5 comments about Soak Wash Rinse Spin.

1. It's a very good book for design. A lot of nice design and layouts. The variety and originality of the work is awesome. The idea of layering give a vision of 3 dimensions into type treatment, which is very interesting.
   A book to get if you are a graphic designer.



2. it's a little expensive but it's worthy when i got it. very good book for graphic designer.



3. This compilation of tolleson design work is just amazing. the book features a lot of their best works and is very inspirational. definately worth buying, and its expensive, in fact, its really affordable, making it even more worthwhile ;)



4. I was a bit concerned about buying this book after reading complaints about type size, but after some debating I decided to just buy this book and decide for myself... and I'm glad that I did. Sure the type is small and a bit hard to read. But there are only significant ammounts of type on the first twenty pages. The majority of the remaining 268 pages contain mostly images. Some pages contain no type at all, other than page numbers.

   This one gets 5 well deserved stars. Forget the type complaints and pick up a copy of this valuable addition to any designer's book collection.




5. Soak Wash Rinse Spin's typesetting forces you to stop reading after too few pages. You really want to dig in but are quickly demoralized into putting it down.

   Sagmeister's, "Made you look" was studied in wonder over a 10 hour session immediately after opening the package. I had never heard of him and i was quickly converted into a believer, all other scheduled items became secondary. Long lines of sans serif tiny type are the only thing that stopped this book from having an impact of similar strength.

   An unrelated note, within one week, the binding cracked.

   One research misjudgement on my part was to assume the book was published very recently and included their newest projects (see tolleson.com) It was published in 2000 of course, some projects have glimmers of past trends.

   Nothing compares to the sheer visual firepower Tolleson blasts with both barrels. There is a beautiful logic flowing with every peice and you feel drawn into the scientific precision of the studio's creative process.

   A printer's eye glass would be a fun attachment to assist in reading this book, which despite it's flaws is a proud part of my collection.

5 comments about The Art of Cars.

1. From John Lasseter's foreword:
   It also became a journey with its own reward, one we wanted to share with you in this book. -end-
   
   With that, the book brings you onto a fantastic journey on the creative process of creating Cars, the movie close to John Lasseter's heart.
   
   The few pages of stories separating the art let you understand how research was done, what the artists learn and ideas they want to bring across to the audience.
   
   This book is filled with plenty of concept art drawings. Pixar artists draw hundreds of drawings each day but only selected ones were included into the book due to the limited number of pages. Every page is packed with art.
   
   Also included are storyboards, architectural drawings, landscape drawings, lighting studies, car decor sketches, photos from their road trips.
   
   This is a wonderful selection of drawings pulled off directly from the drawing board.
   
   There are some pictures of the book on my blog. Just do a search on "parka blogs cars art"



2. I was pleased to have this book be in prime condition when it arrived. The price was excellent. The order came in a timely fashion.
   
   The Art of books by Pixar are wonderful. For the artist these books give a great background into how the art brought the story alive.
   
   I highly recommend these books, especially for those who love Pixar.



3. If you enjoy learning the behind the scenes process that goes into many of the animated and computer animated films of today, you will love this book.
   
   It shows step by step the drawings and thoughts that went into each character in Radiator Springs and also the creation of all the backdrops. From the smallest signs and orange cones to the racetrack and beyond, you can see how it all evolved.
   
   It's nicely bound with a great jacket cover. Definitely a nice coffee table book your guests will enjoy leafing through or the perfect addition to the library of any art and animation lover.



4. I purchased this art of book recently and found it one of the best art of books I now own. The illustrations are very helpful to my concept art assignments. Great reading



5. Pixar's most recent animation is fully revealed in this wonderful art book. All the research, ideas, and concepts are printed gorgeously in this book. You see how the ideas are captured on paper to guide the production teams to make one of the best animation in years. Conceptual ideas of characters from the beginning to the final rendered CGI model on screen are all there. The landscape is captured in with colorful pastel paintings. Even all the details from neon signs to the Southwest vegetation are drawn out for you to see. Everything in the book is traditional artwork techniques from pastels, blue pencil, to gray scale markers. Only a few pages have any 3D images for you to see, but in an age where everything is computerized... its really nice to see that old fashioned techniques being used.
   
   Its a quality book I highly recommend for the Pixar fan, 3D animation enthusiast, and art students.

5 comments about Big Art, Small Canvas: Paint Easier, Faster and Better with Small Oils.

1. This book was just OK for me. I was expecting more detail and refinement in the paintings which I strive for in my work. The small paintings make a nice price point when you are doing various sizes.



2. I found this book to be very inspirational. I wish I had thought of it!



3. This book is not only instructional, but a complete course in painting miniatures -- and fills a vast void in that area. The author not only provides excellent reasons for painting on a small canvas, but gives practical advice on setting up space and equipment, preparing the panel (canvas), and staging & lighting the props for a still life. She goes on to review elements of color theory, and presents her favorite complementary palettes. She discusses methods of 'seeing' in order to get the underlying drawing right, and outlines the most important elements of design: composition, perspective, balance, focal point, and texture. Additionally, several methods of creating depth in a painting are covered. Thereafter, Washor presents a series of step-by-step still-life and landscape demonstrations, each of which illustrates yet other enigmatic features of art. She even discusses framing! This book is packed with practical, useful, and instructive advice, and is filled with gorgeous, painterly examples of the author's work to inspire us. What a find!



4. Overall, the book was good. I liked the intro and the chapter on equipment. I would have liked more step by step pictures to show the development of the painting. Also, some better descriptions of painting techniques would have been helpful. The book does inspire me to experiment on my own but it doesn't give enough insight to avoid common mistakes.



5. Disregard the size of the paintings if you like, and just look at the gorgeous colors and brushwork!!!!! So sensuous. The author is very generous with her information. Her color palette is unusual, and the color schemes she uses are really, really lovely. This is one of the top oil painting books around. I highly recommend it.

No comments about The Art of The Saint John's Bible: A Readers Guide to Wisdom Books and Prophets (Volume 2).

4 comments about How To Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style Volume 1: Sketching As Composition Planning (How to Draw Manga).

1. [this is NOT helena! it is her daughter jackie! haii!!!]
   when i first bought this book i luved it as soon as i first flipped through the pages!!!
   this book helped me improve A LOT and also taught me things i never noticed before!!!
   this book is great for beginners who are just starting out on the manga drawing experience!!! it gives some basic anatomy [not the boring useless stuff just the essentials :)] and also explans [with both pics and words] how the body moves!!! <---- nessecery for drawing [no matter wat style!!!]
   it is also great for intermediate artist who already no the basics and have some experience with manga style art [like myself i guess]!!! it provides lots of references and also explains anatomy and muscle structure and the way it affects the bodys movement...
   it helped me to greatly improve and u have no idea how important it is to be familiar with the muscle and bone structures and how they move [no im not saying that u need to be able to draw a skeleton and then all the layers of muscles on top! just now how the spin bends and wat happens when u raise ur arms...etc...]
   i would recomend this book for any artist no matter wat level u r at!!! its a wonderful book and is great especially if ur poses look strange, unnatural or stiff [haha just like mine DID]
   along with drawing the body, poses, balance, and face and all that wonderful stuff there is also a section on clothing [which i needed very badly] and one on colouring
   overal this was just a fantastic book!!! it was extremely helpful to me and still is!!! i highly recomend getting this book as soon as u get the chance!!! u wont regret it!!! :]
   [on one of the other reviews someone listed all the chapters included in the book, i suggest look through the list because i didnt list everthing that is covered!!! thank you (srry i dont remember who posted that review):)
   sections i found extremely helpful:
   haha well pretty much the whole book but especially the section on;
   ~balancing pose
   ~how the bones and muscles move and effect the body [shoulders, elbows, legs/hips...etc...]
   ~backbone [how it effects...well pretty much EVERYTHING]
   ~clothing [folds, thick/thin fabric, ...etc]
   ~shoulders [movement and blah]
   ~hands [movements and blah]
   ~feet [movemetns and blah]
   ~legs [movements and blah]
   haha im like naming the whole book XD
   well there is much more but thats all im saying for now :]
   plz buys this book i promise it will be much help to u [well i hope it will be as much help to u as it was to me(if not more)!!!] :]



2. Over the years I've slowly put together a sizable library of these How to Draw Manga books without even realizing it.
   
   That being said, I'll be the first to admit that the usefulness of some of these books is kind of hit or miss. But the Manga Sketching books are fantastic drawing resources regardless of whether you want to draw in a Manga style or not.
   
   This book is really more grounded in basic figure drawing techniques than other How to Draw Manga books that are largely caged in by the conventions of Japanese comic art. It's also a heftier book at being almost 60 pages longer than some of the other books in the series.
   
   A major section of the book is dedicated to a broad survey of human anatomy, and I would say it does a better job on the subject than many books that focus strictly on anatomy for artists. There's 9 pages dedicated to the head & neck alone. And all of the examples feature the body in motion, which is far more helpful in seeing how the body fits together than a bunch of stiff poses.
   
   Much of the rest of the text is about design tips to solidify the body type you're shooting for or "enhancing a sense of presence" as the manga books often put it, which boils down to creating more interesting, dynamic poses.
   
   Good figure drawing has many basic principles, no matter what style is laid on top of it. "Sketching Manga Style" is a fantastic resource to have around.



3. This book covers a modern technique used by professional artists. If you have no drawing experience whatsoever, this might not be a good place to start. Those who have spent some time learning basic techniques and can produce basic figures could will definitely profit from this book.
   
   The brilliant part is complete sets of images showing pros creating a new drawing from scratch, with detailed notes on each step. Given sufficient talent, you could eliminate some steps and duplicate what the artists are doing to finish drawings faster.
   
   However, by skipping directly to what the pros apparently do now, the beginning artist misses the building blocks of learning that those same pros went through to get where they are today. Generally a beginning book starts with simple shapes, basic anatomy, perspective, etc. Mastery of fundamentals gives an artist the freedom and capability to create any character and pose.
   
   The analogy to this is the first impressionist master painters. Every one of them was first trained as a classical painter. Picasso could paint in photographic realism if he wanted. His mastery of the fundamentals made his cubist work great.
   
   If you have the basics already, this is a wonderful reference, and I would recommend it to beginners as well so long as they also get references that teach fundamentals.



4. I was really surprised when I was actually able to get this book in my hands!!! I waited so many months before I could order this book! Any way, this book is comprised from three different artists', Hikaru Hayashi, (my fav by the way) Takehiko Matsumoto, and Kazuaki Morita. These three artists' teamed up to compile a book with there own renditions of stetching manga. Basically this book is a giant rough sketch book showing you the basic shapes they used to get their art work to look the way it does. This is actually helpful in alot of ways. It is preparing you on how to do this so that you can have a idea on how to draw your own manga masterpieces. Toward the end of the book, they give examples of some of the artist's work and how to improve the color on the artwork.
   The contents of this book includes:
   
   Chapter one: Sketching while planning
   Differences between standard
   Sketching and Manga sketch frontline Part 1
   Drawing a female character standing
   Drawing a close-up of a female charcters face
   A look at the Manga charcter standing
   Drawing the figure in reverse
   Manga sketching forms the foundation of planning
   
   Chapter Two: The fundamental in sketching a face Manga style
   The basics of sketching a face layout
   (using circles and X's)
   Reduction of the head rendered
   Using a Circle and X layout
   The steps in drawing a face
   Drawing the same face
   Darwing an assortment of faces
   Ths basics in drawing the head
   Conceiving of the head as a solid
   The basics in drawing the head
   The face's musculature, and expressions
   Drawing facial expressions based on muscle movement
   
   Chapter three: The fundamentals in drawing a figure manga style
   The backbone forms the base of composition
   The backbone travels the length of the torso
   The backbone is the source of movement
   Adding arms and legs after completing the torso
   The steps in drawing a figure
   Guideline defining the backbone from the front
   Drawing a standing pose using
   the bone and the axial line
   Using the axial line to draw
   A front view standing pose with presence
   Standing poses and the center of gravity
   Noting the spacing between the feet when drawing
   The body's structure
   Major body parts and their names
   Muscles affecting the exterior contours
   Distinguishing the genders
   Figure drawing
   Proportional differences
   Makeup of the primary joints and movement
   1. Basic neck structure and movement
   2. Basic spine structure and torso movement
   3. Basic shoulder and arm
   connections and movement
   4. Basic leg structure and movement
   5. Basic hand and finger structure and maovement
   6. Basic leg structure and movement
   
   Chapter four: From sketching to design
   The fundamentals of stylization
   Character design techniques using stylization
   Stylized face design
   Stylized figure design
   Techniques for designing distinctive characters
   Thin and trim build
   Powerful and muscular builds
   Grotesquely muscular build
   Slender female characters
   Freindly super deformed (ultra stylized) characters
   The reality behind key poses
   Composition technique: Imagining a box
   What constitutes a three deminsional figure
   Placing A figure in a box
   The steps in drawing a figure from a box
   Techniques in dressing characters
   The ABCs of drawing clothes
   The reality behind dressing characters
   Drawing dynamic poses
   Cover character designing frontline
   Coloring characters
   Coloration improvement Techniques
   The improved Palette
   Improved finished artwork
   Artists' discuss the true nature of manga sketching
   
   All-in all this book rocks! It is the complete how to draw book I know. It is jam packed with hepful drafts to get you on the right track. This book is not for beginners though. I think this book would be suited for those more along the lines of intermediate to advance. This book is a must buy! Add it to your how to draw arsenal now!

1 comments about New Gourd Art with Ink Dyes.

1. This book covers important techniques that help the self-taught artist have the same results as shown in the book. The beginning of the book has important information, and that is followed by example projects and templates to make them. I like these projects because, for me, the stamps give me the design (I can't draw very well) and then inks are easier for me to use than paint. The embellishments make the final projects stunning. Such great ideas are in this book that you'll have months of projects to try. You can also purchase the inks and rubber stamps from Maria's web store. I recommend this book to people who can't or don't like to draw...to those of us who are not very good with paint...or to anyone who wants to learn some embellishing techniques!

4 comments about Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility.

1. This is an essential book for all designers worth their salt. If you have a backbone and you truly are 'ready' to understand the reach of the profession and its social responsibility, save your pitiful moral crisis, get out of the pointless world of persuasion and rhetoric, and start saying it like you mean it. Buy this book and write your life's manifesto. Design is not just a job hey.



2. I got this book hoping it would shed more light on an issue I find very pressing within the design community: social responsibility. Is it important for the designer to know his/her great poster that helped make a Hollywood movie into a blockbuster also helped clear cut a forest killing an ecosystem for numerous species of wildlife? Is it important for a designer to only do work for companies that match their own morals and ethics? The book touches on the latter topic in a couple essays but largely provides a number of pieces of writing with good intentions but with no actual "next steps" to achieve more fruitful results. Desigers have to eat, so blowing off huge $$ tobacco ad campaigns can seem ridiculous. However by making social responsibility a key point of dialogue in the education of the designer, one could see a more responsible result in the business world. Maybe designers could receive the respect they deserve if they actually stood for something besides edgy looking websites and whatnot. Anyway, the book wasn't all bad. Its a good start to an important conversation... so three stars!



3. This book is incredible. I have only read the first 20 pages and I think it should be a mandatory read for anyone in the design industry. It is informative on specific ethical issues a designer faces and it allows for varying perspectives on the topics in the book.

   Great for a student, teacher, or anyone within the design realm.




4. Designer David Vogler always contributes to these design books churned out by Mr. Heller. And once again, Vogler has cooked up a hilarious editorial that thumbs it's nose at the industry while making valid observations. This is worth the cover price alone. My staff laffed out loud.

2 comments about Facial Expressions Babies to Teens: A Visual Reference for Artists.

1. A ton of good photos to work from here. As always you may never find just the right photo to work from but with this many photos in one book you will come much closer to finding what your looking for.
   I could cry about the printing being to dark or wine about some of the grainy pics but hay for this price and not having to put up with a real brat and there over baring mother this is worth it (thats a joke honey).
   I have drawn a bunch of kids from life and most kind of like it but to get anyone to hold those cool odd faces is not being realistic.
   I have used the other face book more then you might think and sure hope to use this one as much.
   This book just makes my giggle every time I pick it up with the goofy faces these kids come up with.
   When I can't work from life a book like this is just what I need.



2. I own both Facial Expression books by Mr. Simon and for such a popular series you'd think they'd invest in a better photographer or a better camera. A lot of the photos, especially in this edition are very blurry and grainy. Though you don't need super well-taken photos to capture someone's facial expression it would have been nice if they would have upped the quality in this edition. I imagine it is difficult to direct children, but a lot of the expressions used were very similar too. This version has about the same amount of photos as the last, but they are a bit larger. I believe they made this change because one page after each person captured wasn't reserved for an illustration. This was a welcome change for me because a lot of the artists used in the previous book did sub-par work and some only re-drew the photograph of the person without applying the facial expression to something less obvious like an object or a fictional character. Overall, my satisfaction with this book is mixed. The first edition was far better because of the image quality, but it is nice to have references of children's expressions. Having little books to compare these 2 to, I had to give this 3 stars.

5 comments about Mosaics: Inspiration and Original Projects for Interiors and Exteriors.

1. I own quite a few books on this subject, and this is one of the best. The photography is great and all instructions are very clear. There are also large and small projects to get your teeth into. My copy had come unbound from the cover, and despite my email Amazon have not replied, I can't hold this against the book itself, so would thoroughly recommend it.
   If you live in the US and your book is in the same condition as mine, you can return it, but from the UK it hardly seems worth it!



2. This is the most beautiful and inspiring book on mosaic I've ever seen. I'm going to tackle my first big mosaic project soon--doing the back of the chimney of my fireplace. It is under a covered porch outside, and after seeing the beautiful photos in the book, I'm inspired to do something that will amaze anyone who sees it.



3. If you find yourself covering everything that doesn't move with mosaics then this is the book for you! See stunning examples by people who may just be crazier than you are. Just great.



4. I love the explosion of colors that Kaffe uses, both in mosiacs and quilts . This book has a ton of brightly colored mosiac pictures in it...lots of interesting ideas...fairly good instructional pictures but all in all , I didn't like it and returned it . There was only one project (the broken pottery flower pot) that I would have even considered doing and it, too , was just to busy looking for what I was interested in doing. If you love the color explosion that always come with Kaffe projects then this book is for you. If you prefer something a little toned down , or a little structured, then this book is not for you. Hope this helps someone decide!



5. Always an inspiration is kaffe Fassett. Gives some really fresh and colorful info which I will apply soon

5 comments about The Fantasy Illustrator's Technique Book (Quarto Book).

1. This is a really cool book. Great for artist. filled with tons of great info, techniques and referrence materials.
   i would highly recommend this book to any one who likes to draw. you won't be disappointed.



2. This is one of the better art books I have found up to date. It does give some instruction on painting and drawing but I feel is meant more for an advance student of fantasy art than a beginner. Some one with some art experience will find it very helpful in many areas. It is definitely one of my favorite additions to my own reference library.



3. This book was helpful for determining things like color choices for skin tones, and was inspirational for trees, and different creatures. Their choices of finished artist's works were neat. However, this book did not give much information for techniques in acrylics, which is what I work in. For people who need help drawing fantasy characters, and fleshing them out, this book is great, but I do this naturally, so it wasn't a really big help for me.



4. This is a light-hearted, profusely illustrated book on the making of fantasy art, with a nice gallery of other artist's works in the back.
   It is, though, not necessarily a book for present illustrators looking to get into the fantasy market; it is really more for a young person just starting out. Artists who are further along with fundamental skills in drawing and painting would benefit more from John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop, a more in-depth and less elementary approach. But for lovers of fantasy art, either book is a pleasure to see.



5. I found this book, and a few others like it to be absolutely indespensable when it comes to building a library for the functional artist within this genre. Well written, informative, and lavishly illustrated with how to's as well as finished peices meant to inspire the aspiring and the pros alike. Recommended.
   John F Willis