5 comments about Color Mixing the Van Wyk Way: A Manual for Oil Painters.

1. This book is an excellent book. I have just started art lessons and need a little help in knowing how to mix colors.
   Helen Van Wyk books have all been excellent book. Easy to understand with great information and instructions.



2. This is a great book specially for beginner. Excellent reference book. I'll certainly read it several times.



3. All the theory in this book is dead wrong. There is little by way of practical advice. The book is mainly a collection of amateurish paintings by Ms. Van Wyk that are supposed to illustrate how to use various tubed colors. You should aspire to paint much better than Van Wyk ever did.
   
   To date, there appears to be no good book on mixing color. Instead, see www.handprint.com. It's about watercolor, but the color theory and mixing sections apply equally to oil paint. Also give a look to www.wetcanvas.com



4. I just received this book for Christmas 2002 and I have read it and re-read it! It has a wealth of information and is even a good reminder for those who might not have painted in a while. It helps you attain effects that you want and gives some step-by-step descriptions to help you understand what the author is talking about. I find that the information on casting shadows and the information on focal points most helpful. Helen Van Wyk also helps you to dimensionalize your art. Once you have read this book you will not look at colors in the same way. "The 4 Questions" will have you looking at art completely different. Don't paint without it!



5. This is a great manual for beginning and intermediate painters. It is arranged in a rather unusual way: by paint color. Within each chapter there are step-by-step paintings showing the color's usage. While I found the the organization odd at first, I quickly grew to appreciate it. There are colors I never would have thought to put in my palate, but seeing them in action was very valuable. Likewise, having a blended value scale for each paint was wonderful!

   What I found most valuable as an beginner/ interm. painter was being able to see a variety of paintings in stages. And not just "one, two, three, boom its done" like many books, but really layer by layer. She touches on a couple of different styles, discussing glazing as well as her painterly approach.

   This book also has valuable reference pages discussing (and displaying) color scales, color temperatures, earth tones, blending tricks, etc. It touches on portraits, backgrounds, and a variety of other related topics. I have read a number of other basic painting books, and this is my favorite. I have also seen (and own) other of Helen van Wyk's books, and while they are nice, this is by far the most valuable (and it includes some paintings and sections repeated in other books, i.e. portrait painting and color mixing bits).

No comments about Birds: Mini Edition: The Art of Ornithology.

2 comments about Florence (Art & Architecture).

1. This is a wonderful little volume for an overview. The text doesn't provide enough detail for a school project or art history buffs, but it is a great review. The book is too heavy to use as a tour book, but I bought it after our trip to Florence as a wonderful little reminder of a fascinating city. The overall size is also too small for a coffee table book.



2. This book is worth its price for the superb illustrations. It has high-quality color illustrations of the most important Renaissance art, sculpture, and architecture, in Florence. They are a joy to look at and well selected. Of course, everything is not here--there is just too much fine art in this one city, so many masterpieces cannot be included. But it's a fine selection.
   
   The illustrations rate 5 stars. But the text rates only two to three. Various chapters are written by nine different Florentine art-historians. Some are tedious to read--they discuss in excessive detail, and with appallingly long sentences, who did or did not paint/sculpt/build a particular piece; whether or not that piece is or is not one of the greatest; and (most importantly to some of the writers, it seems) whether or not other art-historians are right or wrong in their attributions/criticisms of the piece. In other words, material of interest only to other art historians, with very little on the beauty of the pieces, why they are inspiring, and on how they were made. However, several of the later chapters are well written and interesting.
   
   Annoyingly, the text refers to artworks without saying whether or where they are illustrated in the book. There are no cross-references. I wasted a lot of time going back and forth in the (very good) index to seek illustrations. Some turned out to be in the chapter I was reading, some were in the first introductory chapter, some were in both, and some were not illustrated at all. Zero stars here.
   
   The time period covered is from Medieval to modern, but the bulk of its coverage is on the periods of the antecedents to the Renaissance and the Renaissance itself--exactly the period of most interest.
   
   The book comes in large hardback (12.5 x 10.9 inch, '19896 ISBN) and slightly smaller (10 x 8.5 inch,'0678 or '34096 ISBN) formats. Both are identical in pagination--text and illustrations are simply enlarged in the bigger version.
   
   The illustrations alone are worth the price.

3 comments about The Potter's Book of Glaze Recipes.

1. This Book is a great book for any beginner Potter. It has over 400 recipes for glazes and it also explains how to adjust the glaze ifyou have a problem. I love my Book and I know I will use it for a very long time.



2. Easy to use and keeps open while I work on recipes.Great size . Great pictures on nice paper.



3. I am thrilled with this new book I recently purchased, I have had Emmanual Cooper's other books on glazing and recipes - and found them most informative and the glazes pretty true to explanation
   I also have found that they are quite stable - we fire in the higher 1260.C upwards catagory and the sometimes glaze recipes unless worked out correctly can be very unstable and uninteresting.
   All in all a very worthwhile book and easy to use, a definate "MUST HAVE" for your collection

No comments about Rethinking Acrylic: Radical Solutions For Exploiting The World's Most Versatile Medium.

5 comments about The Birth of Graffiti.

1. The Birth of Graffiti...I will begin by saying that if you have an inner soul of graff...the curiosity of where it was conceived...of how it was back in the day...the day where you werent even thought of...THIS IS THE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO YOU THROUGH VISION.
   
   I have never seen a book where the images speak to you as strong as they do in this book...but that is maybe because I have a love for NY and its Graff.
   
   I have a GREAT amount of respect for Naar, and I thank him for bringing us these images of art(as we see it). He did not have to give us this gift, but he did. And the best way you can thank him is by purchasing this book AND adding it to your personal collection, as I have.
   
   The photography is amazing...the shots are unique...and you can tell that the subject of the book IS the begginings of graff...where it all lived up to the hype that we are know. I was born in '79 and arrived to the USA in '84...so I never lived the days of which NYC was NYC...where the walls spoke in MANY voices and many ages in many languages. I have caught a glimpse here and there, but never what I have now captured with this BEAUTIFUL book of NYC-a city I love and GRAFF-the form of art I love.
   
   If you really desire to know what it was like back in the day-on the real-how NYC really was...not no postcard propoganda stuff...GET THIS BOOK.
   
   GREAT BOOK...take it from a cat who's introduction to graff was back in '92 seeing all the Kez5-Bruz-MsMaggs-FLone-Ench throw-ups all over Queens...
   
   Get the damn book...you won't regret it.
   
   NAAR...thanks man.



2. this magnificent book speaks to me like no other book on graff, and i have many. aside from a nice introduction, there are no explanations about the photos, nor interviews with the writers, and none are needed. there is such a profound simplicity to these photographs. they expose the beautiful ugliness of urban blight in a sad and delicate light. you want to go there to relive a moment when things were louder, smellier and uglier but that much more innocent.(or so it seemed.) before digital, micro, macro, and the information super highway there was this; innocence, ignorance and bliss. there were no books, magazines or videos about it, there were no websites and rest of the world to share your passion with. there was just you and somewhere out there others like you. whole youthful identitys condensed into an alter ego embellished onto a steel messenger then sent to announce "you were there". unknown in the flesh but known in word and deed. we all spoke and wrote an esoteric language that only a choosen few really understood. to have been there, to have seen it, to have breathed it, ate it, sleeped it, to have known it as it was, not as it is now will remain to me always, a privlidge. how lucky we are that jon naar choose to preserve these precious moments in time as if it truly might mean something one day. i thank you sir. p.s. great review by j.son.



3. Birth of Graffiti could easily have been titled Faith of Graffiti 2. It is basically Faith of Graffiti with added photos from Jon Naar's archives. Some of these photos such as a The Man 550 piece and marker tags on long extinct subway vending machines bring me back to the days before a slew of talking heads with erroneous sociological and psychological theories started writing books explaining our culture. Mr. Naar's photos are striking and capture graffiti in the transitional period between tagging (single hits) and piecing. Many of the writers documented quit before piecing became the fashion , but the emphasis they put on handwriting style is more formidable than the signatures most writers throw up today. I watched this movement from birth to death on the NYC subways and was lucky enough to participate in it. Although not as visually dynamic as the work that came later, this period fascinates me more than any other. I grew up seeing the names featured in Naar's photos, wanting to meet them and follow in their footsteps. We all owe Jon Naar a debt of thanks for preserving the roots of an ever-changing culture. The book is a must have for any old-timers who want to re-live their glory days and neophytes who want to learn who the real pioneers of the culture were.



4. It was thrilling to see such a vivid documentation of early seventies New York and the graffiti of the period. The prints in this book mark an important period of graffiti's history where the building blocks of the craft were being developed for the first time on the walls, buses, and subways of New York City. Graffiti, for the first time became means of expression for a generation of urban youth in New York. The Birth Of Graffiti demonstrates the inception of style which was evolving on the walls of every borough of the city. Today the techniques and traditions pioneered during that period have been passed down through generations of graffiti writers to develop into one of the strongest and most innovative art movements of the last century. Before graffiti was on every brand of clothing, on billboard advertisements, and used for marketing schemes across the world, it appeared on, city buses, subway cars and the gritty brick walls of 1970's New York City. The youth of New York who created this work were the first innovators of this powerful craft which has now evolved into a worldwide art movement. Jon Naar's photography captures many important moments in a period of great change and turmoil for the city of New York.



5. This is a really well done book - the photographs are incredible and the printing is perfect. Unlike many graffiti books, this one is very well laid out and is "arty." A very professional treatment of the rough edges of the first spray can art. If you lived in NYC in the 1970's this book will take you down memory lane. You will pick this book up time and time again.

5 comments about The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi.

1. Anyone who is familiar with Musashi's reputation as a master swordsman and the many stories about his skill and bravery will enjoy this book and want to add it to their collection. This excellent and well researched (as much as is possible about events in c. 1600AD) presents biographical information in an interesting timeline that includes all of Musashi's major duels, battles and teaching engagements while including additional material on his artistic and writing accomplishments. Musashi evidently was a true renaissance man during the renaissance time, albeit some 12,000 miles away from Europe. The author also presents considerable information and explanation of Musashi's writings that summarized his life's learning on martial strategy, technique and philosophy.



2. Being a novice student of both the martial arts and Japanese culture and history (though I have a good collection of Japanese swords--fueling much of my interest in both the above subjects), I found Wilson's book both readable and enlightnening. I have read "The Book of Five Rings" three or four times, but after reading "The Lone Samurai" it is much more meaningful to me.
   
   The best contribution of Wilson's book is his emphasis on Musashi the artist. I did not know previously that Musashi is also known not only as a great swordsman (and strategist), but is one of Japan's greatest artists in the india ink painting style. It is easy to see Wilson's point about the similarity between the total commitment of a deadly sword strike and the brush stroke of non-erasable ink. (This comparison also explains and qualifies one of Musashi's most famous and apparently mistranslated quotes from "The Book of Five Rings": "The way of the warrior and the way of the pen are the same." It should read, "the way of the warrior and the way of the BRUSH," which is more accurate if not quite so profound and philosophical-sounding.)
   
   I was also very interested to learn for the first time that of Musashi's famous "over sixty duels" in fact most of them were not to the death. This, and the extensive discussion of Musashi's art, make him seem much less the grim fanatic that sometimes dominates Musashi's image.
   
   Don't be fooled, therefore, by the inappropriately lurid style of the book's cover art! This is not another sensational/specialized publication for the macho martial artist and samurai wannabees. (I delayed buying this book for years because I was so put off by the misleading cover.) "The Lone Samurai" is actually and elegant and respectful study, written in a way that balances thorough scholarship with affection and readability.
   
   My only criticism (other than the book's cover) is what other reviewers have noted already: Wilson could have included a chapter, or expanded parts of the existing book to include more context about the history and culture of Japan, especially during Musashi's time. However, this did not keep me from being able to follow the basic "plot" of the book.
   
   Also, this is not really a "288-page" book. Wilson has tried hard (and fairly) to flesh out the limited factual material available with interesting comparative sources, but be advised that the actual biography is less than 165 pages, including analysis of Musashi's "Principles."



3. He is too lifted... like a god... who says it's all true what he has done, ok ok... he must have done a lot... but i guess he wasn't the only one around there... he even got beaten too.. is that written in there...
   
   Always mushashi this and that... i don't mean disrespect here...
   
   But write me another book please about other samurais that time... without upholding the facemask of the japanese !!!
   
   Like, what do we know about jinsuke shigenobu... minamoto no yoshimitsu... and lots and lots of others...
   
   you won't fool me by telling he did it al by himself...



4. The best part of this book is the fact that the author does not pretend to KNOW everything. He lays out his opinion, which I usually agreed with, but also will lay out what other people have interpreted things as. He has laid this out in a matter that makes the
   works and writing of Musashi so easy to understand and relate to. The Book of Five Rings is a piece of work that is meant to make us think and practice the strategies over and over again. This book gives an easy way for the beginner to the expert to relate to and open ideas about Musashi's writing and ideas



5. What an interesting life this guy led. Read it, and do likewise. If you dare :-)

No comments about Byzantium, 330-1453.

2 comments about Drawing Birds with Colored Pencils.

1. 
   new condition and very helpful, book includes a color theroy section that is a must read.



2. I got this book because I love pencil drawing and I love birds. Birds are known to be difficult to draw, especially capturing their postures and gestures. Some of the drawings in this book are not good at all. In addition, the drawings don't look realistic or lifelike. They are dull and very flat, mostly because the author only uses 1 or 2 light layers of pencil. Colored pencil needs many, many layers to make the paintings glow, with careful gradations of color and blending, and these just don't have that. Overall, this book just doesn't do it for me. Maybe if you are a total beginner in drawing (birds), you might find it useful, but after reading through this book once, I have put it on my bookshelf and will most probably never touch it again.
   
   Having said that, it is an attractive book - birds are so beautiful and delicate it is impossible to have a bad book about them!

5 comments about Painting Pets on Rocks.

1. It has beautiful painted rocks in it and shows just how easy it is to paint rocks. I am not a real good painter but, I do plan to give it a try. Instructions and ideas in this book are great even for a beginner like me.



2. I couldn't help it, it sounded so fascinating when I was invited to a "rock party". A friend held it, and all of us got together at her place. She had a bunch of field rock, (though I've heard smooth river rock is good also) and she had cleaned them all up and they sat, waiting on her front step. We took turns choosing the rock that "spoke to us" and brought it into the house for some good old fashioned gossip and a fun project with friends. Oh, yes, we had doubts! Halfway through those rocks were UGLY, and we took a few chip and salsa breaks so we could look at them from a distance (they looked better that way- Laugh!). But- amazingly enough- when we finished the last step, perfectly outlined in the book- our rocks looked GREAT!! I actually DISPLAY mine in my little rock garden, and get so many comments on their "uniqueness". What a fun idea! And takes almost no $ to get started, if you're like me, you already have the simple materials lying around from previous projects!! Great book, simple instructions, great tips and pointers- even for the novice.



3. Painting Pets on Rocks is a fabulous step by step instructional book. My students (1st through 7th grade) created fabulous rock paintings following these easy-to-follow instructions.



4. Super, these books by Ms. Wellford are illustrated so beautifully that ANYONE could paint animals and such on rocks. Her directions are not only the written word, but also demonstrated by showing the drawing from the stones to use, preparing the stones, sketching from "square one" on thru the completed reproduction. These books are a MUST for any rock painter enthusiast.



5. A new meaning to the words "Pet Rock":

   Lin Wellford has out-done herself again! I just can't get enough of her books! For those of you who have not read any of Lin Wellford's books, let me tell you, IT'S TIME TO START! In "Painting Pets on Rocks" you learn how to paint your dog, cat, fish, and even your pet bird! The book doesn't just show you one type of dog, or only one cat. Lin gives you instructions on how to create many different rock pets. From Dalmations to bulldogs, tabby cat to siamese...this book has it all.

   Even if you have never painted before, you can do these projects. The book has full color, nearly step by step photos with the step by step instructions. As with all Lin Wellford books, her instructions are written for the beginner and it is amazing how well your pet rocks come out.