3 comments about PulpHope: The Art Of Paul Pope.

1. I've been a fan of Paul Pope since reading his THB series years ago. There's one thing that really stands out about his work--the lines seem almost imbued with a sense of energy. You can almost see the inked lines jump and move on the page, and this give Pope's works a sense of being alive. The works in this collection don't disappoint. You'll be drawn into every page as you flip through the book. Another thing that some people may overlook is that Pope is an excellent writer. This book contains several essays about his work and himself. Pope writes about as good as he draws, so it is difficult to put down the book once you start reading. I highly recommend this book.
   
   A few warnings though: if you became a fan of Pope through his mainstream comic work, there is none of it in this book. There is a bit of THB featured (not as much as I would have liked), but most of the book consists of his private projects and illustration work. Another warning is that if you find erotic illustrations offensive, be warned that this book includes a few.



2. Pope's work is full of frantic, almost desperate energy. His art seems driven, and the essays in this book (I was surprised by the amount of text, but not unpleasantly, as it turned out) enhance this feeling. The book paints a picture of an artist with a great deal of passion for his work, and also a deeply thoughtful, philosophic side, and a strong respect for the history of his chosen art.
   
   The pictures are often raw-edged, a few of them appear to have been lifted from sketchbooks or diaries, sometimes with blocks of handwritten (and not always legible) text running off the edge of the page, or stamped with rubber stamps in Japanese ("Paul Pope" "Comics Destroyer" and so on). It is deliberate, of course, and it seems right that way. Each picture is full of texture and detail, and rewards a careful viewing.
   
   Don't just look at the pretty pictures, though. The book contains several autobiographical essays that are worth the price of admission by themselves. Pope talks about his inspirations and methods, discusses his thinking during the creation of some of the pieces in the book, and such topics as pornography as it relates to art and erotica. (Note to the prudish, a few of the pictures in this book are quite explicit. Although there are no sex acts shown, Pope is very frank about his appreciation for sex as a source of passion and inspiration, and he doesn't shy away from portraying all parts of human anatomy.) Reading the essays enhanced my appreciation for the art significantly.
   
   It's a fine book, especially if you like Paul Pope's style. Recommended.
   
   (As a side note, the version I received does not have the cover shown by Amazon, a drawing of a woman's face, but a black and white design based on an image of the author, I believe, and some abstract ink lines. It's not a bad cover, but I think I might have preferred the drawing.)



3. all in all a very cool book. being relatively new to pope (first through heavy liquid and batman 100, the best bat thing ever!) i find the book a very good intro to him, his ideas and thought process. he really seems to be on the path of re-creating / re-defining the "comic". the different essays throughout go from open self effacement to sadly comedic in his dealings with poss. employers and his tenure in japan. his knowledge of art history and his own desire to be a leader in his chosen area is very evident and well deserved.
   
   For being an artist's opus, i would have actually preferred a bit more art (the first and usu. obvious complaint any art geek would say regardless the amount given), there too is none of the Bat 100 art here, prob. for rights reasons, fair enough. Alot of the stuff here is blown to full bleed, possibly unnecessarily so, but if one sits and meditates on those pages you begin to see something, his art does seep in and soak a bit... one cannot argue with the overall design in any way, alot of the newer art books (ash wood's stuff, james jean's) push the boundaries of the medium and give the fan what they want, possibly b/c they are fans themselves and are giving what they want from those they admire.
   
   this one is going on the shelf between Malicious Resplendence and Lowlife Paradise...
   
   

3 comments about Hensche on Painting.

1. This book is about Hensche's thoughts and insights to painting the landscape and about the Portrait and figure. Alot of valuble information in such a little book. Well worth the price. It could be used as reference book, to be reread over and over.There was a chapter on Seeing that I liked very well.Though I am a pastel painter and he focuses on oil, the information is well suited for any medium.



2. Very informative. I agree with his feelings about professors telling you to go get 'm tiger without providing enough basic information and that we need to get back to drawing as a basis for painting.



3. I found this book far less useful for practical painting pointers than those based on the treachings of Hawthorne, William Morris Hunt, Henri and Sloan. Granted, those are tough acts to follow, but there it is. What I did find fascinating was Hensche's perspective. Clearly, he greatly admired Charles Hawthorne as he should. He even went as far as to suggest that Hawthorne in some ways eclipsed Monet and bridged the gap to the abstract expressionists ... maybe in some ways. What I found absurd was Hensche's suggestion that he had gone beyond Hawthorne (and therefore beyond Monet!). Hey, I've heard from some of his students that Hensce was a great teacher and a nice guy ... and I don't doubt that, but in my opinion, as an artist, he never painted anything of tremendous merit. On another topic, the book shed some fascinating, although brief, insight on a rivalry between Henri and Hawthorne that I had never heard of before. Also, there are some refreshingly blunt statements that Hensce made summing up a couple dozen artists from Rubens to Andy Warhol at the end of the book. So, the book is worth a quick read if this sort of thing interests you. I'm glad I bought and read the book (it is brief and inexpensive) even though I don't think it was outstanding.

3 comments about Janet Whittle's Watercolour Flowers: An Inspirational Step-by-Step Guide to Colour and Techniques.

1. Any who would watercolor flowers needs Janet Wittle's Watercolour Flowers, an inspirational guide to color and techniques which assumes no prior knowledge of watercolor. Pages packed with color are perfect for general-interest lending libraries where art is an attraction, and show how to produce professional results, from combining species of flowers to best effect to a series of reference paintings from black and white patterns to finished projects for individual flowers. An outstanding, easy approach beginners will appreciate.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. This book has the most beautiful pencil drawings that compliment or preceed the vibrancy of the paintings. The compositional elements are excellent and the book covers a range of flowers that jump out of the page because of the background techniques. Thanks.



3. If you like painting floral subjects, Janet Whittle's method may be of interest to you.
   
   Starting with masked subject areas and dropping in pure colors, Whittle creates a lively, mottled background and then goes on to paint negative spaces around leaves and background flowers. This gives the effect of distant leaves and petals in shadow. Then the main flowers are painted in, dropping colors into the center, shadowing petals and adding detail to stamens, pistils and other structures.
   
   The good thing about this technique is it makes effective bouquet subjects. The bad thing is that the technique leads to somewhat of a sameness to every painting. In this book, the author adds vases, pots and other subjects to the still life, which helps. If you have this book, you probably don't need any of the others as this one is more comprehensive. I don't feel inspired to copy this technique, but there are worthwhile tips to absorb in handling iris especially.

3 comments about Gustav Klimt: Landscapes.

1. Klimt has always been a problematic artist. In contemporary terms, he was a sell-out, but that hardly addresses the situation of a man good with the brushes a hundred years ago trying to make a bit more than a decent living for himself. That was the Nouveau years. The panels and friezes and commissions, the society portraits, the weird freaky paintings with all the gold paint. The man had great talent, and there's that reason that to this day you can buy prints and posters and postcards of his most famous paintings. I happen to own a "Die Kusse" night-light.
   
   It is terribly refreshing to own a volume dedicated to the man's landscapes. For the most part, these were paintings Klimt did for himself while vacationing with his friends in the summer months. They were not meant for sale. Often they were done in an audacious--for the time--square format. A few of the canvases are pretty tedious. But a great number are inspiring and terribly original. It's great to see the lot collected, and well-worth the look, not to mention purchase.



2. Klimt seems to be best known for his figuratives - any study of his work should include his landscapes. A very nice book with good color plates.



3. It is a pleasure to have access to these beautiful works, which are more frequently overshadowed by the attention given to images of people and mythic figures for which Klimt is best known. These landscapes are revealing of both the subject matter and of Klimt the artist as he probed the composition and colors of the places that intrigued him.

1 comments about Looking Closer 4: Critical Writings on Graphic Design, Vol. 4 (Looking Closer).

1. I read this book for a class. It has some fascinating insight into the world of graphic design. The compilation of essays is pertinent just as much today as they were when originally written(over the past 10-12 years).

4 comments about The Pencil Box: A Treasury of Time-Tested Drawing Techniques and Advice.

1. This book contains several articles by leading artists and teachers who have devoted their energies to drawing,including color pencils...It contains very practical methods and hints to improve drawing skills for all---beginner to advanced students.



2. This book is very good item for those that are just learning how to draw. The topics that are covered are very well written and are is to follow. I recommend this book to anyone that is just starting.



3. I just got this book and read most of it on my vacation. Probably it would make more sense to read it in smaller chunks or for specific projects. The book is organized by topics, starting with materials. From there it goes to techniques, then landscapes and portraits. I can't remember all the topics now. I would guess that the last 20-25% of the book presents articles on colored pencils. I haven't gotten to that section yet, but glancing at it, I see that it covers almost every topic that was in the colored pencil class I took.
   
   The great thing about this book is that it has culled articles from American Artist magazine for the contents. I can't afford to subscribe to that year after year, so having the articles I really want collected in a separate book saves money and time. If you are not into colored pencils, which I am not, the book is still worth it.



4. I found this book to be very helpful. I am getting back into drawing after many years and the author provided many good points and great illustrations. The section on colored pencils was especially helpful. I bought the pencils listed in the exercises and did a few of the drawings. The suggestions for blending and shading were wonderful.

3 comments about How To Draw Crazy Cars & Mad Monsters Like a Pro (Motorbooks Studio).

1. This book was written and drawn by some of the original artists of Ed Roth's studio. It doesn't get any closer than this, great book!



2. My kids just loved this book. They are both aspiring artists and have done some great work since Christmas!



3. I bought this book for my husband, after several refferals from other hot rod friends. This book is better than described.

No comments about Art and Adolescence: Teaching Art at the Secondary Level.

No comments about Turner Watercolours.

5 comments about Comedy Writing Secrets.

1. The information in the book was very insightful but the print was too small for me personally.



2. Perhaps this reveiw is a little unfair to the author. After all, I didn't actually get to finishing the book, but I've gone as far as I ever want to go with it.
   
   I admit, this wasn't what I thought I was getting myself into when I first read the book; I wanted a book about how to write with an element of comedy, and what I got was a book about how to write comedy. Nonetheless, I figured that I needed a little more humor in my life, so I decided to start reading this...
   
   ...Three chapters later, I put it down.
   
   Let's face it, if you're trying to teach people how to be funny, you need to actually be funny first. There is no humor in this book; not altogether bad, except that there sure are a lot of failed attempts at humor. That alone makes me question the effectiveness of the author in communicating these ideas, or at least his writing ability (which, I believe, is the main problem with this book).
   
   In addition, there are a bunch of exercises which you're supposed to be doing along the way to help yourself learn these techniques. OK, good idea, but bad execution. One good example is the one on increasing the ideas you get when you look at something. You are then instructed to think of as many funny uses for a bar stool seat as you can. Me, I thought of none. The author came up with Elephant Slippers. Ha...ha...ha...?
   
   Was that supposed to be funny? I certainly hope not.
   
   But lets focus on what's really important here: does this book teach me to be funny? The plain and simple answer is that it might. It's just so downright unreadable that I'll never find out.



3. This is an excellent book on the technical aspects of comedy. After reading this you will be able to analyse how the pros do it - and why some jokes are funny and some are not. Of course, it takes a lot more than this technical ability to become a good comedy writer, but this is not a bad place to start. There are numerous comedic examples sprinkled throughout the book, which range from the hilarious to the very lame - interestingly the worst jokes are the ones by the author Professor Mel Helitzer, which I guess reinforces the dictum that those who can't teach.



4. - I had found this book first in my local library. In all spheres of my professional endeavours, this book has been a godsend. I had to get this book from Amazon because, months down the track, the library was wondering what had happened to their copy.
   
   - It is not just a hand-/text-book on writing 'funny', it is an instruction manual as deep and as robust as Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People", AND it's about the 'funnies', too. Learn and laugh, wince and chuckle, laugh and learn again. A wonderful textbook and a font of relevant, witty, and incisive observations about the 'why's and 'how's of people and their behaviour, and how to use their foibles to your advantage... "Oh Lord, we beseech thee, never let politicians find this book! (Amen)".
   
   - More effective, and a damn sight funnier than John Edward, Tony Robbins and Germaine Greer rolled into one - like Sun Tzu, but without the dignity.



5. The reason there are no good books on comedy is because it is an inherently impossible field to "break down" and "explain." These guys do an okay job of relaying the history of comedy, but they do nothing to actually explain anything.
   
   Besides that fundamental flaw, these guys are simply too old and the book reads like my grandfather's "1001 Polish Jokes." This advice would have been pretty helpful is honing your standup routine for Ed Sullivan but in 2007 it just seems pathetic and lame.