5 comments about Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Dover Books on Dance).

1. First published in 1950, this ballet reference guide has stood the test of time. Who's it for? Ballet students and teachers, choreographers, or any ballet enthusiast. Here's what the book covers:
   
   -descriptions and definitions of over 1100 ballet steps (in alphabetical order)
   -how to say the darn words (worth the price of the book alone!)
   -illustrations showing you body positions for the more common ballet steps and movements
   -cross-references to other names for similar steps/positions that vary from the Russian, French and Italian schools
   
   A must have book that can easily be toted around, I doubt most readers will regret buying it. Other ballet resources I recommend include The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution for practitioners who have trouble with their feet.



2. This book really helps me learn all the ballet steps and poses. Anyone can read it and understand it. It teaches different styles, such as Cechetti, Russian, etc. I highly recommend it for any ballet lover at any level. This book is an EXCELLENT tool.



3. If you are a learning (or even trained) dancer,, you should definitely buy this book. Teachers- you should keep a copy in your studio library. My old dance teacher introduced me to this dictionary, and I continued to use it in my college dance classes and when I taught dance on my own.
   
   It's small enough to slip inside your dance bag, so you can take it with you to class. It's a fabulous resource for terminology, which is priceless to learning dancers. Because, there's nothing worse than going to a class when the teacher is of a different methodology. This one features several, including the more popular methods, like Cechetti. There are also some drawings to help you understand more clearly.
   
   This book will help you learn all your arabesques, positions, and more.
   A great tool!



4. It helped me visualize my eight body positions in order to put them in practice. It also helped me with spelling of different positions.



5. This book best serves those who have had enough experience with ballet to be able to understand the terms within the definitions themselves. Almost all ballet terms in this book contain other ballet terms within the definitions, and pictures are minimal (positions of the feet/arms, body in space, head, stage terms). If the dancer is not familiar enough with ballet terms, technique, and form, then this book can be overwhelming. I recommend this book to all teachers as well as teenagers who are serious about ballet (it's a must have). For younger students (9 years old and up), I recommend any ballet book that contains basic terms as well as pictures showing proper form/execution of these terms (pictures will also include proper alignment and proper turn-out as well as a clear explaination on how to work toward both).

5 comments about A World of Art.

1. A World of Art by Henry Sayre is meant to give individuals their first exposure to art and art history. This is the textbook I use for my Art 101 course and it fills that purpose exceptionally well. The book is broken down into 5 segments with a total of 22 chapters.
   
   Part One: The Visual World - is about understanding the art one comes across. Chapters in this section discuss themes found in art, the value we give to art, and developing a literacy in order to explain the art around us. Personally, I feel that the subject matter in this section is pretty deep for someone new to the field and suggest beginning with Part Two.
   
   Part Two: The Formal Elements And Their Design - deals with the basic elements of art, particularly to how they relate to the artist. Chapters in this section discuss elements such as line, space, color and general design principles. A good introductory chapter to begin with.
   
   Part Three: The Fine Arts Media - reviews the different ways art is created. Chapters are broken down by media such as drawing, printmaking, painting, photography, and sculpture.
   
   Part Four: The Visual Arts In Everyday Life - is a very small section revolving around architecture and design. It reviews a few of the art historical movements such as art nouveau and art deco.
   
   Part Five: The Visual Record - is a chronological look at art throughout the ages beginning with primitive (cave art) and ending with the twentieth century.
   
   The book varies from the 4th edition in its incorporation of 100 new images (quite a lot considering it is a 500 page book). The author places special focus on artwork from women, minority and non-Western cultures, along with showing the cornerstone pieces of art from the Western world. There are a few mistakes in the text (hence a 6th edition I am sure), and some better terminology should have been used (i.e. using the term "fabrics" when in fact he should have used the more correct term "textiles"). Overall it is a very good book, it is a smooth read and has many color images on nearly every page.



2. This book is an ultimate study guide for the Praxis II art content exam! It gives you everything from art history to photography to printmaking... It is an excellent survey of technique, elements and principles, as well as chronlogical history. The only thing it lacks is a few more "contemporary names" from the 40's through today.



3. This was a wonderful course, the book is easy to understand and presented well. Nice size print and good photos of lots of works. I realy enjoyed each page of the book.



4. It's a text book in its fifth edition. When I start my own publishing co. I'll be sure to be involved in text books so I can cut students such a great deal by only charging $60 instead of $90 and I'll only print new editions every 3 years instead of 2 at the risk of things like math, art, and history changing so dramatically.



5. The book covers an extensive array of facts about art in general as well as about specific works of art. By introducing artists and exploring their intentions, the student can better understand and perhaps come to appreciate a wider variety of all forms of art.
   The CD holds some of the works that appear in the book, but not all, plus others that are not in the book which I thought was a little disconnected. But the CD also includes verbal pronunciation of artists' names, which cooresponds exactly to the Pronunciation Guide and is helpful. Overall, the book offers very thorough instruction for art appreciation.

5 comments about Artforms (8th Edition).

1. This book is the best that I have seen yet! Artforms goes into great details about each piece and form of art, for which gives a lttile more insight about the artist. Throughout the book there are profiles on different artists. This book is a keeper,a great source for research and a perfect collected item for your art library. Artforms is an artform in itself and illustrated very well with colored pictures from all types of artists from different eras. You will enjoy this book!!!



2. I bought this book, and the accompanying ArtNotes, as a textbook. It is, however, an old edition of the book that has been superseded. The new edition - the one assigned for the course - is the 9th edition, not the 8th. If you're buying this book for your personal use, fine, but if it is for coursework, don't. I am quite disappointed in Amazon. Next time, I buy at the college bookstore. A rating is required. My rating is not of the book, but of Amazon's performance.



3. I was impressed with the book. It was in good condition and arrived on time. I would do business with Woody's Books again.



4. This is a great book especially the abstrat things. Colors and Ancient Cave paintings. Not only was the class fun (for me) because I like van gogh, and The first abstract colored painting whoms which name i forgot. The text book gave very good information into the class and art. Then afterwards I had a dream of me and that Flower painting woman. So this class was an eye-opener into the spiritual relms of art for me, since that is who I am. Hence; Theren lies Art as a religion. Godbless everyone and you and yours...
   
   One love.
   
   Peter.



5. I didn't really use this book that much in my class but when we did it was ok. It has a lot of famous artwork and people in there so its an extremely good way to catch up on what most artists talk about and stuff. It also teaches you different styles of art, mediums, history, and terminology. It's a decent book.

5 comments about Dynamic Art Projects for Children: Includes Step-by-step Instructions And Photographs.

1. I "volunteer-teach" art to primary students. This year I am teaching 2nd grade. This is a great book - beautiful pictures, easy-to-reproduce projects. Be aware that not all projects in the book are for younger children. The age starts at 7 and goes to 12. There are a handful of projects for 7 year olds. Instructions are clear and well organized.
   It has been a great help.



2. I teach art classes to groups of children who are preschool-age, K-5, and 5-8. I have used several of the projects from this book and everyone has loved them, including the parents of the children, the classroom teachers, and program coordinators with whom I've worked. Photos in the book are very helpful and the directions are percise. I have been able to tailor them to fit into short meetings or longer workshops. The work of my kids has been displayed all over town to rave reviews. I've had the parent of one of my art workshop kids borrow the book to duplicate a project I had done with her daughter for the youth group at her church and they loved it. My mother has a friend who works with kids and she saw pictures my mother had taken of the foil snake projects my workshop kids had done. I am now getting the information for the book for her.



3. LOVE the illustrations. This book is vibrant with color. I am most impressed with the fact that they included work from children. However, as a first grade teacher, I will only be able teach a few lessons. The projects are intricate and would probably require more than one session. Nonetheless, I'm still very happy with this purchase.



4. This was one of about 20 books I bought for I summer camp I was running. This book is worth every penny. I ended up using a project a day in the camp. Kids and parents loved it and I appreciated the step by step instructions and pictures. Truly a great buy!



5. THis book is awesome and full of great lesson ideas. The spiral binding makes it as functional as it is informative. This book has it all: art standard connections, easy to follow directions, photos and student examples.

5 comments about Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History (with ArtStudy Printed Access Card and Timeline) (Gardner's Art Through the Ages).

1. I have to agree with the people who said the pictures were barely visible, the accompanying website had tons of broken links. I had to buy this for a class, normally I would've kept such a book for future reference, but this I couldn't wait to put it up for sale.



2. I had to get this book for an Art History course, but found that it is used in four other courses I'm going to take later on. For an art history text, this is great product at a great price. A good resource for the future, as well.



3. This book was at a relatively great price, cheaper than the average by about $25. It was in perfect condition when it got here. Basically, everthing turned out great



4. This textbook ran out from the bookstore at Cerritos College. This is the latest version that our professor wanted us to have beyond the 12th Edition that was suggested by the Art Department curriculum. This textbook is very up-to-date and comprehensive.



5. This book, like Gardner's Volume I is dissapointing for the 129.00 price I paid. The photographs are small, hard to see what they are writing about. The information is scattered, hard to compare simular works. The book is written to be overwhelming and cannot contribute to a student's success. Any students that must use this book, should and will spend many hours researching other art history books sites.
   Worst of all is the companion site, which should be interactive, or at least connect to links correctly, is horrible, just horrible. I do not think that anyone went through the site to see if links work... They just randomly through them in with out consideration to the students that were spending so much for their book.........SAD!

5 comments about Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, Second Edition.

1. MANY great reviews had me taking a chance and ordering this book. If you are at a beginner level with line drawing and the quality of line--then it is a good buy.Many teachers do not stress these force lines. I guess I was lucky as mine did (years ago in the 70's)In this book, he stresses force lines of figure drawing and the quality of the line (light touch, dark, heavy) as a way to show the force in a figure--therefore, adding a new dimension to your flat looking drawings IF you always use the same pressure on the pencil as your method. Or IF you draw tight and are afraid to loosen up and let the pencil flow on the paper along force lines until you have the figure. It really didn't help me at ALL, as I learned figure drawing this way. There are many of his and student drawings, and that's fine, but in all fairness and honesty--it didn't help me. I was disappointed in all the glowing reviews?!



2. Although I have not read through the whole book, it has some great info and has renewed my interest in drawing the human form.



3. I just finished reading this book the first time through, and it's great. All of the other reviews are spot on. It does help to have some knowledge of anatomy, but if you don't, you can still learn from this book, and it will make learning anatomy more fun. It has lots of great full page drawings too. I've noticed improvements in my skills, and look forward to going through it again in the future.



4. I've added this book to my required book list for Figure Drawing for Animation. Great book, and very helpful to my students. I see a marked improvement in ability within reading just the first chapter.



5. I bought this book for Xmas for my son's girlfriend. Both my son and his girlfriend are Animation students at San Jose State University. They have to draw constantly. I mean CONSTANTLY. She said that this is a terrific book. This is coming from an Animation student and you cannot get better feedback than that. Highly recommend this book.

1 comments about After 9/11: America's War on Terror (2001- ).

1. You should heed the warning written on the opening pages, "The authors were especially inspired by The New York Times,...Time, Newsweek, and the New Yorker". The Graphic adaptation of the 9/11 Report was far superior, but in that work, the authors were grounded by the logic and reality of a non-partisan project. If you see the US efforts in Iraq as nothing but calamity and blunder, then this is an excellent piece of unfettered propaganda for you.
   
   Consider that the chapter addressing the Surge (19 pages of 149 total) is nothing but a continuation of explosions, murder, chaos and horror. There is not a single positive image or statement describing the situation in post-Surge Iraq.
   
   It's not hard then, to recognize that the entire book is obviously themed to reenforce the same stale talking points of the anti-war left: There were no WMDs; Bush was hell-bent on war from the get-go; every aspect of the operation was mis-managed or corrupt; Iraq distracted the US from Afghanistan, and all developing problems in A-stan were caused by efforts in Iraq; war crimes, torture, rape, sleep-deprivation, etc.
   
   Accompanying the mediocre drawings of suicide bombings, IEDs, and dead soldiers, are depictions of the space shuttle Columbia burning up on re-entry, Hurricane Katrina, and the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. (I'm not kidding.) More apparent unintended consequences of liberating Iraq and ridding the world of one of the most evil despots that ever lived. But don't look in this book for Saddam to be described in such a way. This is a comic book indeed.

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.

4 comments about Twelve Monet Bookmarks (Small-Format Bookmarks).

1. These were all so pretty and thought provoking. I gave many away just because i liked the idea of spreading his beauty to others.



2. They're cute. Sturdy, not too thin. Come in book form and you just tear them out.



3. If you like Monet and don't mind postcard-style bookmarks these are good for the price and include some of Monet's more famous paintings.



4. These are nice every day bookmarks. They're not fancy, there's a book of them and they are made of cardboard. The back says the name of the painting,and the front with the picture is kind of glossy. I wouldn't give them as a gift, as they are not really gift quality, unless it was to someone who is a Monet enthusiast or admirer that would be thrilled to have a little of their favorite author nestled between the pages of a novel they are reading. I think they are a fair price. If you lose one, you've got several others to tear out of the book they come in... the edges end up slightly perforated because you have to rip them out of the book of bookmarks. They aren't hard to rip out though, if you bend them a little bit. They rip out fairly clean. If you wanted them to be more durable and not get stained or bent I guess you could laminate them.

2 comments about Art: A Brief History (3rd Edition) (MyArtKit Series).

1. My son needed this book for his college class. It was very useful and the seller was very accomadating. She even offered to take the book to him because she lived across town from him. She opted to mail it to him.



2. This book arrived promptly and in condition that I am very satisfied with. Overall I am very happy with my purchase!