5 comments about Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005.

1. A light but enlightening journey through the evolution of cover designs, as impacted by world events, technology and taste. Particularly interesting for those in the industry.



2. Among the first books I ever stole (being poor) were Penguins, because they were the most interesting, the best designed, and -- oh I don't know -- the most "bookish"? I wanted to be (would become) a writer. I was stupid-young, self-absorbed, pliably amoral -- and broke.
   
   Now here's the company's entire story told through covers. Pictorial. Visceral. Brilliant. More love per exhibit than a non-bibliophile can imagine.
   
   Now that I have an income I buy hundreds of book I don't especially need in flagrant pay-back mode. Thank you, Penguin. My first love.



3. What a loving tribute to Allen Lane, the visionary who founded Penguin Books in 1935. Few publishers have consistently put their best `face' forward year after year over thousands of titles and I find it surprising that this Penguin cover history hasn't been written before 2005.
   
   Admittedly most of their covers until the Fifties, though distinctive in the three-tier horizontal design, were not that creative but things slowly changed no doubt because of market pressure from other paperback publishers. I thought Penguin covers really took of in 1962 with the use of Romek Marber's simple cover grid. Pages 104-5 in the book show eighteen brilliant covers using simple graphics with black, green and red inks. The grid cover style ran into the seventies with the non-fiction Pelicans and nicely still using everybody's favorite type: Helvetica.
   
   Author Phil Baines has done a lot of research for the book though it is basically visual with excellent short text pieces for the various title genres. A nice touch is spread of forty-eight Penguin logos from 1935 to 2005 at the back of the book and it is this kind of editorial thoughtfulness that makes the book so interesting.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



4. Hi from Barcelona.
   First of all, sorry for my really bad english.
   I really recomend the purchase in Amazon.
   No problem whit anything, all is perfect.
   I think that the book of Phil Baines (Penguin by Design) is one of the obligated purchases for any graphic designer. Perfect design and perfect information.
   Thanks Phil!!!
   
   Marc



5. I picked this up because of the book's physical beauty, but I've just read it in one sitting, couldn't put it down--a fascinating window into 20th-century British cultural history as well as book design.

5 comments about Draw Cars (Draw).

1. The book shows you step by step how to draw cars.
   
   This is a helpful book whether you are drawing for the first time or have been doing it for years!
   
   It goes from simple shapes and line structure all the way through shading and adding detail.
   
   Definitely a must for anyone who wants to add cars to their visual story telling or even an automotive design student.
   
   Just remember to be patient with this book.
   
   It takes a while to get the hang of it.
   
   Once you do, you'll be fine!



2. This was a 9th Birthday present for my nephew. It kept him entertained for hours! He loved the book and still uses it almost daily after 8 months.



3. This book has many examples of step-by-step drawings. The only drawback might be that there is very little explanation. You learn mainly by copying the examples. It has a great selection of different cool cars and vehicles to draw. Equally good for young teens or adults.



4. I have the 1993 publication of this book, and it's amazing. It teaches you how to draw cars in general, not just the ones shown in the book.



5. Hi!!The book is wonderful for beginers.It helps you get the basic right.Almost all aspect are covered so that you can start sketching cars on your own like side view,3d view.Gives detail information for drawing tyres.This book has helped me a lot and I would recommend this book to everyone without any hesitation.

5 comments about The Art of Trompe Loeil Murals.

1. I ordered this book, hoping to gain insight into the "art of trompe l' oeil" as suggested by the title. Instead I found myself bored with a book full of the same looking gaudy murals and images, with the same drab earthy palettes for each one. The "how to's" and I use that phrase lightly, are nearly nonexistence, except for the last 15 pages - which basically demonstrate the same faux stone relief technique, only using different motifs. I found this very useless! It almost feels as if the "how to's" were an after thought, or thrown in to fill the pages. Purchasing this book, with the understanding of it being a "how to", instructional guide to trompe l'oeil painting - I found it extremely dissapointing! Though the artist's work is OK, there was nothing new revealed here that isn't thoroughly covered in Grahm Rust's marvelous books, which I highly reccomend. Rust is an obvious matured muralist who graciously reveals his inspirations and knowledge on the subject with elegance.



2. I loved this book and although I would have liked more instruction on painting some of his illusions, I am quite happy with what the author did include. Great photos of his completed works.



3. I found this to be a wonderful book and will give it often as gifts.



4. I mistakenly thought this was a Graham Rust book. I don't buy this type of book thinking I will be a grand muralist. I buy them for high-end decoupage images. I rip the book apart and use the images. This book did not meet my needs. I found the images bland. Again, I do not buy these books for the intended purpose so keep this in mind



5. This is a very nice coffee table book, and for a beginning art novice there are some "secrets". But, for artist with general high school level education this is little more than a nice picture book.
   There is no discounting Yves Lanthier's skill or excellent creative ability but the few tips he gives are not for creating the Trompe L'oeil ceilings he exhibits in the book. Rather he shows simple stone / marble technique, a basic wall effect and basic light shading in the last fifteen pages of the book.
   This is not a book the speaks to basic line and eye illusion of ceiling depth which I was looking for.

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.

3 comments about Rajasthan.

1. I am very pleased with this book. I have been to Rajasthan and this book does a wonderful job of incorporating the vast and colorful culture of that region of India. This book does a great job of detailing the miniture details that can be easily missed in an landscape that is overwhelming to the 5 senses. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Rajasthani culture and encourage them to visit there as well.



2. When I was the in-house stylist for Style Guide I had this incredibly beautiful Indian girl with dark eyes for an intern. She wore the brightest colors to work everyday and spoke in this rich lilting voice. One day I finally asked her where she got it - "the clothes or the accent?" she asked, "Both", said I. Well, she said, the colors are from my mother's land and the accent is from my father's land. Turns out that my pretty intern's mom came from the desert state of Rajasthan, in the North Western part of India. I have since then browsed innumerable coffee table books on Rajasthan, but Pauline Van Lynden's Rajasthan is certainly a notch above the rest. The photographs are lavish, the details touching, the effect spellbinding. Royals, artisans, dressmakers, housewives - Van Lynden gives us a breathtaking glimpse into these myriad lives.
   
   Another plus is Van Lynden's tone - always inquisitive but never condescending. There might be other books which will give you a lot of information about Rajasthan but Van Lynden's Rajasthan shall remain a front runner due to its evocative prose and dazzling photographs which seem to leap off the page. I recommend Van Lynden's Rajasthan as an antidote for any colorless day.



3. Tons of fantastic pics, details of fabrics, places etc. If you like Rajastan sty;e, you will fall head over heels for ths heavy "coffee table" book!

5 comments about My Troubles With Women.

1. Crumb has got to be one of the most confessional artists of all time, and certainly the most confessional artist ever in his chosen genre. In both interviews and art, he not only relates the external facts of his life but also turns his id inside-out. The three passions of his life, he's said, are sex, music, and his art, and all three of them get intertwined in both his personal life and his work.
   
   My Troubles with Women is a collection that especially speaks to the first passion. Crumb fans know he's attracted to large, firm women, that he has what might be described as a foot and leg fetish (as a child he would latch himself onto the legs of his mother's friends), and an incredibly creative fantasy life that involves sexual attraction to such extravagances as vulture-women. (The interview in D.K. Holm's R. Crumb: Conversations entitled "Creme de la Crumb," pp. 141-57, is especially instructive.) But fans also know that Crumb's autobiographical art, while honestly portraying sexual fantasies, poke fun at the artist.
   
   So in "If I Were King," Crumb goes on a fantasy spree, imagining all the women he could have as a powerful monarch--but the monarch is still nerdy, hollow-chested, creepy Crumb. In "Dirty Laundry Comics," he pokes fun at his aging body and its never-ceasing desire for sex, and also worries about the effects his comics will have on his daughter. In "Memories Are made of This" and "Footsey," Crumb recalls youthful bittersweet sexcapades: his sexual frustrations in high school, his rather predatory dating routines as a young man. And in the eponymous "My Troubles with Women," Crumb recounts more sexual adventures, but also highlights a period of impotence in his mid-30s.
   
   As usual, the artwork is fantastic, and the storylines interesting and thoughtful (although the three stories done in collaboration with Aline Kominsky, as other reviewers have pointed out, aren't quite successful). Throughout, Crumb's honesty is both appealing and, for some, off-putting. What I find so fascinating and good about Crumb's work is his uninhibited ability to expose his deepest fantasies to the light of day. All of us have 'em. But almost none of us will own them. Wonder why that is?



2. This is a fun book for R. Crumb fans. Not a overall view of his work and most of this can be found in some of his other collections. But if you are a hardcore fan you should have this one as well.



3. In the heart of every man, I suspect, lies at least a bit of adolescent misogyny. I grew up reading Crumb, who hit the scene right as my adolescence was beginning. Crumb gets the alienation that non-jock boys feel in this society of the young, and wraps absolutely wonderful and hilarious stories around these issues. And he graphically portrays sex in the most unsparing terms, verging on the truly grotesque. Then there is his taste for steatopaegic women!!
   
   This collection is perhaps his best: his humor, his ongoing anger at women, and his strange (and ultimately supremely satisfied) tastes come through in a way no one else could do it. The first story is the best, long on autobiography and utterly hilarious. From an inhibited and unpopular boy, stardom in the underground comic revolution catapulted Crumb into the rank of superstar counter cultural artists. I believe that he deserves his fame, as his vision is dark and unique and perfectly realized in his work. SO with this fame, he goes about experimenting on the women who now fawn on him, after rejecting him. He loves them and despises them and mistreats them, all while realizing the emptiness of his game. The following stories really don't tell us anything new, but they are still awfully funny and outstandingly worth the read.
   
   There are also the comics done in cooperation with his wife, which simply lack the tightness of his writing in the solo pieces. Her drawing style is seriously inferior to his, but there is no question that they share a vision and that this is a new departure in his work, more realistic but also satirical - it covers married life that is strange and "cute as a bug's ear". It is funny and playful, if not quite a 5-star performance. Moreover, some of the material is recycled from older Crumb, which fans would notice.
   
   Needless to say, women do not appreciate his deliciously lascivious cynicism about their part of the species. They see him as pathetic and misogynous, and they are right in their own way. But men get what he is saying, in all its cruel detail. Sure, it is pretty adolescent, but as Hughes said in the film, he really is a modern-day Hieronymous Bosch.



4. I think it is useful to have seen the documentary "Crumb", to enjoy his work. He is an amazingly confessional artist who has turned his own obsessions and fantasies into a an amazing career. It doesn't get any better than that.



5. This was the first Crumb comic collection I have purchased. I had read about him for years, I always had it on the backburner to get some of his stuff, but never got around to it. I made a mistake in waiting, but it was worth the wait. Crumb is the rare combination of great storyteller and artist. I have the feeling I will read this collection several times, the first time to enjoy the stories, and the next several consecutive times to absorb the great artwork.
   'My Troubles With Women' documents Crumbs sexual 'proclivities' from a young lad riding women's legs, high school crushes on Amazonian girls that other boys called 'fat', to comic groupies that Crumb lives out all his thick thighs/bubble butt fantasies with. It's all terribly interesting stuff.
   The only low point in this collection is the inclusion of comics that were collaboration with his wife. His wife's forte is not comics, maybe she is an artist, but this is not her medium. Her drawings are flat and uninspired when compared to Crumb's style. Plus the dialog is ham handed and boring. It was a real chore trying to slog through these pages. I guess the "...troubles with Women" include the wife, but the husband and wife stuff seems out of place in this collection.

5 comments about Landscape Meditations.

1. When you are weary from toiling over your masterpiece, you must grab this book by Elizabeth Mowry, curl up in your favorite spot and just enjoy this wonderful book. The author & artist wants you to get involved with your painting and learn to FEEL what your eyes see, so that what you put on paper is part of yourself. It's your story, your vision of life. Ms. Mowry is a very talented artist who shares with the reader her thoughts & ideas that went into the many beautiful paintings she rendered in pastels & some in oils. The book is so beautifully done, with many, many beautiful landscapes she painted during her travels all over the world and her narrative about her travels and her personal thoughts about the many scenes she painted, that I didn't realize until I got well into the book that she was also giving the reader many valuable lessons in such things as structure of a painting, light source, theme painting, & individualizing one's work. Wow, what a book. It's a joy.



2. This book is so well done I can't do it justice. It is a treasure and valuable reference for any paselist beginner to advanced. Elizabeth Mowry
   is indeed a Master,her work is breathtaking!!



3. I am absolutely in awe over this book. It has to be the most beautifully written and illustrated art book on the market. Ms. Mowry lives her paintings and her descriptive narrative transports you inside of her paintings. I will refer to this book again and again. Outstanding!



4. I found this a very inspiring book. The paintings are really nice whether you are into pastels or oils.



5. Every artist of every level and every art lover should read this book,for the artist the writings and paintings are inspirationalshe not only can she paint but she can write as well.

1 comments about Exploring Visual Design: The Elements and Principles.

1. Joseph A. Gatto has published one of the most comprehensive tomes on modern visual art and the utility of the space around us, the products we use, and indeed, man's design of his environment and the world. Fascinating theories, a good read, for beginner and pro alike.

2 comments about Vincent Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait in Art and Letters.

1. It is a pleasure to see Van Gogh's original handwriting in his letters, accompanied by drawings and skecthes. Highly recommended.



2. I was so pleased to find this book in the library and after readint it I had to own it. I have many Van Gogh books. This one is espeically interesting since the editor minimized her words on the first page of every chapter. The words after that are Van Gogh's words taken from his letters to Theo and various others. I find it extremelly intersting to read what he wrote about his works as he did them. This is a terrific book.

5 comments about Nielsen's Fairy Tale Illustrations in Full Color.

1. This is filled with lovely illustrations, full of exquisite details and delicacy. I don't think this type of art provokes the emotions that Rackham's fairy tale illustrations do, but the pictures are absolutely breathtaking. I received this as a gift and I couldn't be more pleased to add this beautiful book to my shelf of fairy and fairy tale collectibles.



2. These Kay Nielsen illustrations from the turn of the century are so instantly recognizable in style, and beautifully matched to the fairy tales they illustrate. This book has none of the stories, so you'll have to buy those separately. Almost all of the illustrations are from East of the Sun and West of the Moon. If you like these Norse tales you will love this book.
   
   The quality of the reproductions is moderate, but that didn't matter to me because the books with the nice old plates are expensive collector's items. At just a few dollars this Dover reproduction is very affordable. Maybe someday a publisher will reissue the story book with the illustrations.



3. Even though I collect fairy and fairy tale items, and have for many years, I was not familiar with this artist. My husband bought this for me as a secret gift. Wow! From the use of colors to the stylistic perspective, this is so gorgeous! The art is exactly like fairy tale art should be, but it is also unique, spindly, wispy, extraordinarily beautiful. I loved adding this to my collection and I am now trying to find some of the fairy tale books the pictures belong to.



4. As a child I found Kay Nielsen's illustratons by turns terrifying and exquisitely beautiful. His illustrations for "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" fell into the former category, as did several of those for "In Powder and Crinoline": the black-winged North Wind striding over a churning sea; and the ghastly periwigged phantoms casting distorted shadows on the wall as they toss dice for each other's souls. Nielsen's lyrical landscapes and lovely ladies with powdered wigs and crinoline skirts belong to the latter: the white marble grecian temple atop a cliff overlooking a pool, reflecting a marble moon bridge; and the twelve dancing princesses moving secretly through a forest of slim-trunked tall trees whose trailing leaves seem like cascades of pearls and emeralds. I especially liked Nielsen's trees and recall trying to imitate them in my drawings. I also loved his star-spattered skies.
   
   As an adult, I can see why I found many of his illustrations threatening, and I can also see why I found so many of them enchanting. His stark decorative designs with their somber palette, and his angry male figures, which I can see now are ambiguously gendered, seemed like the stuff of nightmares. At the same time, his slender princesses with their elaborately patterned silks and satins seemed like the stuff of enchanted dreams.
   
   In either event, Kay Nielsen's illustrations are unforgettable!



5. I was looking for a book of Nielsen's outstanding and unique art work...well this isn't really it. If you are looking for the same you will be disappointed with the cheap printing, poor resolution and lame detail. What makes Nielsen's art so beautiful and interesting are his patterned details and gorgeous lines, but these pictures are so small the details are lost. I'm assuming the original, out of print editions of his work would be the only other place to find these illustrations...what a shame.