5 comments about The Art of Trompe Loeil Murals.

1. I ordered this book, hoping to gain insight into the "art of trompe l' oeil" as suggested by the title. Instead I found myself bored with a book full of the same looking gaudy murals and images, with the same drab earthy palettes for each one. The "how to's" and I use that phrase lightly, are nearly nonexistence, except for the last 15 pages - which basically demonstrate the same faux stone relief technique, only using different motifs. I found this very useless! It almost feels as if the "how to's" were an after thought, or thrown in to fill the pages. Purchasing this book, with the understanding of it being a "how to", instructional guide to trompe l'oeil painting - I found it extremely dissapointing! Though the artist's work is OK, there was nothing new revealed here that isn't thoroughly covered in Grahm Rust's marvelous books, which I highly reccomend. Rust is an obvious matured muralist who graciously reveals his inspirations and knowledge on the subject with elegance.



2. I loved this book and although I would have liked more instruction on painting some of his illusions, I am quite happy with what the author did include. Great photos of his completed works.



3. I found this to be a wonderful book and will give it often as gifts.



4. I mistakenly thought this was a Graham Rust book. I don't buy this type of book thinking I will be a grand muralist. I buy them for high-end decoupage images. I rip the book apart and use the images. This book did not meet my needs. I found the images bland. Again, I do not buy these books for the intended purpose so keep this in mind



5. This is a very nice coffee table book, and for a beginning art novice there are some "secrets". But, for artist with general high school level education this is little more than a nice picture book.
   There is no discounting Yves Lanthier's skill or excellent creative ability but the few tips he gives are not for creating the Trompe L'oeil ceilings he exhibits in the book. Rather he shows simple stone / marble technique, a basic wall effect and basic light shading in the last fifteen pages of the book.
   This is not a book the speaks to basic line and eye illusion of ceiling depth which I was looking for.

3 comments about A Book of Colors.

1. This book was recommended to me by a friend who designs rugs and is an architect as well. I bought it for my own use as an interior designer and to help me with paint colors and overall color scheming. It is a great device for getting a feel from your client of what colors he/she prefers. It's a wonderful gift for people in the trade.



2. This book and its companion, "Color Image Scale," are excellent sources of palette ideas for web work. (If you buy one, buy both.) As an amateur designer, I found their treatment of the emotional impact of color groupings to be enlightening and thought inspiring. On the down side, they don't provide CMYK or RGB values--a minor inconvenience.



3. This is a fantastic resource for anyone designing in colour. I do mostly online design and use this book every day. It is a specialised colour combination scale based on research done by the author.

   Pick a base colour and see its combinations, what they mean to most people and where they are typically used. Awesome stuff!

5 comments about Adobe Photoshop and the Art of Photography: A Comprehensive Introduction.

1. Photoshop CS3 is a very "deep" application, and I think that this book can be an excellent resource for virtually any CS3 user (especially those who classify themselves as intermediate users of Photoshop). The author does not assume that you have already read a user manual or other book. He covers in detail many of the tools in detail that are frequently used to color correct, mask and composite images, and do many other common tasks. "Hints" and "Notes" can be found throughout the book in small green boxes, and I found them very helpful. For example, in Chapter 10, the author explains in a Hint box how to apply sharpening settings from one image to a batch of images in Bridge.
   
   Weinrebe supports his lessons with good screen shots throughout the book. Just a small selection of the tools that he covers very well (in a step-by-step fashion) are the Healing Brush, Lens Correction tool, History Brush, the Bridge and Camera Raw (including a suggested Bridge/Camera Raw Workflow), tinting with a color layer, batch renaming, converting to DNG, creating contact sheets, creating panoramas with Photomerge, and actions.
   
   One of the most interesting parts of the book are the artist interviews. These Q&A sessions with such luminaries as John Paul Caponigro, R. Mac Holbert, Pedro Meyer, Graham Nash, Maggie Taylor and Joyce Tenneson generally run from about 4-7 pages and include fantastic imagery and insight about the artists' background, their art, what motivates them, and how they approach and use various technologies. I believe that this series of essays could easily be a very strong coffee table book on their own. They are a really special.
   
   I also like the Chapter Reviews questions and Exercises at the end of each chapter, which can definitely help people to learn more about the Photoshop techniques that were covered in the chapter. Having all the exercise files on a CD in the book is also a nice feature. Also, it really helps that Weinrebe is a professional photographer who has been preparing files for clients for years. His work really shines throughout the book.



2. As a long time film photographer making the move to digital this book was a life saver. The step by step approach took the mystery out of photoshop.
   The language was clear and the examples relevant.



3. The development of pigments by chemists changed the art of painting in the Renaissance. The development of film sensitivity changed the art of movie making in the 20th century. How will Photoshop and other image processing software change the art of photography?
   
   This book provides instruction in the use of Photoshop, in an unorthodox manner. Most Photoshop books are organized along workflow lines, although a few work their way through each of the Photoshop tools and menus in order. Weinrebe follow his own order, dealing with light and shadow, curves, black and white processing, color tools and so forth before dealing with the tools used when first bringing images into Photoshop. Often a chapter introduces important techniques not related to the main one, as in the author's discussion of the use of the history brush in the chapter on curves. The author recognizes his approach is unusual, and suggests that readers go through the chapters in the order the reader needs.
   
   The chapters include practical exercises that use images provided on an included CD.
   
   The book recognizes the version 4.1 update to Adobe Bridge which is a component of Photoshop CS3, although I expect that the update was made available at too late a date for the author to do much exploration of its potential. (There has been a 4.2 update, but the changes seem to have improved code, without adding tools.) How else can one explain the author's dismissal of the new sharpening facility that allows for input sharpening, which is different from output sharpening?
   
   Besides the instruction on using Photoshop, each chapter concludes with an interview with a famous photographer. Most of these photographers seem to specialize in montage, that is, the creation of pictures by combining images.
   
   My biggest question was what happened to "the Art of Photography" mentioned in the title? Nothing in the material on technique goes further than to describe what controls and sliders create what effects on an image. No advice is presented in how to use Photoshop to create a picture that is more "artful" (whatever that means). The interviews are interesting but they don't include any information on how the artists used Photoshop to make their pictures more artful. I suspect that even Rafael received some instruction from his teachers on how to use the new pigments beyond how to apply them to canvas. Certainly, a few books on Photoshop have covered this terrain. I particularly found Rob Sheppard's "Outdoor Photographer Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2" to be useful.
   
   I also have some small complaints about the book. The text always appeared to be one or two pages behind the related illustrations, leading to a lot of page flipping. Some instructional areas seemed to scant the tools being discussed. For example, the chapter on Adobe Bridge mentions how customizable Bridge is, but neglected to provide any details in how to do this.
   
   Still, a photographer looking for an introduction to Photoshop will be able to get started with this book. On the other hand, those looking for a more detailed introduction might want to look at a favorite of mine, "Photoshop Artistry: For Photographers Using Photoshop CS2 and Beyond" by Barry Haynes. It doesn't cover all the changes made to Photoshop in its later versions, but it will provide an understanding of the software that may even include a little bit about injecting the artful into one's images.



4. the book is well worth the cost: it is well organized and presents all of the capabilities of Photoshop in a pseudo-textbook fashion that are easily understood. At the end of each of the 12 chapters, the author presents a review: questions that the reader should be able to answer and exercises covering the CS3 capabilities that had been explained in that specific chapter. Also, the author includes interviews with 12 noted creative photographers such as Maggie Taylor and Lois Greenfield.



5. Photoshop is incredibly feature-rich software, and frequently perceived as overwhelming. Weinrebe breaks it down into easily understandable bits while still providing useful tips for very experienced users.
   
   And the interviews with renowned photographers add a unique element, opening - at least a little a bit - a window on their varying perspectives and workflows.
   
   Well done. This book is a valuable addition to every photographer's reference library.

2 comments about Painting Landscapes With Atmosphere: An Artist's Essential Guide.

1. Ray Balkwill's advice and practical painting demonstrations in different mediums allow you to create a finished landscape. Emerging artists would find this a good reference book. He has exercises to follow showing the different mediums and techniques are explained step by step. His paintings depict the open-air scene in a free and painterly way that captures light and atmosphere. I enjoyed this book and his approach. It is easy to follow and worth having in your library.



2. A new twist on painting traditional watercolors...Using pastels liberally
   to finish off an excellent WC to begin with....Gives the paintings additional strength, and power.
   All, in all a great book with new ideas...also, Balkwill is teriffic painter to begin with.
   Jack, Ohio

5 comments about Painting Animals.

1. I ENJOYED THE ARTWORK VERY MUCH BUT REALLY HOPED THAT THE DEMONSTRATIONS WERE MORE INVOLVED. THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE ARTIST IS ONE OF THE MOST ACCOMPISHED IN THE WORLD AND HAS A VERY GIFTED EYE WITH WHICH HE VIEWS NATURE. THE UNUSUAL POSES, USE OF COLOR AND DELICACY OF BRUSHWORK CREATES
   AN ANGELIC EFFECT OF HIS SUBJECTS. HOWEVER, AS FAR AS THE BOOK GOES, ITS A FORUM FOR HIS ART AND STYLE BUT HE DOES NOT GIVE AWAY AS MUCH ABOUT HOW HE ACHEIVES THESE FANTASTIC EFFECTS. WHAT WE WHO BUY THESE BOOKS NEED IS A MORE INVOLVED "HOW DID YOU DO THAT" APPROACH. SHOW ME MORE STEPS. SHOW ME HOW YOU HANDLE THE INTRICATE DETAILS. REMEMBER THAT IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY. OTHER STRUGGLING ARTIST WILL IMITATE YOU FOR A TIME AND THEN THEY ARE OFF TO DO THERE OWN THING. IN THESE TYPES OF BOOKS WE LOOK FOR MORE DETAIL. I FOUND THAT TO BE SOMEWHAT LACKING IN THIS BOOK.



2. This is an exceptional wildlife artist, however I bought this book specifically for the purpose of learning to paint animals in detail. There's not a whole lot here to explain how to get certain effects. One thing that bothered me was how it was written. Not that it was poorly written, but that it was from the viewpoint of someone other than the artist. I want to read what the artist thinks, how they came up with the idea & how they acheived their results. Not from the viewpoint of someone who interviewed them.



3. This book is exceptionally well done and an inspiration to anyone interested in wildlife and art.



4. This is not a book for the beginning artist but perhaps another reference for wildlife artists, especially acrylic and oil painters. Full of lovely paintings by Christophe Drochon but I found the instructive aspect to be somewhat thin on specific detail. Discussions of technique and composition were very general and although I agree with the author's comments, I felt that a lot more could have been said that would have made this a more instructive book.



5. If you aim to paint ultra-real, exciting wildlife art, Christophe Drochon's work can't help but inspire you. His rendering of lambent cat eyes, fur glowing in the sun and dramatic scenes are some of the best.
   
   This book is aimed to the oil and acrylic artist or anyone working in opaque mediums as opposed to the more expressive and loose styles of watercolor and pastel. You can get ideas for colored pencil and sharpened pastel as well as gouache but this is really primarily for oil painters.
   
   There are sufficient demos to give good instruction for the more advanced artist, but you need some grounding in your medium before you attempt work such as this. In other words, not for beginners except as inspiration and simply to admire an exceptional artist's work.

5 comments about Rock Painting Fun for Everyone!.

1. This book has really awaken more creativity within me. Up until now, I never would have considered painting on rocks, but the book has changed my perspective. It taught me that art can be displayed on pretty much any medium. The author really breaks down each stroke for you in the book, which is a must for me since I've never taken up painting as a hobby. The materials needed will not break your budget, which is a bonus. I loved the book so much, that I purchased more of Lin's books. I've even just recently read her book about painting houses, cottages, and towns on rocks. Imagine that! I would encourage anyone with even just a small interest in painting to buy this book. The projects are charming and inspiring.



2. Yes, it is fun for everyone, as the details are well written and easy to follow.



3. I thought it was a good book but too expensive for what you get in it. She has another book, Painting Rocks for Kids, that is a lot less expensive and has many fun projects for starting out.



4. This book is great. You must have experience in painting and talent also. It provides with ideas in how to decorate your garden. I think that if you folow the instructions your landscape will look very original.



5. Rock painting is fun and most of the time rocks are free..
   Lin Wellford and her talents makes this craft available to everyone with easy, fun instructions for all ages to learn how to paint almost anything on rocks..
   Thank you

5 comments about Robert Wade's Watercolor Workshop Handbook.

1. I was very impressed with this book. The side tabs make it easy to go directly to the section you want. Advice was excellent and well presented.



2. A beautifully printed hard cover book by an extraordinary watercolor artist. The book is filled with outstanding examples of landscapes, cityscapes from all over the world. In addition to being an inspired World class watercolor artist, Robert Wade is also a great teacher, the book is filled with practical advise and hands on lessons on color mixing, painting people,skies,glazing,location painting and many other subjects.Just to be able to look at his outstanding paintings would easily justify buying this book.



3. Excellent handbook for the serious watercolorist. Robert Wade has a great approach to some of the more difficult aspects of painting with watercolor. He is brief, to the point, yet his explanations make sense! Enjoyable reading and a great reference tool.



4. What a wonderful book with terrific instructions and insights. Replaces 20 books in my collection which don't come close to the wisdom this book provides.



5. I have a library of over 60 watercolor books, and this is by far my favorite. I also own all of Wades's tapes, and his new CD. I find them to be an extension of the book. I took a workshop from a famous watercolor teacher who had us doing wash on top of wash. She must have gotten the idea from Wade as he has a section on just that topic. He covers washes on top of finished paintings that changes the character of the painting completely. A fasinating book that I return to over and over again.

5 comments about Painting Better Landscapes.

1. The best book I have bought. Goes into visualizing,planning,etc. Covers the guidelines for compositions as well as values and mood. Highly recommend.



2. I bought this book years ago and I continue to come back to this book years later. It's full of good and useful information. Kessler lays out the basics well and provides good solid information for constructing good landscape painting. Her book is a great reference for when I run into problems or am not sure of what I'm seeing when I'm painting. Kessler and John Carlson are the two best books on painting landscapes that I found.



3. On my feedback I had entered the feedback for the wrong book, my apologies, please. This book does have a lot of great information and gives details using great techniques.



4. Well written text, for advanced artist as well as the beginner. Kessler explains her topics very well. She uses a lot of earth tones in most of her paintings, but any artist can adjust the color range to suit their taste.



5. Este libro es estupendo para mejorar tu pintura, tanto seas novato como avanzado, pero especialmente es útil si llevas tiempo pintando, creo que está orientado especialmente para superarte en lo que ya haces. Te hace ver la técnica a seguir, desde que empiezas a inspirarte en una fotografía y su interpretación, la combinación de colores empleados, la mejor composición, profundidad, la forma de trazar con el pincel, y muchas recomendaciones más para superarte en lo ya llevas haciendo un tiempo atrás, como es mi caso. Recomendable para todos.
   AVISO PARA AMAZON.COM: Soy español y hecho de menos que tengais un apartado especial para saber las publicaciones en mi idioma. Todos los libros que he comprado los hubiera disfrutado más si estuvieran traducidos al español.
   
   This book is marvellous to improve your painting, so much be raw as(like) advanced, but specially it is useful if you go time doing(painting), I believe that it is orientated specially to excel yourself in what already you do. It makes you see the technology(skill) to continuing, since you start inspiring by a photography and its interpretation, the combination of used colors, the best composition, depth, the way of planning with the paintbrush, and many recommendations more rides to excel yourself in already doing a time behind, since it is my case. Advisable for all.
   
   I WARN FOR AMAZON.COM: I am Spanish and a fact of less than a special paragraph to know the publications in my language. All the books that I have bought had been enjoyed by me more if they were translated into the Spanish. THANKS.

5 comments about Dynamic Light and Shade (Practical Art Books).

1. This book has a lot of black and white drawings of Hogarth and others demonstrating different types of light; middle ground, background, foreground lighting as well as directional lighting. It is illustrated with sphere heads as well and gives you a good foundation to jump from in your own work. I am advanced in lighting already so I was a bit disappointed in the simplicity here but if you need to learn this at a basic level then there is none better! Again, it takes practiced participation in exercises to understand the lighting changes and work to learn it well--as in anything. If you are willing to learn, there are no better 'how to' books. This one is at a beginner level but still useful if you are learning directional and ground light. It was too elementary for an artist already familiar with lighting, though.



2. This book is killer.... it starts by talking about silhouettes.... then adding 1 highlight... then more and more form definition...
   
   Everything from directional light, to moonlight, to sculptural light.
   
   Great for anyone looking to add detail to their line work.



3. A very nice book, with a lot of important notes about the subject, but the images look like comics to much.



4. This book will not significantly improve your understanding of how light affects and creates shadows on form. However, I don't believe any book can do that. You can learn to draw a realistic face from your imagination, but the variations of how light will affect forms are infinite. Most artists who get good at "faking" it rely on a good understanding of form and perspective, backed by countless hours spent observing and drawing things under various lighting situations. They basically are always relying on observation, be it direct, photographic, or remembered. Try to think of an artist who could create truly convincing, consistent lighting for a scene from their head. I can't think of any. I guess my point is, let's not be too hard on old Burney, he was just trying to make a buck:)
   
   If this book has a practical application, it's probably as a collection of creative ways to light your subjects to achieve particular dramatic affects. Fun to flip through, but just not all that useful.



5. This book is good to illustrate the phenomena of light in a composition. It discusses the different kinds of light and their effect on the environment of the picture. Worth getting to use as reference material.

5 comments about Caravaggio.

1. 
   the quality of the research and the color of the paintings are outstanding.
   Also the CD-ROM has an unbelievable amount of information on the artist's
   works and their provenance.
   Dr.John T. Spike's 20 years of research is shared with the reader and is so readable and engaging.



2. The reproductions are excellent. The binding is fine and the cover handsome. The writing is solid academically. I would have liked the book to have had more information on the artist and his life. Much is left to be done in the study of Caravaggio. His life still seems to be quite mysterious. His probable use of optics and mirrors in his work is touched on and needs further exploration. This book provides a good introduction to Caravaggio and his paintings in a handsome package.



3. Great book on the greatest of all Italian painters. Glorious plates. And the text is a pretty good bio.



4. My husband and I just came back from Italy and we had to have a Caravaggio book. His painting in Vatican museum was especially memorable! I picked this book and it is very good. I agree with the earlier comments that some (not "many") pictures are poor quality (too red), but many photographs are very good, nice size for an art book and very important - it is an interesting and detailed research.



5. My library contains many various volumes on the subject of Caravaggio--fiction, biography, fictionalized biography and photo surverys of his works--but if I were allowed only one book on this most extradordinary painter and his life I'd take "Caravaggio" by John T. Spike. In this weighty large-format picture-book Mr. Spike has given us the most complete look at the artist and his works currently available, presented in graceful depth so as to engage any interested reader and art enthusiast regardless of the nature of his commitment. It's unusual to find such an authoritative colaboration of art historical expertise and first quality illustration as we have here, a book to read, study and savor.