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Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier, by Juliette Aristides, is a quiet 208 page book that explains the drawing process in manageable chunks of information.  I say “quiet” because it’s not loaded with bright, colorful images jumping off the pages.  Rather, it has an understated beauty and seriousness that deserves time to study and absorb the lessons being taught.

The book contents include, The World Through an Artist’s Eye; A Study of Proportion; A Discussion About Line; the Illusion of Depth, the Third Dimension; Tonal Composition, a Palette of Nuanced Gray; Light and Shadow, and the Creation of Form and Character.

A fantastic bonus is the companion 1 hour 17 minute DVD.

There is a section on materials …

but I particularly enjoyed her processes.  In one section she explains that she saves her charcoal dust into a small plastic container.  She then uses it to sprinkle onto her surface and completely cover it.  From that surface, a mid-tone gray, she works in the lights and darks to create her image.

In another section, she discussed the value sphere and how without light and shadow, it would simply be a circle.  She waxed on about how the study of light is always key in the subject and how the character and quality of the light dictates the interest in what you are looking at.

In another segment of the video, Juliette does two separate figure drawings from two different models.  She draws while talking about how she works from general to specific.  She starts with blocking in the head, ribcage, and pelvis.  Then she indicates the mapping of the figure with lights and shadows.  A time-lapse repeat of the start to finish of each drawing is included.  Other parts of the DVD are shot outdoors in Florence, Italy; different artists talk about art, such the making of stuff rather than the consumption of stuff.

The book is excellent, something you’d expect to be the required text in a college art class. It’s the inclusion of the DVD, however, that brings it all to life and makes the Watson-Guptill suggested retail $29.95 an excellent value and the Amazon $18.95 price a downright steal.  If you want to go beyond the whimsical and into learning classic and elegant drawing, you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve love sketch books — textured-filled experimentation books, books of drawings, text and picture filled journals, and so on — they all get my attention.  While at Blick Art Supply in San Francisco, I came across the Artist’s Journal Workshop, Creating Your Life in Words and Pictures, by Cathy Johnson (with insights from 27 artists).  After picking it up and doing a quick perusal of the pages, within moments I got the “ooh … I have to get this” reaction.  Every two-page spread in the 145 page full-color book has eye-grabbing illustrations on it.  The book covers what you need to get started, testing driving materials, what type of journal is right for you, finding time and making time to develop a habit of journaling, and pulling it all together.

The illustrations are engaging; the text is beyond fluff and is instead filled with solid information.  For example, “If you don’t get the Moleskine type (she’s not a fan of thin weight or overly slick paper in journals) specifically made for watercolor, you’ll want to add a bit of soap or detergent to your paint water to make the paint adhere to the slick surface.”  Or, “If you really hate an image, you can paint over all or part of it with gouache or acrylic. … Be aware that acrylics can cause pages to stick together.  Gouache doesn’t.”

I don’t generally read this type of book from the beginning to the end.  Rather I skip around a lot, going from one area to another depending on what grabs my attention.  Each time I do so in this book, I find another helpful tidbit, such as the advantages of having a blue-gray watercolor pencil as part of your travel-light kit.  This is a good book — lots of helpful information, many gorgeous illustrations, and plenty of fuel to keep your journal pages filled.  If you like keeping a sketchbook, or if you’d like to but don’t know where to begin, check out this book.  If you don’t get it from your local book store, Amazon sells it for under $16 –worth every cent!

by Julia Triston and Rachel Lombard

When I first read this title, “How to be Creative in Textile Art,” I sort of rolled my eyes.  Was a single book really going to cover that broad of a topic?  However, I then saw the book was published by Batsford, meaning excellent work coming out of England, and I gave it a try.  Wow, this book did not disappoint!

The first thing I noticed was the feel of the book. It’s cloth covered, but hard bound, and it is very nice on the fingers. Better still is the content. I love looking at sketchbooks, especially those that show the visual growth of ideas into their eventual fiber form, and this book is loaded with them.

The first main section of the book is called gathering. It covers ideas on how to use a sketchbook for selecting a theme and setting boundaries within that theme; and it continues on with collecting information, recording, evaluating, putting order to your project, sketching, stitching samples, and so on. You’re encouraged to gather and explore everything that you think may be relevant to your project.

The three other main parts of the book are exploration and development (which goes through design development); moving on to stitch (with more ideas, samples, and experiments); and making and evaluating (finalizing your design and creating you textile). There are also some health and safety info, a glossary, further reading, organizations, suppliers, and an index.

The sketchbook above, called the Lion Sketchbook by Rachel Lombard, contain textures that were created with plaster, threads, dripped candle wax, and plastics.  Wow!

Authors Julia Triston and Rachel Lombard, two artists and teachers, share several of their processes from ideas through finished work.  The result is a book that is more than just eye candy; it’s some serious food for creative thought. Highly recommended!

Sandy from California!  Sandy, you won a copy of Jill Berry’s Personal Geographies, Explorations in Mixed-Media Map Making book. I wrote you in email and hopefully you’ll email me your address so that the publisher can send you a copy of Jill’s book.  I was torn among several comments, but Sandy I loved that you would want to, in part, honor your great-aunt who owned a knitting store.  I can only hope that one day my one of my great nieces would want to remember me in such a loving way.  Sandy, I hope to hear from you soon!

Thank you everyone for sharing your comments.  I hope you consider purchasing Jill’s book and making your hand map.  If you do, please do be sure to share a photo of it with me and Jill.

“You don’t have to be a world traveler or a professional cartographer to embark on a grand journey of self-discovery through map making. Personal Geographies gives you the tools and techniques you’ll need to create artful maps of your self, your experiences and your personal journey. Chart the innermost workings of your mind, document your artistic path and create an unfolding maze of your future dreams and goals.”

So say Jill Berry, the engaging author of Personal Geographies, Explorations in Mixed-Media Map Making.   In this full color, 144 page book published by North Light Books, Jill takes you on a journey of making artful and expressive maps of your self, of your experiences, and of your plans, projections, and possibilities.  It’s an intriguing approach to exploration of not only the world around you but the world within you.

There are 21 map-related projects throughout the book that feature a variety of mixed media techniques.  There are flip book maps and post card journals, maps that explore different memoirs of life events, such as vacations or holiday memories, and maps that chart your perfect place.  A nice touch are the maps and their stories from 17 contributors.

I was particularly drawn to the hand map. The project focuses on a “collage of your hand using imagery that symbolizes people or places that have contributed to what you do with your hands.”  I immediately thought about the people in my life who have encouraged me to use my hands in artistic ways like my dear aunt who did exquisite and complex crochet patterns using the finest thread and multiple needles and my father who was a musician and enjoyed sketching. What would I collage together to create such a map?  What might you?

What would you include on your hand map?

If you’d like a chance to win a copy of Jill’s book, leave a comment telling me what you would include  on your hand map.  On Saturday, December 10, 2011, I will pick a winner from the comments and the book publisher will send a copy of Jill’s book directly to you!

If you want to increase your chances of winning a copy of the book, check out these blogs, also offering a copy of the book:
Friday, Nov 25    Aimee Myers Dolich
Mon Nov 28         Carla Sonheim
Tues Nov 29         Diana Trout
Thurs Dec 1          Gwen Diehn
Friday Dec 2         Jane LaFazio
Monday Dec 5      Judy Wise
Tues Dec 6            Lisa Engelbrecht 
Weds Dec 7           Lyric Kinard  
Thurs Dec 8          Orly Avineri
Friday Dec 9         Tracie Lyn Huskamp

If you don’t want to wait until the 10th, you can go to this post on Jill’s site, scroll towards the bottom, and learn how you can get 35% off of the retail price from now until December 9th. You can also buy a signed copy directly from Jill at the same site.

by Joen Wolfrom

If you find yourself struggling with the essentials of good design, need a refresher, or simply want a good design reference book, take a look at Adventures in Design, The Ultimate Visual Guide – 153 Spectacular Quilts – Activities & Exercises. Opening the 142 page, full color book, is a beautiful journey down a creative path with Joen breaking down the principles of design, explaining the concepts, showing many examples of quilts and drawings to help illustrate those concepts, and providing activities and exercises to get you going.

This is a gorgeous and informative book.  While I am honored to have three quilts in this book, I do not exaggerate that everything about this book is first class, right down to the smooth, matte paper used on the cover which feels so good in your hands.  The content is broken down into three main sections: Setting the Visual Stage, eight ingredients for great design, which includes the power of design, line and direction, shape, color, value, texture, and visual finesse.  Section two is Creating the Visual Dance, a blueprint for superb design which includes ten stellar principles and info on visual balance.  The third section is Designing Spectacular Quilts, which merges everything prior to provide design strategies.

This is not a how to quilt book.  This is not a skim-the-surface of design book.  This is a serious design book presented in a beautiful and approachable format that inspires as it teaches. If you have any of Joen’s earlier books, such as Visual Dance: Creating Spectacular Quilts, The Magical Effects of Color, or Color Play (each of which are available as ebooks from Amazon), you’ll want to add this to the collection.  If you don’t have those books, the vast majority of quilt makers (and some other artists) will want this one.

It retails for $29.95.  If you don’t have a local quilt store in your area which you’d like to help support, you can get the book on Amazon at a discount.   If you’re on the fence about getting it, visit Amazon’s site where you’ll find a look inside feature will showcases several pages from the book.

The Sketchbook Challenge E-zine, is an 83 page, full color “creativity, projects and inspiration” PDF book from artist Sue Bleiweiss, the creatior of The Sketchbook Challenge blog, and 12 other Sketchbook Challenge artists. Each section of the e-zine presents an informative tutorial that is well illustrated with photos and drawings.  The e-zine has the good stuff that you might expect, such as Sue’s direction on making a sketchbook sleeve and Diana Tout’s direction on making binding stitches.  It also has tutorials on techniques that can go beyond the sketchbook and applied to fabric and other mediums.

Leslie Tucker-Jenison’s ten page tutorial is crammed with instruction for screen and thermofax printing. If the idea of having thermofax screens made for you or hunting around to find a thermofax machine seems too much of a bother, you’ll love the instructions she gives for creating all types of patterns using a simple silkscreen and easy to find supplies such as freezer paper.  Judi Hurwitt explains how to do stacked journaling, which is basically a way of writing over writing so that the journaling isn’t very legible.  This is something I’ve done when I was annoyed about something and wanted to write about it but didn’t want anyone to discover it.  Judi pushes the idea further by showing how to stack words on a curved line or within a shape, working with tin foil, and scribbling in paint.

Often when looking at a finished piece of work, I wonder how the artist worked through the initial idea to the finished piece of work.  Jane Davies addresses this in her section on working in a series from composition sketches. She shares work from two series and discusses how her sketches evolved into the finished work.  Lyric Kinard addresses the students who claim they cannot draw or aren’t creative.  In her Make Bad Art and become a better artist, she gives four exercises to help you make bad art, enjoy it, and hopefully awake your creative muse.

The price of this ezine is $9.99, a bargain.  It’s less than the price of many of today’s magazines, yet it has far more usable information.  Because it’s a PDF, you can print whatever section you’d like and then work with it.  Or, you can just read it on your computer or tablet device (instructions are given).  If you do a tutorial a week, you can have a full season of fun.  Inside the e-zine, you’ll find:

Learn how to draw a pinecone with Jane LaFazio
Exploring Text Collage with Kelli Nina Perkins
Make a Scrappy House Quilt with Jamie Fingal
Working in series by Jane Davies
Make bad art with Lyric Kinard and become a better artist
Sue Bleiweiss shows you how to make a sketchbook sleeve
Carol Sloan shares her remedies for blank pages
Take 5! with Carla Sonheim
Screenprinting for the Mixed Media Artist by Leslie Tucker-Jenison
Take your sketchbook out to eat with Susan Sorrell
Stacked Journaling with Judi Hurwitt
Learn how to use your inner GPS to create journal pages with Violette
Learn a trio of pamphlet binding stitches from Diana Trout

For more information on the z-eine, including a free sneak peak of it, visit http://suebleiweiss.com/schome.html.

I thank everyone for taking the time and signing up for the give-away.  So many of you posted very kind comments, many which had me smiling for the day.  Because of the high number of entries, I’ve decided to give two prizes … the grand prize is an autographed copy of the Digital Essentials book and two autographed Free Stuff on the Internet books (your choice of which title).

The grand prize winner is …. Judy Rys
Judy will  a copy of Digital Essentials and two Free Stuff on the Internet books, all autographed. 

The runner-up is … Carol Sloan
Carol will receive a copy of Digital Essentials directly from the publisher.

And … for everyone else …

As a thank you to everyone else living in the US, from now until August 31st, you can purchase Digital Essentials from me at a special price of $27 AND I’ll include a copy of one of my Free Stuff on the Internet titles – both autographed.

Here’s how:

1.  Jot down the title of the Free Stuff book that you’d like.
2.  Click this link
2.  Be sure to include which title in the Free Stuff series that you’d like in the PayPal comment box.  If you’d like your books personalized, please let me know to whom within the comment box.  Otherewise, I will sign each unpersonalized.

If you want to read the Tables of Contents for Digital Essentials in PDF format, please click here.

If you’d like a free chapter from Digital Essentials called, Image Protection — Can it Be Done?
How can I protect my images to prevent someone from downloading them from my Web site? – please click here.

Please note that the Free Stuff on the Internet series of books are out-of-print.  However, they are still a fun reference.  If you find an outdated URL, it’s generally because the domain changed.  A simple way to find out is by typing in the site name into a search engine like Google.

For those living outside of the US, you can also purchase from me with the same offer.  However, I would need to calculate the difference in postage and send a separate PayPal invoice for it.

Again, thank you for signing up here and on the other blogs of ArtSparks members and for the many kind comments!

Keys to Drawing with Imagination: Strategies and Exercises for Gaining Confidence and Enhancing Your Creativity, by Bert Dodson

I love this book!  While Keys to Drawing was published in 2006, I’ve only recently discovered it.  It contains “58 strategies, 36 exercises, and 13 step-by-step demonstrations” to get creativity flowing.  There is stuff like Escher tiling, sequences. making the familiar strange, distortion grids, and much more. The spiral binding keeps the book flat for those times you have your sketchbook out and want to give some of the ideas of whirl.  It gives instruction on doodling, as does some of the small doodling books that are very popular, but it pushes the doodles ideas and goes into many more ideas. The amount of fun and helpful ideas crammed into the 192 pages of this book (published by North Light Books) is darn impressive.  There is also work and info from 30 other artists. This book goes into my favorites bookcase.

Surface Treatment Workshop: Explore 45 Mixed-Media Techniques, by Darlene Olivia McElroy Sandra Dura-Wilson

Have you ever gone to the Sunday Sampler (or Friday Sampler) at Quilt Festival?  It’s a collection of some 30 teachers who demonstrate a particular technique in short segments of time.  Each time a segment concludes, attendees can move to a new demonstration.  While I suspect it’s hard on the teachers, it’s a great way for students to be exposed to a variety of techniques in a short amount of time.  Surface Treatment Workshop is similar in that in two-page spreads, there are 45 different mixed media techniques explained within the 144 pages of the book.  No one technique goes into deep detail, but that’s what I like.  There is plenty to experiment with.  Techniques include additive, resist, and subtractive or combination. For example, there is stamping, foils, masking tape, crackle paste, stucco and pumice gel, embossing, rubbing alcohol, painted leaf, and much more.  I like that archival quality is discussed, and variations and trouble shooting is included.  The book was published in 2011 by North Light Books.

DIGITAL ALCHEMY: Printmaking techniques for fine art, photography, and mixed media, by Bonny Pierce Lhotka

Bonny Lhotka is one of the authors of Digital Art Studio, which is a book that I recommend on a regular basis.  The moment I learned Bonny was working on a new book, I was on a list to buy it.  It arrived, and it didn’t disappoint.  In short, I love this book.  Besides it containing beautiful photography of stunning digital artwork, it is loaded with information on a variety of inkjet printing transfer and direct printing methods.  I particularly enjoyed her approach to using carrier sheets.  Her suggestion to use a sheet of foam core board behind the printer as a support is brilliant!  A small thing that makes a big difference.

The book is divided into four sections: The basics; alchohol gel and supersauce transfers; direct printing; and finishing up and looking ahead.  Transfers and direct printing explain several approaches using various substrates such as plastic, metal, paper, and fabric.  Gelatin transfers include white marble fresco transfers, gelatin to metal, tile, and plastic sheet.  Direct printing includes printing onto metal, metal leaf, and custom substrates.  There are various galleries of work. The final section has a chapter on postcoats and finishing and another on new technology and the future of imaging.

Besides the excellent step-by-step photos, there is a 60 minutes DVD with additional instruction.  While I am certainly not going use every method described in this book (I do have my favorites), I am in awe of the information covered. It’s a beautiful merger of technology and art  The only thing better would be working at her side.  The next time I get an email asking for an inkjet printing book recommendation, unless you are a complete beginner (as this may overwhelm a beginner looking for something basic), this is it!

Digital Alchemy
Pages: 320
New Riders, Part of the Voices That Matter series.

Once again, I’m behind on writing blog posts.  However, I do have some new good books that I’d like to share, especially since some may make a great gift.  I’ll start with Adobe Illustrator CS5, one-on-one by Deke McClelland and published by Deke Press/O’Reilly.

Like the CS5 Photoshop one-on-one book, this is another winner.  It’s a full color, 480 page book printed on glossy paper.  The book is physically heavy, and heavy on instruction.  It set up in lessons:

Lesson 1 – Starting a document; Lesson 2 – Lines, Shapes and Color; Lesson 3, Using the Pen Tool (yes, an entire lesson on it); Lesson 4 Creating and Formatting Text; Lesson 6 – Transform and Reshape; Lesson 6 Pathfinder Operations; Lesson 7 – Blends, Masks, and Gradient Mesh; Lesson 8 – Working with Transparency; Lesson 9 – Brushes and Symbols; Lesson 10 – The Amazing World of Dynamic Effects; Lesson 11 – Live Trace, Paint, and Color; Lesson 12 – Printing and Exporting.  Whew!

Going through this book chapter by chapter, or lesson by lesson, is truly like having a class with master teacher Deke McClelland.  But be forewarned, the book is intensive, and you will work hard getting through each lesson.  However, if your goal is to finally master Illustrator, this is the book to have.  Readers of my blog will know that Deke is a long-time author of instructional books and an incredibly knowledgeable and sharing teacher (you can catch him at Photoshop World).  If you cannot take a class directly with him, this is the next best thing.  While there is no DVD included in the book, there are URLs throughout the book to find additional instructional videos online.

It’s not an inexpensive book, retailing at $49.99; but you can find it at Amazon for less.  Again, if you want to learn Illustrator, this is your book.

Among my friends, I am the Photoshop go-to person.  I’ve been using the program for a very long time and feel extremely fortunate that I can generally get design work done using the program without thinking about what tools I need to use to get that work done.  Even so, learning the program was a long time in the making, and the learning never ends. In fact, I will never, ever fully understand that program because it’s an ever-evolving bottomless pit of possibilities which I feel compelled to at least try to understand or otherwise become antiquated in a nano-second.

In that effort to stay on top of the changes, I was a beta tester for Photoshop CS5 (yes, it is now permissible to say so).  It has some impressive new features that I’m still experimenting with (did I mention the learning is never ending?).  One of the best instructors I’ve had in helping me learn is Deke McClelland.  While I’ve taken various classes with him over the past decade through Photoshop World, I was also aware of him years prior because he wrote a book on Canvas, one of the first programs I used to design with.  In other words, that boy has been around for a long time, and his knowledge and ability to share his knowledge in written form and through the classroom has helped me tremendously over the years.

Many people email me asking for Photoshop book recommendations, and there are several I like.  However, Deke’s one-on-one series is particularly good, especially for those needing a good foundation on which to quickly build on.  It’s why I’m happy to share that  his one-on-one series has a new title: Adobe Photoshop CS5 one-on-one published by Deke Press/O’Reilly.  If you haven’t read an earlier Photoshop book in this series, this is an excellent one to start with.  Not for the faint of heart, this is a heavy book, both in physical weight and depth of information. It is  full color printed on 460 glossy pages.  It is not inexpensive, retailing at $49.99 – and that’s without a DVD ($32 on Amazon, click the book link).  But if you’ve been toying with the idea of taking a Photoshop class, or if you upgraded to CS5 are feeling a bit overwhelmed, this book is worth every penny and then some.  If you take the time to sit down and go through it chapter by chapter, set up as lesson by lesson, you can learn a great deal from an incredibly knowledgeable teacher (plus you can develop your biceps with it).  With the book, you also have online access to images and videos to accompany each chapter.

I love when people buy my book and tell me how much it has helped them.  But if you have that book (hint, hint) and want to go beyond the basics of Photoshop, consider this book.  And if you’re about to write me asking for a Photoshop book recommendation, here it is.