s easy way of teaching makes this book very useful and informative. However, this book is not for beginners. You must have some knowledge of the software in order to make the most out of this book. I`d give it ten stars if I could!!

5 comments about Drawing for Older Children & Teens.

1. I had read the first volume and found it and the author a bit too self-referencing. Still, there were some good insights and wading through it was interesting, if only to get inside another art teacher's mind. But I am not finding the same value as I did in the first book, finding it more of the same for the most part. Sorry; I think the material covered could have been done in much fewer words.



2. This is a wonderful book full of very useful ideas for teaching children and adults how to draw. Each step builds on another and my students are doing remarkably well. Would highly recommend this book.



3. This book disappointed me. I thought given the age group of the title it would have more indepth step to step drawings, page by page. Instead it has paragraphs to explain terms/techniques with some examples from students,which were inspiring but needed additional work. This has been give high marks and suggesed as a good teaching tool. Perhaps thats a better use for this book, by someone experienced who can take it as a course outline and bring it to life for students. I prefered, The New Drawing on the Right side of the Brain, Keys to Drawing and Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces.



4. This is a very good book for teaching art to young adults, a great alternative to "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" which is a bit advanced for kids. The personal insights and experiences of the author are definitely a good read.



5. I loved this book, and also enjoyed "Drawing With Children" by Mona Brookes. Great plan for a drawing program, very clear instructions, lots of enjoyable background narrative on Mona's personal experiences, student stories/quotes. LOTS of drawing samples, and very helpful drawing exercise pages to copy for use at home. If you've enjoyed Betty Edwards ("Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"), chances are you'll like Mona Brookes as well. A great resource for tentative beginners in art!

5 comments about DragonArt Fantasy Characters: How to Draw Fantastic Beings and Incredible Creatures.

1. This is an excellent resource for artists of fantastical races. It has info for everything and fun little comments throughout the entire book. Wonderfully drawn, coloured, and simple to use, I highly recommend this book to other artists, as a guide on how to make their own wonderful creations.



2. We bought this book for our 14 year old and found it had nudity/partial nudity in many of the drawings. The work is beautifully done.



3. Jessica Peffer has come out with the most useful art books that i know of that relate to fantasy. I am a VErY big fan of her work and i recommend this book to every and anybody who is interested in drawing fantasy stuff. GO JESS!!!!



4. This book is divided into five sections: a preface and four parts. The preface contains a tutorial about how to draw people. It briefly covers all the basics: shapes and shading, penciling and inking, coloring, human body, face, facial expressions, hair, hands and feet.
   
   There are step-by-step tutorials on how to draw fantasy beings in part 1, 2, and 3. Part 1 contains classic fantasy creatures: a fairy, a sprite, an elf, a goblin, a dwarf, and an orc. Part 2 contains mythological creatures: a mermaid, a centaur, a faun, an angel, and a kitsune. And part 3 contains night creatures: a banshee, vampire, a werewolf, and a demon.
   
   Part 4 is about fashion. It shows a limited collection of clothes, accessories and weapons for male and female characters of various professions: warrior, ranger, rogue, mage, cleric, samurai, noble, and peasant.
   
   The step-by-step tutorials are very useful, but this book works the best for me as a source of inspiration. J. Peffer's artistic style is refreshing and extremely contagious.
   
   The bad thing about this book is that it's only 128 pages long. Overall, I think this is great book.



5. I bought the first neondragon book just because I liked the artwork on her website, and while I loved all the monsters, I have always struggled with drawing people. I'm so glad that she came out with this book, it has helped a lot, and even despite that, the graphics are awesome just to look at! I HIGHLY recommend this and everything else she has come out with. Keep up the good work Jess!

5 comments about The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons for Beginners and Experienced Artists.

1. I have been painting for a while and wanted to more help with mixing flesh and shadow colors. In her book Steiger extensively elaborates the mixing of chroma, value and shadow. She brakes it down into little bits so there is no way that you'll have to guess the rest. Also this book goes from lesson lesson with exercise, of which i have done a few and find that she really has a good lesson-plan. Definitely good for the beginner of people who have been wingeing it [like me] and want to know how to paint with after a real lesson.



2. I got this book from the library. I always knew I could draw, and I always wanted to oil paint. I have a lot of books on oil painting, but I still struggle. Oil paints are tricky, sort of like playing the violin: you have to learn to control them before you start creating with them.
   
   Now, it IS for beginners, but it also says for "experienced" because she shows you tricks that maybe you didn't cover in other classes.
   
   She incorporates drawing lessons with the painting lessons. If you can't draw and shade a sphere, how are you going to understand a bush? She doesn't just have list of brushes, but she has exercises on how to blend paint with them. Each exercise in the book builds on the next.
   
   It is true that you are not going to paint a masterpiece with this book, but I do think you will say, "Oh, that's the problem", and then you can move forward with your own talent.
   
   She has one whole page on Taming Thalo Green, which no one else has in their books. She has a shading lesson in primary colors, and in secondary colors. She tells you how to dull a color without changing the value (mix it's exact complimentary in the same value, then add it). She explains glazing and scumbling. All the exercises are simple, so that if you are talented or not, you can do them. For example, she doesn't have you glaze a portrait like Rembrandt, but an apple.
   
   As she gets to harder things, she introduces more drawing. For example, when she gets to landscape, she talks about drawing perspective, as well as atmospheric perspective. In landscapes, she explains the tricks for trees and rocks (do the darks first). When she gets to portraits, then she talks about drawing the face. I don't think her portraits are all that hot, but she shows the steps then you can do them too, and infuse your talent.
   
   You will not create a masterpiece with this book, but you will have tools to create your own masterpiece because you won't be stumped with atmospheric perspective, how to do trees, how to make a shadow, etc. Just like you can't play the violin if you don't know where the notes are and how to get a good sound out of the bow, you can't oil paint if you don't know things like how Alizarin Crimson is going to behave differently from Cadmium Red Light. She will help you with this.
   
   She has taught beginning oil painting for 30 years, so she anticipates your problems and questions. Oil will not longer be something to fight with, but something that will do your bidding.



3. Not only was l able to correct old bad old habits, l have learnt an incredible amount from this art instruction book. Highly recommended to both beginners and accomplished artists.



4. I'm an artist (or, rather, used to be). I consider myself an illustrator, but haven't painted in a long time. This book is great, as she discusses mixing colors, selecting brushes, using the medium and so on. This is a fine book!!!



5. This book IS the oil painting course I've always wanted. I've taken a oil painting course at my local community college, but did not recieve the detailed instruction this book offers. I highly recommend it for the beginner painter. I also recommend Color Mixing Recipes by Walter Foster. It really helps you to get the color just right. It has an index on everything from apples to wet sand.Color Mixing Recipes

4 comments about Area_2.

1. A very thorough book for those looking for a wide variety of branding and design solutions.



2. Excellent overview of current state of design. Although the book is a bit too heavy, don't try reading this in bed or on a plane, it is worth every penny. Compared to Area (the non-numbered first issue) this book focuses not only on paper based graphic design and I really don't know how one can assess or put a value on such a broad field of possibilities. It is still brilliant. For anyone assuming an investment in graphic design be it a box, a shop, a book, stationery or whatever needs an outside with colours or patterns, this book is a must-have, must read.



3. Makes a good companion to the first area book. Each ones shows off the best of the best in current design.



4. This is most certainly one of the best books Phaidon has published yet. Completely blows Area out of the water. Worth every penny.

5 comments about You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination.

1. I used a graphic design class I teach as an excuse to purchase this book (I've been wanting it for a while). My students are loving it as much as I do.



2. I've been buying books for 45 years and this is the most wonderful book I own--amazing, thought-provoking, beautiful. My only regret is that I waited so long to purchase it. As improbable as it sounds, "You Are Here" comes across as what might be the lush, lovely, and totally unlikely synthesis of Bachelard's "The Poetics of Space," the imaginative joy of A.A. Milne ("Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner," etc.) or P.L. Travers ("Mary Poppins," "Mary Poppins Opens the Door," etc.), and the deep wisdom of place and spirit found in the works of Annie Dillard and Kathleen Norris or even Terry Tempest Williams. When I open "You Are Here," my heart, spirit and imagination invariably soar.



3. This book was not what I was expecting but it is interesting nonetheless. It is a collection of (mostly) unconventional maps with a few paragraphs written about each. In addition there are some articles on topics loosely related to cartography and the mind. It is more of a picture book than a reference volume and provides food for thought on mapping and identity.



4. This is a great collection of eccentric, unique and brilliant conceptual maps. It is one of those books that will take you places you never imagined.



5. This is a wonderful and thoughtful and visually stunning collection of artist maps. I LOVE it!!! If you're interested in environmental art, it's a must have for your book collection.

5 comments about Basic Stained Glass Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (Stackpole Basics).

1. Excellent layout and binding that allows you to leave it open to the page your following. Easy to follow instruction and pics for the visual learner. Love it and looking forward to the projects!



2. Very detailed and organized. I am glad I bought the book. As a beginner in stained glass this met my needs.



3. The title says it all. I went from never having worked with stained glass to completing the first two projects in the book - and it was fun! Now, I'm working on my first original stained glass design. This book is great for anyone new to stained glass - the step by step instructions would probably be excrutiatingly slow to someone who already has a lot of experience, but they were exactly what I needed to get started! I also really liked the explanation of all the most common tools and equipment.



4. Quick, easy and lots of pictures. Binding allows all the pages to turn easily, preventing the pages from 'closing' up on you while you try to follow the instructions.



5. I have been checking out many of the books that are available and this one gives the best directions and it has made my first project half way easy.