1 comments about Print Your Own Fabric: Create Unique Designs Using an Inkjet Printer.

1. This is a marvelous reference by two expert writer/designers. Browse it for inspiration, read it for the details. A great addition to your library.

No comments about Inks (Printmaking Handbooks).

4 comments about The Art of the Garden: Collecting Antique Botanical Prints.

1. This book is well written. Straight forward, informative and intersting. The reproductions of the botanical prints are stunning. The book is super reference for both the novice as well as the more experienced collector. A joy to read.



2. Some of the most beautiful AND important antique flower prints are reproduced in full color in this book. I was amazed at the amount of knowledge and history detailed so elegantly. The authors include even more artist information on their site. Fineantiqueprintsdotcom has striking images and examples. This book is an excellent reference.



3. The Art of the Garden... introduces the beginning enthusiast to the wonderful world of antique flower prints and is an essential addition to the library of the established collector of botanical art.
   
   The gorgeously illustrated book documents the magnificent flower prints produced by notable artists of the 17th through the turn of the 20th centuries. These celebrated artists include Basil Besler, Maria Sybilla Merian, Mark Catesby, Georg Ehert, George Brookshaw, Robert John Thornton, Pierre Joseph Redoutè, and many others.
   
   Illustrated with over 300 full-color images of original and valuable botanical prints, this book fills a void in the literature, as few good botanical references remain in print.
   
   The text recounts the fascinating lives and passions of the artists and their patrons, the technical advances in printmaking, and the discoveries and cultural influences that shaped the depiction of flowers, plants, and trees. Also discussed are many variables affecting the values of original antique botanical prints including condition, rarity, historical significance, and aesthetic appeal. A range of prices is included to guide you in your collecting and a section on framing, displaying, and proper storage makes this an indispensable reference. A fascinating book for collectors of botanical prints, gardeners, and those interested in the history of flowers.



4. This was a gift I gave and was very well-received.It is an exceptionally beautiful book withmany floral prints worthy of framing. I am just glad they are still printing books of this quality.

No comments about Dore's Dragons, Demons and Monsters (Dover Pictorial Archive Series).

No comments about Rubber Stamping (A Passion for Paper).

1 comments about Dore's Illustrations for Don Quixote.

1. Gustave Doré was a frustrated painter. Forced by circumstance to produce illustration illustrations for a number of literary works, he primarily longed for fame and success as a painter. But while shooting for fame as a painter, he inadvertently achieved immortality as arguably the greatest illustrator in history.

   Most illustrators of the classics fall far short of the efforts of the works they are asked to illustrate, but Doré almost always managed to eerily echo visually the genius of the original authors. After reading the first half of DON QUIXOTE, I discovered this Dover collection of Doré's illustrations of the work, and I found them to be completely stunning. Doré had a genius for precisely visualizing events in the novel and transferring them precisely into his illustrations. No scene is too much of a challenge to him. The famous moment when Don Quixote attacks the windmills, mistaking them as giants, is depicted brilliantly by Doré. Every famous scene and many less famous scenes are all depicted, and I can honestly say that not once does Doré disappoint me in his imaging of how the scene occurred. One can, if one wants, make minor quibbles with Doré, such as his drawing Quixote wearing the wash basin helmet even in section later in the novel where he is said to have worn a sallet helmet. But this truly would be mere quibbling, for throughout Doré perfectly captures the spirit of DON QUIXOTE.

   I'm convinced that this collection of illustrations is not nearly as well known as it deserves to be. Graphic novels are an extremely popular genre today, and it is impossible to imagine anyone interested in the visual aspects of those stories not being fascinated by Doré's far more complex and classically organized illustrations. Likewise, no one interested in graphic art or the history of art could not find these less than riveting. Most of all, anyone who loves DON QUIXOTE will adore these drawings, and to work through the various illustrations is to relive all the glorious events of the novel once again. Indeed, one could almost argue that while other translators have managed with more or less success to translate Cervantes's masterpiece into English or German or French, Doré managed to translate the novel into a purely visual language.

No comments about All You Need to Know About Rubber Stamping.

5 comments about Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft.

1. This review has nothing to do with how the book treats Wicca or witchcraft. The only question I want to answer here is how good a collection of illustrations on this historical/mythological subject it is, and the answer is: not very good at all. The quality of the illustrations is terrible for the most part. While there are some decent reproductions, most look like someone put a sheet of onion-skin paper up to a wall in some medieval church and hastily traced the picture underneath, all the while looking over his shoulder to make sure the caretaker wasn't approaching. And if you are looking for some good explanatory text, don't hold your breath. Aside from captions below each illustration identifying artist and source, there are no more than two or three introductory sentences PER CHAPTER. Better quality reproductions and some good research and interpretive text could have made this a scholarly tome. As it stands, it seems more like an attempt to make money off a collection of old tracings that were lying around in someone's grandmother's attic.



2. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but when I got the book and viewed the pictures I only found a little more than a dozen that were useful or interesting for my purpose. However, if you are an art student or just interested in the occult or demonology then this book will provide some unique and intriguing pictures.



3. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but when I got the book and viewed the pictures I only found a little more than a dozen that were useful or interesting for my purpose. However, if you are an art student or just interested in the occult or demonology then this book will provide some unique and intriguing pictures.



4. Its great to see history about witchcraft and deamons and so on. Some of the pictures are somewhat disturbing and yet understandable where and how the ignorance of the 16th century began. Please remember, that this book barely has words; its just pictures and nothing else, so, buy it if your a history buff in witchcraft and the occult.



5. This book is not meant to be an introduction to Wicca or a history of witchcraft and demonology. It's intended purpose is simply to provide an illustrated reference work primarily for historians, teachers, artists, craftsman, and authors working in the area of witchcraft and demonology.
   
   That being said, the book is divided into twelve chapters, each dealing with various aspects of witchcraft, death, demons, and the occult and providing a plentiful cornucopia of illustrations, woodcuts, copperplates, and artwork representative of the subject at hand. The works of Durer, Dore, and others appear together with illustrations from such famous demonological works such as Colin De Plancy's "Dictionnarie Infernal" and Francesco Maria Guazzo's "Compendium Maleficarum" as well as countless others from ancient to modern times.
   
   This is a first class illustrated reference book and will be useful to any number of those interested in the history of illustration of the Dark Arts.

2 comments about The Vintage Workshop Art-to-Wear - The.

1. This is by far one of the best Amy Barickman books. It is loaded with images and paper samples for anyone that loves to work with images. It is also quite generous with instructions on how to make various projects. My very favorite so far. Thanks Amy.



2. I bought this book with the hope that it would give inspiration and instructions to create new pieces that include images as well as instructions to embellish existing pieces. Unfortunately, this book is more focused on how to take Indygo Junction's transfer paper and use it to embellish pieces. The patterns to make some of the pieces are conveniently sold by Indygo Junction. But this is not my major issue with this book. Given that most of the pieces are created using the same image printing and transfer techniques, there is little reason to have detailed instructions on most of the projects; they use the same transfer techniques for each project, so essentially, you have a book of the same technique being applied to different pieces of clothing! In fact, out of the 40 projects in the book, over half of the projects have you either transfer or print the image onto printable fabric and adhere the image onto the garment. There are 5 t-shirts that you just adhere images to with only slight embellishment. I found the projects to be uninspired, even with some very beautiful images involved. It was a "slap on an image, add a contrasting piece of fabric and some stitching, and you've got art" approach that I found, on a whole, uninspiring. The projects themselves are a matter of taste--some were nice, others were repetitive (how many t-shirts with appliqued images do you really need to provide detailed instructions for??? One detailed piece, plus a gallery of inspiration would have been better--it would have left room for more project ideas).
   
   To make mattes worse, the instructions are lacking in some of the projects. For instance, one of the more advanced projects--soldered charms--where the instructions will NOT help a crafter select materials and complete the project. There is no information on soldering, supplies, techniques, etc. The assumption is that you'll just figure it out from the soldering iron manufacturer's instructions. Other projects incorporate unique products, like the Z Becky Brown purses, but the instructions are so simple and provide little inspiration that I wonder why they were included in the first place (the purse instructions simply tell you the sizes are for the panels and instruct you to print out the images from the CD and cut them to fit).
   
   When I first looked at the book, I thought there would be more detail in creating the piece from start to finish; this book is really just a clip art and idea book on how to use the clip art. For a $30 price tag, I expected much more, and was sorely disappointed.
   
   While the vintage artwork is nice and they make it easy to use (they provide both print versions and images on CD for people with different levels of computer skills--this takes up about 1/2 of the printed pages in the book), the images they supply are for personal use only--you cannot use the images for items you wish to sell commercially (even for handmade items) unless you're selling the images for a non-profit (e.g. church fund raiser); others will have to license the images from them; that process is unknown, and I'm not sure of the legality of them licensing images they've collected since the images SHOULD be in the public domain for them to collect and publish them.
   
   Overall, I would not recommend this book unless you can get it for a bargain price. You can look at the cover page and pretty much make up your own piece based upon the cover rather than spending $20 or $30 looking at more of the same inside. As an alternative, I'd recommend Rice Freeman-Zachery's book, "New Techniques for Wearable Art"--a much more forward thinking, inspirational and creative book.

1 comments about Monoprinting (Printmaking Handbooks (PH)).

1. A hodge-podge of techniques, none of which are explained fully. There isn't one sequence of how-to-do-it pictures. Instead, the authors provide written instructions that test the limits of understanding. I'm an experienced printmaker, but this book was a mystery to me.