1 comments about Painting Wildlife With John Seerey-Lester.

1. The layout of this book is clear and concise making it easy to follow. However, I did feel that the author relied on some known artistic knowledge of such things as tonal values, lighting, etc. As a beginner, I found there were many words and ideas that I did not understand which I floundered on. Nevertheless, in fairness the demonstrations were excellent and some of the best that I have seen. I liked the way the colours to each painting were shown which I found a great help. If you already have some wildlife painting experience then this book is ideal for furthering technique.

5 comments about Paint Red Hot Landscapes That Sell: A Sure-Fire Way to Stop Boring and Start Selling Everything You Paint in Oils.

1. Just the cover of this book will tell you that you don't want to go here....The author likes graphic, garrish, monochromatic, in-you-face imagery, but without any "payoff" or even an anything-interesting focal point...the center of the composition on this cover, IS the center of interest (definitely a do not do this to your own compositions!)...and uh, are those vines or telephone wires, or is there a tornado here etc as a subject? I just personally can't stand these "how-to" style of artist/stylist/authors and shlocky color artists of this genre. Get away from fine art and into scenic background painting-big and splashy for the local high school theatre arts group and stay away from your easel with this stuff!! A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY UNLESS YOU'RE A HALF-BLIND COPYIST...Sorry Svob, it just stinks and that's my opinion...



2. mike svob's book is a great resource, he shares his style and ideas, so we too, can "Paint Red Hot Landscapes That Sell".



3. I am new to the art of painting. I've bought lots of books on the subject but none of them has given me the urge to paint like this one does. I saw a larger picture of this book on a differant website and the front cover spoke to me. I'm glad i listened.
   The way he simplifies the painting process is exactly what i've been looking for. If your a painter set in your ways this may not be for you but it's awesome for a beginer.
   If you don't like the art don't buy the book. If you like the cover you really should check out the art inside it's fantastic.



4. This was an example of not being able to look into the book prior to purchase. I would not have bought the book. Reds and Oranges just make me nervous and most of his paintings are filled with them. The paintings are dramatic, however most of them disturb me with their colors and I cannot paint that way. I suppose some of the advice is good that's why there are three stars. He is definitely a very talented artist but not for me.



5. I find this book disjointed and poorly written. The headlines are not followed through in the body of the pages. Perhaps someone who hasn't painted much would find it helpful, but Svob is mostly talking about compositional tricks. There are much better books on composition out there. If you like bright, garish colors, then this is the book for you. If you are weak in composition, then you might learn something too. Otherwise, I'd pass this book by. It does not deliver on the title, Paint Red Hot Landscapes that Sell.

No comments about The Nature Diary of an Artist.

3 comments about The World Of Robert Bateman.

1. If you love wildlife and want to have a collection of photographs that are such good quality it's almost as if you are there in real time, buy any Robert Bateman book. You won't be disappointed. But you will be awed and amazed.
   Browse this link to see limited editions of his work. http://www.artandnature.com/bateman/a-z.html
   
   Amazing beauty in nature. And Bateman knows how to capture it for all time through the shutter and to the page.



2. This book, together with "The art of Robert Bateman" is one of the best wildlife art books ever published, and truly shows Bateman at his best. The later collections (especially the very last ones) don't even come close to the beauty of the paintings in these two books. In most paintings the animal is just one character, sometimes not even the main one, while the landscape and the surroundings (depicted in marvelous and maddening detail) almost always plays a central role. Here Bateman shows to be a master of the techniques he uses, and creates pictures of stunning beauty who truly come to life. Both books are highly highly recommended if you life "realistic" wildlife art.



3. Very nice artwork. I especially like the polar bear in the white-out.

No comments about John Alexander: A Retrospective (Museum of Fine Arts).

5 comments about Rackham's Color Illustrations for Wagner's "Ring".

1. I just started collecting fairy tale art like Dulac and Rackham. This book is a magnificent addition to my collection. The illustrations jump right out of the pages to tell the story. Both beauty and darkness are exquisite in this assembly of work. I now want to read the book. I also love lighter fairy tale art such as that of Nielson, but this darker approach to visually telling the tale is effective and wonderful.



2. Arthur Rackham is among the greatest illustrators of what has come to be called 'fantasy' literature. His renderings of scenes from Dickens, Barrie, Grahame, and even Shakespeare are often flawless and many have ultimately proved definitive.
   
   Here he tackles the daunting scope of Richard Wagner's vast operatic cycle DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN, and he is so successful that his images have become the model for most of its traditional stage design ever since they were exhibited in 1912 at the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. Yet Rackham achieves more than merely the giving of face and form to Wagner's characters and scenes. These illustrations capture a sense of space and height, light and darkness, beauty and tragedy, promise and doom which may be described as music to the eyes. C.S. Lewis first beheld them as a boy and later wrote, 'Pure "Northerness" engulfed me: a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of Northern summer, remoteness, severity ...'
   
   For me, the most evocative image in this collection is from DIE WALKURE, Act II. In the foreground we see Brunnhilde anguishing over her orders from the just-departed Wotan. Helmet cast upon the ground, her face and posture effectively communicate distress and isolation; yet most remarkable is how Rackham echoes the Valkyrie's state of mind in the landscape beyond her. The falling hillside; the stark, scraggly saplings scattered into the distance; the shadowy silhouette of other mountains marking the far horizon; the low-hanging clouds; and the muted shades of grey, gold, and brown all convey an overwhelming sense of loneliness as cold and haunted as it is beautiful.



3. I'm swiftly becoming enamored of the old-time illustrators - Joseph Clement Coll, Charles Dana Gibson, N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Alphonse Mucha to name but a few. I'm now happy to add Arthur Rackham to that list. As both a fan of illustration (fantasy, comic book, and otherwise), as well as a bit of a mythology buff, I was thrilled to see that Dover (whose name, in my opinion, always spells quality) had produced a volume of Rackham's illustrations of Wagner's Ring Cycle, which is itself based on a famed tale of Norse mythology. The illustrations, as the book notes, were first published in 1910 and 1911, respectively. They are uniformly beautiful, bringing the story to vibrant life. Rackham was clearly a skilled draftsman, and his work has that turn-of-the-century look that is very compelling (Gibson and Wyeth had a similar style).
   
   This book is printed on high-quality glossy paper and features wonderful illustrations of dwarves, heroes, valkyrie, gods, and others that Rackham captures with skill and aplomb. Each drawing is accompanied by a discription, helping to tie the illustrations together and explain the plot to those who might not be familiar with it.While the volume is quite slim (only 64 pages, plus 4 of introductor/background material) it is very much worthwhile. I hope you will pick it up and enjoy it.



4. This book is a delight for anybody who loves Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ("The Nibelung's Ring") operatic tetralogy. While I could have wished for just a little more detail in the captions - which could therefore have allowed the entire story of this cycle to be told (a few things consequently get missed - not really major, but wouldn't have hurt nevertheless!) - they are otherwise excellent; and the paintings themselves are not only outstanding art-pieces in themselves - they also are excellent visualisations of what Wagner was trying to do! They're also a wonderful corrective to the all-too-many "modernisations" that for some people like myself are hurting the visual aspect of a given opera's appreciation. [Often those "modernisations" are in bad taste, travesties of the composers' and librettists' intentions, and are either boring, shocking for mere shock value, or just plain BAD!!!!!]
   
   Most warmly recommended for both confirmed Rackham lovers as well as Wagner lovers AND for those who're just getting started with the process of getting to know Wagner's stupendous cycle!!! GET IT!!!!



5. All 64 Rackham's images for Wagner's Ring collected in one book is a grate thing to have if a Rackham lover. Reproduction of the images is not the best possible though. All in all, it is still a good book to have. Rackham is magical.

No comments about Woodblock Kuchi-E Prints: Reflections of Meiji Culture.

1 comments about The Art of John Yardley.

1. Ron Ranson has succeeded in writing yet another excellent book about an artist that he knows personally and admires. An introductory chapter details the artist's attempts to find his unique style and his final decision to give up a life long career as a banker to become a professional artist. The book is lavishly illustrated with full-page paintings and is a worthy precedent to the highly successful book written by John himself a few years later. The book is a "must buy" for any admirer of impressionistic painting.

1 comments about Divided Portraits: Identity and Disability.

1. Hilary Cooper is an obviously gifted, professionally accomplished, and artistically elegant portrait painter that has included among her subjects such celebrities as Matheissen, Salter, George Plimpton, Patti Hearst and former New York Mayor Ed Koch. When Hilary was in an accident that left her a quadriplegic for life she battled hard to regain enough use of her limbs to embark on making a series of portraits of people with disabilities in order to counter the perception that the disabled are somehow fundamentally different from everyone else. "Divided Portraits: Identity And Disability" is the result of her project. Enhanced with an introduction by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and a particularly thoughtful essay by Roxana Robinson, "Divided Portraits" combines brief biographical sketches of Hilary's selected subjects along with her full color portraits of them. A very special book, "Divided Portraits" would make an excellent addition to academic library American Art History shelves, and an especially appropriate Memorial Fund collection for community libraries.

4 comments about The Oil Painter's Pocket Palette.

1. This little book would be invaluable except for the fact that the colors are from the Daler-Rowney range of oil paints, which is a student grade brand. Many of the colors are not even offered by the better paint manufacturers, or if they are it is under different names, and the author does not address this issue. I want to buy paints of much better quality, which makes using the book much less straight forward. Also, the author discusses color only, but not such important issues as the type of binder, concentration of pigment, etc. I feel that the book was written at least partly to push Daler-Rowney paints, and is meant to be used mainly by students and not professional artists.



2. I started in oil paints a couple years ago and found this book a great help. There are so many different color paints on the market this helped narrow down to the essentials. The mixes recommended for skin tones has been a nice springboard to jump from. Definately worth the money.



3. I do not own the book as yet but My Instructor at the College I attend loaned it to me as I was having a difficult time trying to mix the right colors of sand for my seascape painting. I was very pleased to experiment with the colors used in the book and was able to get the final results I was looking for.



4. I like the book. One (typical) page of this book shows color swatches of raw sienna mixed with 12 other colors. Each color mixture is tinted and tinted more. One would think that a skilled artist should have mastery of his/her colors --so that this book really isn't needed. Maybe so. On the other hand, it might be nice to buy two copies and mount the pages for easier reference.