5 comments about Painting Animals.

1. I ENJOYED THE ARTWORK VERY MUCH BUT REALLY HOPED THAT THE DEMONSTRATIONS WERE MORE INVOLVED. THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE ARTIST IS ONE OF THE MOST ACCOMPISHED IN THE WORLD AND HAS A VERY GIFTED EYE WITH WHICH HE VIEWS NATURE. THE UNUSUAL POSES, USE OF COLOR AND DELICACY OF BRUSHWORK CREATES
   AN ANGELIC EFFECT OF HIS SUBJECTS. HOWEVER, AS FAR AS THE BOOK GOES, ITS A FORUM FOR HIS ART AND STYLE BUT HE DOES NOT GIVE AWAY AS MUCH ABOUT HOW HE ACHEIVES THESE FANTASTIC EFFECTS. WHAT WE WHO BUY THESE BOOKS NEED IS A MORE INVOLVED "HOW DID YOU DO THAT" APPROACH. SHOW ME MORE STEPS. SHOW ME HOW YOU HANDLE THE INTRICATE DETAILS. REMEMBER THAT IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY. OTHER STRUGGLING ARTIST WILL IMITATE YOU FOR A TIME AND THEN THEY ARE OFF TO DO THERE OWN THING. IN THESE TYPES OF BOOKS WE LOOK FOR MORE DETAIL. I FOUND THAT TO BE SOMEWHAT LACKING IN THIS BOOK.



2. This is an exceptional wildlife artist, however I bought this book specifically for the purpose of learning to paint animals in detail. There's not a whole lot here to explain how to get certain effects. One thing that bothered me was how it was written. Not that it was poorly written, but that it was from the viewpoint of someone other than the artist. I want to read what the artist thinks, how they came up with the idea & how they acheived their results. Not from the viewpoint of someone who interviewed them.



3. This book is exceptionally well done and an inspiration to anyone interested in wildlife and art.



4. This is not a book for the beginning artist but perhaps another reference for wildlife artists, especially acrylic and oil painters. Full of lovely paintings by Christophe Drochon but I found the instructive aspect to be somewhat thin on specific detail. Discussions of technique and composition were very general and although I agree with the author's comments, I felt that a lot more could have been said that would have made this a more instructive book.



5. If you aim to paint ultra-real, exciting wildlife art, Christophe Drochon's work can't help but inspire you. His rendering of lambent cat eyes, fur glowing in the sun and dramatic scenes are some of the best.
   
   This book is aimed to the oil and acrylic artist or anyone working in opaque mediums as opposed to the more expressive and loose styles of watercolor and pastel. You can get ideas for colored pencil and sharpened pastel as well as gouache but this is really primarily for oil painters.
   
   There are sufficient demos to give good instruction for the more advanced artist, but you need some grounding in your medium before you attempt work such as this. In other words, not for beginners except as inspiration and simply to admire an exceptional artist's work.

5 comments about Painting the Drama of Wildlife Step by Step.

1. This book is exceptionally well done and an inspiration to anyone interested in wildlife and art.



2. I find the book very interesting to get the basic idea about his work and technique. Some nice tips and some explanation on how to paint the fur, but if you really want to see him in action and get a real step by step, you are better off buying his DVD. I have the book and the DVD and I much prefer the DVD. Although the book as some very nice painting and material that is not in the DVD. I guess I could say that both are valuable tool. I don't regret buying the book as it was not expensive and worth it.



3. This book was a gift to an inmate, so I don't know anything about it. Sorry!



4. I like this book, it is very attentitive to small details, the resulting paintings are very naturalistic and often very dramatic as well. The artist knows about nature and it shows.
   The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and you just sit there, stuck and fascinated.

   The book is using acrylic paints, but the book can be absolutely and utterly recommended for oil and watercolor as well. Even if you aren't an artist it is well worth just for browsing on the coffee table... Buy it, steal it, borrow it, just Get it.




5. This book like the artist is top notch. It's hard to find a book done by a world class artist. Terry Isaac is such an artist. Any one of the concepts presented in this book it worth the books price. All aspects of his thought processes and painting technics are revealed. Terry shows step by step examples of how he created works that he exhibits, not stuff whipped out to create a book. If your looking for a book on wildlife painting or landscape painting your not going to find a better book.

1 comments about Draw 50 Dinosaurs (Books for Young Readers).

1. This is a great book for any young child who loves dinoaurs. My son is able to draw his favorite dinosaurs after reading this step-by-step, easy to follow book.

1 comments about Fantasy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible: Ready-to-Draw Characters and Step-by-Step Rendering Techniques.

1. I was a fan of Matt Dixon's work, so I bought this book as a bridge from the standard art technique texts I own to working towards a Fantasy-style.
   
   This book is well-organized with a concise overview of drawing and coloring techniques, followed by a large gallery of Fantasy characters and creatures. You'd probably want a couple more books that would fill out the sections of art technique with more info, but this one is a fine place to start and will give you plenty to work on by itself.
   
   The character gallery is very complete. It gives you a thorough look at 30-40 archetypes of characters from Fantasy. Each has a complete work-up with a finished painting, line art for copying, initial sketches, and alternate faces and accessories.
   
   Overall, it's quite clear , friendly, and much, much better than many of the other "How-to-Draw Fantasy [fill-in-the-blank]" books. Oh...and I appreciated the covered ring-binding that allows it to lay flat.

5 comments about Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface.

1. This makes for a good coffee table book, or perhaps bathroom reading, but as a graphic design reference it falls short. Basically just a picture book. The first half is a compendium of various samples of graphic design, some of them really wonderful, all using Helvetica. The second half is a photographic essay showing the font used in the public domain throughout the world. It would have been nice to include some essays from leading writers in the design world on the history of the font, or it's influence, both good and bad, in the visual vernacular. I was inspired to buy it after seeing the film "Helvetica," and found that film to be a much more rewarding experience.



2. My binding also fell apart the second time I flipped through it. I loved the book, but the binding is just terrible.



3. First the mystery: just why was every alternate page in the book joined together? The reader has to carefully cut the perforations to be able to look at every page. I can't find any reference in the small amount of text about this. My conclusion is that the public use of the type is on the open pages and non-public (or designed) examples are on the perforation joined pages. At least you'll know if you buy a pre-used copy though.
   
   Apart from the perforations I thought this was a handsome little book and homage in the title is very apt. Helvetica is probably the world's number one communication choice, it works just as well on a municipal sign or a new baby announcement. Before it gained a monopoly each nation seemed to have its own jobbing type, Franklin Gothic in America, Gill Sans in England or Antique Olive in France, for instance but the super clean lines of Helvetica (and computer typesetting) meant it was no contest for all the others.
   
   The author mentions the uniqueness of Swiss design in the Fifties partly because the top designers always used the same typeface, the stunning Akzidenz Grotesk, which fitted into their rather austere but elegant graphic solutions even though it only had two weights, Medium and Bold. Who needs italic, extended, condensed, extra black and the other weights to communicate efficiently? The rest of the world for a start. From the late Fifties Swiss designed Helvetica spread across the globe and you'll see from the hundreds of examples in these pages some wonderful design solutions, especially the two hundred plus logos that use the face in all sorts of variations. As a typeface there are probably a few dozen Helvetica weights now available. Incidentally, the author suggests that Arial, the default type used on Outlook Express for most emails is a digital Helvetica, close but no cigar! The most obvious differences are the cap G and the lower case s and t.
   
   'Homage to a typeface' is a lovely book that'll interest most typographers and anyone who is curious about a lettering style that seems to be everywhere.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



4. It's about what you'd expect. I feel like I got my $20 worth, but as mentioned, it's gonna fall apart before you're halfway into the book. I think if I would have heeded the warnings it may have gone a little farther. Your mileage may vary.



5. I'll start by saying that this is a lovely tribute to the most invisible, versatile and ubiquitous font. It is a full bled chunk of photography and unintentional wit.
   Buuuttt....
   
   The binding is absolutely horrendous. I'm not referring to the imaginative use of perforation, either. The binding completely fell apart after flipping through it once. The pages are not folded and stitched and only held in with apparently inadequate adhesive. I am now the proud owner of a nice stack of loose paper.
   
   Due to the fact that the reader is expected to separate the perforated edges- the book becomes non-refundable.
   
   So, although I wish I could recommend this little book due to content I strongly advise that you not purchase it.

5 comments about Kirby Five-Oh!: Celebrating 50 Years Of The "King" Of Comics.

1. If you're a fan of Jack Kirby's, the last few months have been a boon for you. First we had the outstanding book `Kirby, King of Comics" published by Abrams Books and now TwoMorrows Publishing has delivered "Kirby Five-Oh". This is actually a very special fiftieth issue of TwoMorrow's Kirby Collector Magazine only this is no mere magazine. This is a treasury-sized trade paperback book, which is filled with Kirby artwork, much of it unpublished, or being seen for the first time in decades. As a fiftieth issue, Editor John Morrow presents readers with lists of the fifty best Kirby stories, covers, unused pieces of art, and character designs along with a fifty page Kirby art gallery, and fifty people who have been influenced by the "King".
   
   The fifty best stories is a bit misleading. Rather than pick the fifty best Kirby stories, the panel of Kirby experts chose the best Kirby story by year, starting with Jack's first comic book work in Jumbo Comics #1 from 1938. It probably wasn't easy picking a best Kirby story in the late 40s and into the 1950s. By that time, superhero titles had nearly all disappeared and Jack took work wherever he could. He found himself doing a lot of romance and western comics but in 1956 he did a story for Astonishing which represented his first Silver Age work for Marvel, called Atlas at the time.
   
   It also had to be quite hard to pick a best Kirby story once you got into the 1960s because there was just so many to choose them. This decade featured so many great creations and stories but making the cut are "The Sub-Mariner Vs. the Human Race" from Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963), The Galactus Trilogy from 1966, and the Madbomb Saga from Captain America #193 - 200 (1976). This storyline was Jack's triumphant return to the character he helped to create 35 years earlier.
   
   The lists are enjoyable reading but the real attraction is the bounty of Kirby art. All 50 of the best covers are reprinted along with comments from many notable comic artists and writers including George Perez, Russ Heath, Dave Stevens, and Alex Ross. There's also a lot of great photos of jack from throughout his life, both working and also with his family. The book concludes with 50 short interviews, and comments from creators who've been influenced by Jack. Even people who are considered comic legends in their own right like Alan Moore, Alex Ross, and John Romita Sr., still revere Jack Kirby. Jack may be gone but thanks to publishers like TwoMorrows, his work continues to live on.



2. Jack 'King' Kirby is co-creator of the Marvel Comics line; "Kirby Five-Oh!" is a celebration of his 50-year career gathers regular columnists from the Jack Kirby Collector magazine to provide the best Kirby story published each year, from 1938-87. The oversized, mostly black-and-white reproductions include writings about Kirby's career and contributions, and makes for an outstanding analysis of his impact. Libraries will find "Kirby Five-Oh!" difficult to shelve due to its oversized format - but then, this book shouldn't disappear on a shelf; it should be displayed for eye-catching interest.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. Landmark issue #50 of the Kirby Collector is an oversized collection of many items including 50 best Kirby stories, 50 best covers, 50 best examples of unused art, a 50 page art gallery, 50 best Kirby character designs, 50 people influenced by Kirby, all with text, full page photos and skads of Kirby primo art, pencilled, inked, and colored! Mark Evanier, John Morrow, and much more. A beautiful tribute to the King with hundreds of full page and smaller examples of art. Quality color cover and white, nice inside pages, and a color section that is psychedelic. If you are a fan, you must have this great book or be whipped by Granny Goodness for insubordination.



4. This book has lots of Kirby's work and after all, that's why i bought this large format paperback.
   I took one star off for the crappy paper inside, but it does have a glossy cover though.
   Also lots of facts about kirby you might have not known.It's a list of the 50 best 'everything' about Kirby.
   If you love Kirby then what are you waiting for?
   Buy the book already...



5. WOW, the KIRBY legacy continues to grow ! This is the capper of great tabloid issues featuring the world's adoration of Jack Kirby. Why do we all love this guy...because he was the BEST. And still is if you head into a comic shop today. More of his work is in print now then ever !!!

3 comments about Tales of the Weirrd.

1. The stories in this book are fun documentations of abnormal individuals.
   
   The illustrations are as dynamic and charming as you'd expect from Mr. Steadman.
   
   It can be very hard to enjoy them, however, as the publisher has taken all of the best illustrations and buried them in the spine of the book crossing the page breaks. What the hell were they thinking?! You can tell there's a great drawing there, but you can't even see most of it without mangling the book. This is true on page after page.
   
   Somebody who really doesn't care put this thing together slap-dashedly. It's a shame. It makes the whole thing not worthwhile.



2. This book is not just a worthy purchase because of the Steadman artwork. The short stories and accounts of the faboulously odd fellows and delightfully abnormal ladies would make this book a definite keeper even if there were no pictures. But add the refreshingly unique artwork to the equally interesting tales and you have a book that you'll pull off the shelf more than once. I also like that this book is somewhat oversized, which means the reader can appreciate the artwork on a more grand scale. Also, if you don't have the time or the energy to read a book from front to back in one sitting, this is an ideal book for you because it is full of short stories that you could walk away from for months and come right back to without having to remember a thing.



3. Along with Steadman's unique and inspiring art, this book explores the land of the weirrd....humans who once entertained the boring people with their bizarre and unusual oddities. With each tale of a sideshow star, Steadman draws us a picture and weaves an eloquent and highly entertaining story about his subject. Steadman is literate as all hell. When you're done with this be sure to check out his latest...DOODAA - a triography. No doubt this man has a bundle of fun with himself - his mind is a treasure chest of wacky good times and he seems to have a great grasp on our human reality - every inch of dystopic madness. With books like this, Steadman does his part, in keeping the rest of us sane and amused.

1 comments about Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

1. Say what you want about oppressive regimes, they always have the best propaganda. Art, when made to serve the purpose of convincing a population that what is going on around them is actually great and wonderful even though they are starving, produces something eerily inspiring, something that taps into a subconscious desire to believe in those in power.
   
   This is the artwork in "Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". These are images of a bright future, where the land is abundant and serves the will of the people, where industry is clean and progressive, bringing fair income to everyone, where everyone pulls their weight with a smile and Chairman Mao shines light on us all. The art here is joyful, optimistic and hopeful. It makes you feel good to look at it. It makes you feel bad knowing that this optimistic, hopeful future never materialized, and was followed by starvation and oppression.
   
   But this is so much more than just a picture book. The author, Ann Tompkins collected these posters while living in China during the Cultural Revolution, a full participant in Mao's glorious dream who wanted to live and work alongside the people forging this Brave New World. Reading her introduction is a bit shocking. I expected a historical critique on the nature of propaganda, not the flip side of the coin, someone who believes in the dream and remains inspired by the message.
   
   And through her eyes, I saw these posters from a different perspective. How progressive, how revolutionary they were at the time. Here were positive images of women working in factories, firing guns and conducting scientific experiments during a time when they were expected to be house wives and mothers. Here were glorious scenes of all human beings struggling together, separated not by race, religion or gender, but bound by the brotherhood of the proletariat. The fact that it failed: is it the fault of the dream or the dreamers? This is the kind of art that makes you ask those questions.
   
   As both an art book and a history book, "Chinese Posters" succeeds beautifully. I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting to, especially after reading the introductions and then looking at the posters in a whole new light.

5 comments about A Celebration of Light: Painting the Textures of Light in Watercolor.

1. I purchased this book hoping for a clearer description on how to capture light in watercolor paintings. This book met all my expectations. I keep it in the classroom and studio for my students to use as a reference. Jane Freeman has easily understandable step-by-step demonstrations, goes through the process of how to paint reflections, glass, lace and beautiful light patterns. She has included a wealth of information for all levels of painters. An added bonus is the addition of paintings and comments from numerous watercolorists whose paintings are seen in many competitions. I recommend this book to anyone who teaches the art of watercolor and encourage them to expose their students to it. It is a wonderful addition to an artist's library.



2. A Celebration of Light is a wonderful book.. From detailed paintings to color applications the information found in this book is valuable to any artist wishing to develop a better technique. It is a bible of information to keep next to you as you are painting. Jane has demonstrated how to use light to create a better painting. From application to lifting this book is a must to every artist using watercolor



3. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the techniques that this artist has perfected over the years. Jane Freeman leads the reader step by step from the beginning of a painting until it is finished. She tells you how to paint such things as reflections and lace plus she she even gives you tips on mixing colors and finding time to do the art. This is at the top of the list as one of my favorite art books.
   Elinor Sethman



4. A Celebration of Light is a wonderful book - there are so many many infos in this book which you should not miss. Jane Freeman shares her technique, shows her colours and how to use and mix them, how to work the best with your reference photos, gives tips about composition and she also shows many paintings in step-by-step-demonstrations. She has a great knowledge about watercolor and this book is a very valuable addition to each library.



5. A Celebration of Light is an exceptional informational book. The paintings are really great. It inspires you to go beyond your abilities and capture that evasive quality that turns an ordinary painting into one that captures your attention.

2 comments about The Monster Book of Manga: Girls.

1. one of those fake manga books (I hate this series and the group that makes them). Go to your local bookstore to see if it's something you'd want to spend money on...I would not. Making money off of the folks who just like the genre. Get this book only if you want to TRY and draw pseudo manga.
   
   If you want real asian art and real MANGA look for Comickers Art and Japanese Comickers. Real Art



2. This is a huge book. It is also a heavy book due to the high quality paper that is used. The book goes through 9 themes; everyday, fashion, princesses, fantasy, magical girls, professions, sports, festivities, heroines.
   
   There are more than 50 projects in here. Each project is a 3-7 pages section where every step is displayed, from the basic sketch lines to the finished drawing. The drawings are beautiful and detailed without looking too complex.
   
   This is the best manga book I have ever purchased. There are other "monster" books in this series and they are all of very good quality. Together with "Sketching Manga-style", this is a book that really helps me becoming a better artist !