Best Color in Art
Take colored pencils beyond the ordinary with Colored Pencil Painting Bible ! ALYONA NICKELSEN is an award-winning artist whose work has been featured in numerous national and international exhibitions as well as in most of the country’s major art magazines, including American Artist, American Artist Drawing, The Artist’s Magazine, International Artist, American Art Collector, and Art Business News.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I also liked the fact that it said Colored Pencil PAINTING, because I have always thought the style and technique I favor - a heavy, opaque coloring, rather than a soft sketchy style - was more akin to painting than the drawing/sketching that most people think of when they think of colored pencils. I knew that when I was last heavily involved in this medium, a good 25 or so years ago, this style or approach, and the colored pencil medium in general was still considered a relatively new medium (in the general scheme of artist's media through the ages) and that people had been experimenting and pushing the techinique envelope, and new products had been developing as well. Not only does this book cover the ultrarealistic effects and luminous colors that are the author's forte, it also gives a good overview of principles of design, composition, color theory, fundamentals of light, shading and shadows, and other topics that are applicable to just about all visual art media, not just colored pencil. The focus of the book, as promised by the title, is on colored pencil drawing (painting), specifically with "dry" wax or oil based pencils (not watercolor pencils) So naturally a lot of pages are devoted to materials, media, supplies and tools. It covers the difference and similarities between wax and oil based pencils and specific brands thereof - including hardness, blendability, color range, and the "feel" of the pencil on the page plus an appendix with charts of all the major manufacturers' colored pencils and their ratings for lightfastness. This book is an essential in the library of anyone who is interested in making art with colored pencils."
"(Hopefully you can see that without my help) also I included a sample of a crystal candle stick, a leaf with a water droplet or two, pears, an apple, a brass pitcher, we'll you can tell what they all are except maybe red , yellow and blue peppermill."
"May I suggest additionally using the same techniques with water and watercolor pencils too, if you don't feel like getting fancy."
"cherry, orange-peeled and unpeeled, red pepper--cut and uncut, peach--cut and uncut, strawberry, indian corn in husk, dandelion, mortar and pestle, brass pitcher, crumpled paper, white eggs, glass of water, multicolored glass shaker, swirled marbles, and decorative perfume bottle."
"If you're an intermediate or advanced artist with colored pencil experience this is a good book. If you're new to colored pencils like I am this is not the right book for you. And it shows one small photo of the drawing. You need a lot of experience drawing and working with colors and so much else to create drawings that look ultra realistic."
And the popular van Gogh painting White Roses at Washington’s National Gallery had to be renamed after a researcher discovered that the flowers were originally done in a pink paint that had faded nearly a century ago. Embark upon a thrilling adventure with this intrepid journalist as she travels on a donkey along ancient silk trade routes; with the Phoenicians sailing the Mediterranean in search of a special purple shell that garners wealth, sustenance, and prestige; with modern Chilean farmers breeding and bleeding insects for their viscous red blood. It turns out that the pigments and dyes responsible for hues have many remarkable characteristics, most of which we rarely ponder. During her journey, both literal and literary, Finlay learns of many little-known tribes and historical curiosities: too-trusting Puritans purchasing cheaply dyed black clothes destined to turn orange in a matter of weeks; the rise and heartbreaking fall of the art of the Pintupi tribe in barren central Australia during the 1970s; and the once-supreme economic clout of indigo from Bengal-to take just three examples among dozens. Explication of red made from cochineal beetles inspires a compelling tale that stretches from Central America to Scotland, and wry humor abounds in her search for a yellow allegedly once made in India from the urine of mango-leaf-eating cows and coverage of sundry poisonous pigments.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon""Color: A Natural History of the Palette" is an inside look, a visual compass an artist needs to speak their language."
"A treasure of color and why we found them in the first place."
"incredibly good book."
"Fun and interesting book."
"I've recommended this book to so many people."
"Good to know about the history of colors and where it was created from."
"The notes are not linked from the text, and in the Notes section, the numbers are omitted."
"She states she left without calling because they were "secret"... "and had been put into the safekeeping of the museum, for whenever Aboriginal elders or scholars want to consult them. In the chapter on red, when she visits a mine she stirs a pool of mercury with her bare hands (She tells us she had to take off her rings because they would melt...). In the chapter on orange, she speculates about Martinengo's (Stradivarius' mentor) journey from Spain to Cremona and how he might have traveled here or there seeing the various markets and spices."
From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. A light and lively guide [that] offers plenty of fresh clues for the brain’s colorful calculations.” — The Economist. Kassia St. Clair’s entertaining book brings them both into vivid relief.” — The Wall Street Journal “Riveting . Whatever your opinion of a shade, The Secret Lives of Color provides some illuminating perspectives on it.” — Hyperallergic. Every color has a story, and here are some of the most alluring, alarming, and thought-provoking.” —Simon Garfield , New York Times bestselling author of Just My Type: A Book About Fonts. Clair delivers a mix of science, humor, and art history in this collection of bite-sized essays on the cultural and social lore of colors. a lexicon of colors, simultaneously revealing the cultural attitudes that determine our responses to them.” — Country Living. “What The Secret Lives of Color offers really is, in some sense, a flash portrait of human civilization, a zigzagging and unpredictable exploration of how significantly color has shaped histories and disciplines, fueled empires, changed the nature of war and caused species to flourish or face extinction.” — Chemistry World. There she wrote her dissertation on women’s masquerade costumes during the eighteenth century and graduated with distinction. She has since written about design and culture for publications including The Economist , House & Garden , Quartz , and the New Statesman . She has had a column about color in Elle Decoration since 2013 and is a former assistant books and arts editor for The Economist .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Clair's strong interest in the subject is very apparent and makes this book a fun read- there is no dryness from the author and it makes it easy to read."
"Between this great book and Victoria Finlay's book, Color, one has the entire history of pigments."
"Fun read."
"I'm a history buff so this book caught my attention and I was not disappointed, the author gives each color a short 2-3 page history an added bonus is each page of the color has a band down the side of that color, there are some colors I have never heard of before, so that history was interesting and it uses in art explains why the artist were so exacting in their craft, so if off beat history books are your thing, I would suggest getting this book."
"Absolutely gorgeous."
"I rarely write reviews, but this book stood out from my recent purchases."
Best Craft Dye
Create mixed-media art quilts starting from your digital photographs. ( Down Under Textiles, Issue 25 ). Wen Redmond has been experimenting with different styles and techniques for many years, and this book distils her work with digital images and various materials. The book is helpfully divided up into sections such as using fabric or paper as substrates, using Pre-Coats (such as InkAid) and basic Digital Photography printing before moving onto more experimental chapter, using acrylic mediums, overlays, creating textured surfaces for blending or printing over and using nonporous substrates. Inkjet printers can be used to print on a variety of substrates, and mixed-media artist Redmond shares how best to combine printed fabric or paper with paint, photographs, and art supplies such as gel medium to create one-of-a-kind works of art. This stimulating guide to combining digitally altered photos and surface materials to create mixed-media designs centres around artist Wen Redmond's passion for photographs and fabric. With stunningly illustrated ideas for digitally printing/layering images onto fabric, paper and other surfaces suing a variety of techniques, it is jam-packed full of information covering computer software and scanner/copier techniques, layering and blending images, printing processes and paint methods. Whether you're interested in photo quilting, fabric and paper art, digital and mixed-media art, photography or art and design, you can't fail to be inspired by the transformational approaches in this book. Wen Redmond, a distinguished quilter and mixed media artiest, experiments with manipulating and printing digital images on a multitude of substrates including fabrics and paper. Showing complete familiarity with the tools, techniques and products she describes, Wen's inspirational combination of textiles and digital images will surely motivate the adventurous-spirited reader to compose, create and print innovative textile art too. Wen Redmond is a mixed-media artist whose work embraces digital printing, surface design, fiber art, and collage.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"gets into detail about using the computer to make digital fabric art."
"Wonderful instructional material."
"Easy to follow and the photos are wonderful."
"This book is filled with wonderful images from this talented artist."
"Great guide for working with digital photos to create art quilts - many great pictures for creative motivation."
"I own a few of Wen Redmond's pieces and love her book too."
"Lots of digital collage techniques to work with."
Best Polymers & Textiles
The mills at Wicksbridge are imaginary, but their planning, construction, and operation are quite typical of mills developed in New England throughout the nineteenth century. In Mill , a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, David Macaulay pays tribute to the historically important mills of 19th-century New England. Using close-up pen-and-ink illustrations, Macaulay thoroughly explains the Yankee ingenuity that went into the elaborate process of running machines that were generated by the flow of water.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Macaulay's renderings provide a rich insight into an 18th century mill-- from site planning to the development of the dam and the initial mill works."
"Mill shows why David Macaulay is the greatest architect artist."
"It is an informative book from a very enjoyable series."
"We are using this book to teach visitors to our historic two hundred year old mill how a mill is built and how it affected the birth of industry which built our country and made it the greatest nation in the world."
"Another good, solid book by Macaulay."
"I am redeveloping two historic cotton mills in Baltimore so this book has special meaning for me."
"I highly recommend this great children's book to everyone."
"The four books: Pyramid, Mill, City and Castle."
Best Polymer Science Engineering
A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities. "Elusive, expensive and invested with powerful symbolism, red cloth became the prize possession of the wealthy and well-born," Greenfield writes in her intricate, fully researched and stylishly written history of Europe's centuries-long clamor for cochineal, a dye capable of producing the "brightest, strongest red the Old World had ever seen." Striving to maintain a trade monopoly, Spain fiercely guarded the secrets of cochineal cultivation in Mexico and only after centuries of speculation (was the red powder derived from plant or animal?). Greenfield recounts the wild, clandestine attempts by adventurer naturalists to cultivate both the cochineal insect and its host plant, nopal, beyond their native Mexico, acts of folly driven by the desire for scientific fame and commercial profit. Native to Mexico, the scale insect cochineal was first harvested as a dyestuff by the ancient Aztecs, and once its properties were discovered by European conquistadors, it became the quarry in an international race to obtain a monopoly on its production.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A good read about something I seldom think about; that is, the history of color."
"The timing is perfect because I am visiting Oaxaca Mexico as I read the book and I have just finished a history of the Mexican Conquest by Cortes."
"Well written and researched."
"After reading A Perfect Red by Amy Greenfield I can see there is lots of information, and this book has it. This book goes into everything about the color red; where it was made, how it was made, who made it, and more."
"Loved reading this book."
"Greenfield does a wonderful job of describing the importance of the color red throughout history and the different compounds used to create it. Weaving the domestication of cochineal with the efforts of other countries to destroy Spain's monopoly, the book moves quickly."
"Who would have thought the history of the color red could be so interesting, but it was."
"Reading this book is an interesting way to follow history while learning more about the color red and the dyeing process."
Best Polymer Chemistry Engineering
A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities. "Elusive, expensive and invested with powerful symbolism, red cloth became the prize possession of the wealthy and well-born," Greenfield writes in her intricate, fully researched and stylishly written history of Europe's centuries-long clamor for cochineal, a dye capable of producing the "brightest, strongest red the Old World had ever seen." Striving to maintain a trade monopoly, Spain fiercely guarded the secrets of cochineal cultivation in Mexico and only after centuries of speculation (was the red powder derived from plant or animal?). Greenfield recounts the wild, clandestine attempts by adventurer naturalists to cultivate both the cochineal insect and its host plant, nopal, beyond their native Mexico, acts of folly driven by the desire for scientific fame and commercial profit. Native to Mexico, the scale insect cochineal was first harvested as a dyestuff by the ancient Aztecs, and once its properties were discovered by European conquistadors, it became the quarry in an international race to obtain a monopoly on its production.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A good read about something I seldom think about; that is, the history of color."
"The timing is perfect because I am visiting Oaxaca Mexico as I read the book and I have just finished a history of the Mexican Conquest by Cortes."
"Well written and researched."
"After reading A Perfect Red by Amy Greenfield I can see there is lots of information, and this book has it. This book goes into everything about the color red; where it was made, how it was made, who made it, and more."
"Loved reading this book."
"Greenfield does a wonderful job of describing the importance of the color red throughout history and the different compounds used to create it. Weaving the domestication of cochineal with the efforts of other countries to destroy Spain's monopoly, the book moves quickly."
"Who would have thought the history of the color red could be so interesting, but it was."
"Reading this book is an interesting way to follow history while learning more about the color red and the dyeing process."
Best Art Collecting
Here is a book that captures a valuable chapter in the history of modern art, as well as the spirit of one of its greatest advocates.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Well written and honest account of a singular woman who lived fully a life of purpose."
"I bought this book because it was cheap and because we were just about to visit the Guggenheim Bilbao."
"She lead an interesting life in an interesting time for the development of American art."
"Well told about the people she knew, places she lived and all she did to support artists."
"Her flamboyant lifestyle and harsh business ways in collecting art depicted by other writers makes for exotic reading."
"I was interested in the artists and Ms. Guggenheims relationships with them."
"First-person account of an unconventional life."
"Certainly a more interesting character then an author, Guggenheim details the art world when it was a more genuine and quirky place."
Best Business of Art
• Connect with your right buyers. • Increase your $$$ income today. • Sell art easily and negotiate nicely. • License your art and get paid multiple times for one artwork. • Implement powerful money and business practices. • Trust your own creative intuition. If you are interested in generating more money and success from your art, then ART, MONEY & SUCCESS is for you!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I get so excited whenever I pick up this book!"
"So this most Californian of how-to books that focusses on how the author went about selling her surf-loving husband's art should have rubbed me – a cynical Old World Brit who merely dabbles in water colours when he's had too much to drink – up the wrong way. And yet, despite the odd mix of woo-woo spiritualism and crass Yankee commercialism (you have to emanate true love for other people before you can close the deal) I found myself, dare I say it, agreeing with her."
"Some of her advice I was already practicing before I read the book, but I also picked up a lot of great ideas from her book. What I really like about her book though, is that it’s full of great advice, without the condescending tone of some other art business books I’ve read."
"One of my friends let me read some of this book on her Kindle. Before I finished the first page I ordered the paperback, as this is one of those rare books that you need to read and re-read Filled with ideas, real life examples and information that is amazing to have in one book."
"Maria Brophy is unique in her field of art consulting in that she is actively managing the career of her artist husband in real time and, in that capacity, works firsthand with buyers."
"Most of what we read/hear about marketing and growing a business deals with the big picture mindset stuff, which, while definitely important in its own right, doesn't really allow us to take that next step with concrete ideas."
"I am an older artist finally following through on that dream I had when I was a teenager. "Before life got in the way"."
"Art Money & Success is the book I have been looking for over 20 years - one based on the business of being an artist."
Best Art Reference
For all practical purposes making art can be examined in great detail without ever getting entangled in the very remote problems of genius." The book's co-authors, David Bayles and Ted Orland, are themselves both working artists, grappling daily with the problems of making art in the real world. Their insights and observations, drawn from personal experience, provide an incisive view into the world of art as it is expeienced by artmakers themselves. Art & Fear has attracted a remarkably diverse audience, ranging from beginning to accomplished artists in every medium, and including an exceptional concentration among students and teachers. David Bayles is an accomplished photographer, author, workshop leader, and conservationist.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It will challenge you to reevaluate your expectations and reframe your artistic pursuits in a manner that will allow for perpetual growth and minimize potential for burn out or "losing it"."
"This book is amazing."
"An excellent insight into the thought processes and predicaments of art."
"A neatly written nice little book on just what the title suggests."
"I know of many full time Arts Faculty (specifically Performing Arts) that still create and share their artistry outside of the classroom."
"This was recommended by a writer friend, but the wisdom in the book applies to any art form or issues of creativity."
"Art & Fear should be in every artist's bookshelf."
"Art philosophy and psychology making for a noteworthy read."
Best Figure Drawing
Today, generations of artists have learned to draw what they see, to truly capture the world around them, using de Reyna’s methods. Rudy de Reyna is the author of many Watson-Guptill classics, including Magic Realist Drawing Techniques .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It was brought to my attention originally by a member of my class and that is why I ordered it."
"the recipient of this loved it."
"Shipped by stated date and good instruction."
Best Art Study & Teaching
For all practical purposes making art can be examined in great detail without ever getting entangled in the very remote problems of genius." The book's co-authors, David Bayles and Ted Orland, are themselves both working artists, grappling daily with the problems of making art in the real world. Their insights and observations, drawn from personal experience, provide an incisive view into the world of art as it is expeienced by artmakers themselves. Art & Fear has attracted a remarkably diverse audience, ranging from beginning to accomplished artists in every medium, and including an exceptional concentration among students and teachers. David Bayles is an accomplished photographer, author, workshop leader, and conservationist.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It will challenge you to reevaluate your expectations and reframe your artistic pursuits in a manner that will allow for perpetual growth and minimize potential for burn out or "losing it"."
"This book is amazing."
"An excellent insight into the thought processes and predicaments of art."
"A neatly written nice little book on just what the title suggests."
"I know of many full time Arts Faculty (specifically Performing Arts) that still create and share their artistry outside of the classroom."
"This was recommended by a writer friend, but the wisdom in the book applies to any art form or issues of creativity."
"Art & Fear should be in every artist's bookshelf."
"Art philosophy and psychology making for a noteworthy read."