5 comments about Interaction of Color: Revised Edition.

1. Key book (with color-aid colored papers) for learning the nuances of color for the artist.



2. This book came in perfect condition and without delay. Thanks for the great service.



3. A chance to read and learn about the early theories in Modern Art. An
   insight into Op art and Albers theories



4. A must have for the serious colorist by one of the great masters of abstraction.



5. Previous reviews have bemoaned a lack of color plates. I just wanted to clarify that the 2006 Revised & Expanded edition has many more than the 8 or 10 mentioned by other reviewers. In the version I purchased (2006), the back half, approx., of the book is devoted to color plates that refer back to the chapters where particular principles are discussed. The color plates are on the right leaf, and an explanation of said plate is on the left. In the margin of the left, a reference back to the chapter/section in the book is made so that further reading on each principle is easy to locate. This is perhaps a little more awkward than having the plates sprinkled within the chapter/sections themselves, but for the cost of the book, this is an entirely acceptable method of sharing both written information and visual reinforcement. I counted more than 35 plates in the book.

5 comments about The Art of Drawing.

1. The artist is very good. The descriptions are a bit sparse but concise. Lots of examples. What this artist seems to emphasize is the flow and the subtlety of human anatomy. Something which has been lost in the modern art world. So it's refreshing to see this demonstrated in the 21st century. Now I totally disagree what another reviewer says about learning art, e.g. Betty Edwards method verse classic. Classic is an advanced form of what Betty Edwards teaches which assumes you've already demostrated that you can 'see'. Willy Pogany goes well beyond just drawing what you see. This comes with much experience.



2. ...yet it took a long time for this thing to really grow on me. It looked a little *too* basic at first!
   
   Reasons to buy this book: 1. Beautiful, *clear & simple* figure linework & shading; and 2. It's 120+ pages, filled with 100% pure pencil drawings for beginners.
   
   Why do I like it? It's all about the clear & simple figure linework & shading. Including a brief introduction to perspective, the basics of figure drawing here are *really* rock-solid. His excellent drawings of women & children really stand out, and are the highlight of the book for me. The earliest copyright in my copy is 1972, but it was originally published way before that, as Willy Pogany actually lived between 1882-1955. A book doesn't last this long without reason(!). When you have linework & shading as clean & accurate as often seen here, the technique can be applied to any drawing style at any time. It's certainly helpful for life drawing in general, and that's something that never gets outdated (at least not quickly!).
   
   Similar great books for beginners: George Bridgman's Heads, Features and Faces & Constructive Anatomy; Jack Hamm's Drawing the Head and Figure; Andrew Loomis' Drawing: The Head (HT197); and Barbara Bradley's Drawing People: How to Portray the Clothed Figure. All, at the time of this review, available here on Amazon! And for intermediate artists: see Loomis' Figure Drawing For All It's Worth.
   
   P.S. There are 2 versions of this book right now: The Art of Drawing by Madison Books, and then Drawing Lessons reprinted by Dover. They have the *exact* same content, except that Dover for some reason has considerably worse printing quality in Drawing Lessons. Get the Art of Drawing instead!



3. I was given a copy of this book when I was a teenager and am happy to have found it again by chance from reading a review of another drawing book, based upon my copying the drawings in this book at that time which I still have.
   
   The reviews of this and some other drawing books many times do not acknowledge the fact that drawing serves vast and varying purposes. When it comes to the rendering the figure at least 2 conceptualizations for rendering should be considered before criticizing the manner of information in a book on the subject.
   
   1. Abstract concepts of rendering the figure can be kept in mind while working from the model and serve mostly to allow one to construct the figure accurately and believably with no outside reference--only using well established skills and rules to create credible expression of the human form.
   
   2. Drawing from life can be strictly copying what you see - as challenging as the required skills are to acquire.
   
   Ultimately the serious artist who may want to render a likeness of a living person needs abstract or conceptual references while drawing from the model to provide more information than is seen to express more fully what is there or, conversely what is not tangible. This is the difference between "taking a photograph" and the purpose of all the hours and persistence in development of the talent to draw skillfully and beyond.
   
   Finally, reading a drawing book must be considered no different than reading the rules of driving a vehicle--without application of the information and experience using it, you might as well be watching TV for all you genuinely know of the subject, no matter what you believe.
   
   This book is one to work from, especially if you are not able to attend an art school to study full time, as part of a study course you develop to learn various figure drawing skills. Also, for example, Betty Edwards' exercises are good and separate from the skills mentioned in this book. No one book, teacher or method will provide all the information you may need to draw the way you can best express your unique talent. These two authors' exercises contribute substantially to a small and excellent drawing library to get solid drawing skills so you can find and express exactly what you want with your talents.



4. Really good, but with some "mature audience" themes, thus, not for minor children etc. Otherwise, I very much recommend it.
   
   Conflicts abound in how drawing is to be taught, and the current popular books reflect this ongoing conflict. For example, many popular books disregard the classical method. They are full of master sketches, and unfortunately, putting those pictures in the books doesn't show us specifically how to draw them, because they employ "Invisible Problem Solving" teaching methods, skipping the use of "simplified figurettes" or "human puppets".
   
   Pogarny breaks it down to geometric basics, and he does genuinely use the CLASSICAL METHOD, unlike the many books which make such a claim but lie outright about it. His demonstration of PERSPECTIVE is not to be found in any other book.
   
   I rate this book very highly as a beginner instruction. Pogany's illustrations are lively, highly animated and expressive. It's a book whose pages will be thumbed again and again.



5. This is a time-honored book, it seems, that shows you many symbolic approaches to representing reality in drawing. It is in direct opposition, I think, to the "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" approach, which teaches you a method of "seeing" what's in front of you, so that you don't have to represent it as symbols. For example, this book shows how you can draw the hand by seeing it as a collection of triangles and cylinders, connected by ropes (a classical drawing approach). Well, we know that it isn't triangles and cylinders--it's irregular and organic, and besides, everyone's hands look different: understanding it geometrically is just a symbolic crutch to help you see it as it is. Wouldn't it be better just to be able to "see" your hand clearly enough to draw it? Try Betty Edwards' approach, and then come back to this one. You'll see what I mean.

   Being able to see already, however, I find some of the pencil drawings helpful, and I'm glad I bought the book. Sometimes reducing drawings to schematics, as these are, can help you to discover your own, lingering visual symbols.

3 comments about Sundials: History, Art, People, Science.

1. After having purchased almost all of Amazon's collection on sundials, I eagerly awaited this book's delivery. From the first page, I regretted not having bought it before as Sir Mark Lennox Boyd has produced a masterpiece. Anyone who has an appreciation for gnomonics should get this book. Although it contains technical information, it's the historical journey which is most engaging.



2. This is an excellent book for the layman as well as for an accomplished sundial expert. It shows the evolution of humankind's interest in the passage and the marking of time. And if you look on page 123 you will see photographs of Kate Pond's contemporary sun-aligned public sculptures.



3. You are used to seeing a sundial in the middle of a garden, and if you are like me, you look at the shadow, then compare the time to a wrist-borne chronometer, and note that the sundial is off by however many minutes. In _Sundials: History, Art, People, Science_ by Mark Lennox-Boyd I learned that this is at least doubly wrong. The author quotes Hilaire Belloc: "I am a sundial and I make a botch / Of what is done much better by a watch." He complements the wit of the couplet, and shows the errors. Firstly, he points out, sundials tell time perfectly well; they simply measure time differently than watches do, but neither of them is objectively "right". Secondly, sundials are not merely garden ornaments, and only one in this profusely illustrated and colorful book is from that category. The dials shown here are often scientific instruments and elaborate works of art that sometimes do not look like sundials at all. Not only are many styles of sundial illustrated here, but the science and history of making them is summarized; the reader will come away with a much better idea of how the solar system runs from the contemplation of these not-so-humble instruments.
   
   Lennox-Boyd (or actually Sir Mark, since he has been, besides a Patron of the British Sundial Society, a Member of Parliament and a Foreign Office Minister), says that the association of the dial with the garden began in the Renaissance, not because the dials were ornaments, but because teachers of the time often used the garden as a place where lessons of science could be delivered. There are pictures here of artwork and architecture that one would not expect to be sundials at all. The Sundial Bridge across the Sacramento River in California is a suspension bridge, suspended on one side of the river from a huge, slanted support. The support just happens to be slanted at the correct angle to make it a gnomon, and its huge shadow sweeps along the ground beneath. The huge sundial at Jaipur in India has a gnomon that is big enough to walk up, fifty steep stairs. A Dutchman has designed beer glasses that you turn until the sunbeam through a circle on one side of the glass hits the date line on the other side; you can then tell if the time is after 5 p.m., the time when the inventor says the glass ought to be filled. There is a picture of a spherical sundial invented by Thomas Jefferson. The Disney World offices in Florida are "entertainment architecture", and part of the fun is that a central room is shaped like a truncated cone and has gigantic sundials visible on the outside and the inside, with quotations about time on marble plaques from such notables as Albert Einstein and Donald Duck. Sir Mark himself designs sundials, some of which are shown here. The most ambitious is one in Oliveto, Italy, within the stair tower of a house; a system of mirrors sends a sunbeam during different times of the day to different walls of the stairwell, each intricately crisscrossed with lines to read time, date, times of sunrise and sunset, and more.
   
   Sir Mark points out that since we now have clocks accurate to more than one second in fifteen million years, sundials ought to be obsolete, but they are not. There has been a resurgence of interest in them, both in the historical forms and the modern ones which come in strange and undial-like shapes. "There is a particular symbolism in an object that does something helpful but requires no power and performs indefinitely," he writes. He is clearly fascinated with his subject, and this lovely and colorful book conveys the fascination perfectly.

5 comments about The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art.

1. This book has a wonderful introduction written by the Mark Rothko's son Christopher Rothko. He explains the way some years after his father's death the manuscript was discovered, and edited. Mark Rothko never finished the work but rather left it off in draft form, perhaps as his son speculates because he became involved in his principal work, painting, again.
   The book consists of a series of short essays on such subjects as 'The Artist's Dilemna' 'Art as a Natural Biological Function' 'Art as a form of Action' 'The Integrity of the Plastic Process' 'Art Reality and Sensuality' 'Plasticity' 'Space' 'Naturalism''Subject and Subject Matter'
   'Beauty' ' The Attempted Myth today'.
   Rothko considers the artist's ultimate reason for doing what he does. He rejects the idea that the first reason is the desire for immortalization. He rejects the idea that the artist " wishes any charity in regard to his self- assumed sacrifice" He claims instead that the Artist " wants nothing but the understanding and love of what he does."
   Rothko writes profoundly and often movingly.
   A highly recommended work.



2. this is basically a personal journal. The artist's ruminations about art and life - very dry reading. Rothko often contradicts himself. There are several books available (such as those published by Taschen) which are much more readable and are filled with beautiful illustrations of the artist's work.



3. Mark Rothko wanted the viewer of his work to engage in the metaphysical. Yes, his paintings are beautiful colour works, yet the impact on ones pysche is where Rothko wanted to communicate. Colour was his tool. Philosophically he was a profound man and this book has given great insight into how relevant [important] Rothko is to annals of Art History. When an artist expresses the spiritual, emotional, academic, through colour and the scale of the painting, he engages the viewer on so many levels. This book gives insights, and is a worthwhile acquistion to the understanding of the man, Rothko!



4. In rummaging through Mr. Rothko's diary we admit to a certain thrill of impatience, one not far removed perhaps from the eagerness of a child confronted with a cake crammed full of delicious fruits and nuts. The words of a sensitive and accomplished individual come at us, after all, in The Artist's Reality, with the rapidity and variety characteristic of a fertile mind at play with a vital business. And a delightful morsel it turns out to be, this work which has been recalled to life following a miraculous rescue from an old trunk, as its editor informs us, and bearing witness from its very title to a commendable regard for the real.
   
   While a thorough analysis of this work would take us far, we will confine our remarks requisite to the limitations of space. Let us applaud, to begin, Mr. Rothko's generous consideration of the topic of abstraction, a term which he believes should be applied in a broad sense to any distortion of surface image rather than restricted to works divorced throughly from representation. Such recognition is most productive, we believe, toward an avoidance of the common practice of the assignation of creative works to one camp or the other. The more refined observation of the existence of works of art along a continuum of abstraction contributes to the achievement of an understanding of the universal underpinnings of their production. Even supposedly abstract works of art, insists Mr. Rothko, are rooted in and vitalized by the sap of life arising from the beating heart of reality: "It may be that abstract art does not employ subject matter that is as obvious as either the anecdote or familiar objects, yet it must appeal to our experience in some way." Rather than the conjuring of an artist's unbridled imagination, abstraction is the manifestation of earthen tethering as the creative individual commands the complete truth-- that is, renders reality. Painting, to restate the foregoing in Mr. Rothko's words, is "a corporeal manifestation of the artist's notion of reality."
   
   Second, we direct the thoughtful reader to the chapter on subject and subject matter. Mr. Rothko, to state his interesting analysis in brief, distinguishes between a painting's "subject matter" and its "subject." The former consists of the recognizable elements-- existing in their replication at whatever degree of distortion, as we have already seen. The latter, which the author equates with "design," is "what the artist intends in the picture." And that, to carry the matter to its end, is simply the final result of all creative labors: "The subject of a painting is the painting itself." One need stretch that proposition but a short way to deny the existence of any method save one for the successful restatement of the full content of a painting: that is the redoing of the painting. That the well constructed painting is its subject incarnate is a truism with which we will never quarrel, save to appeal for the application of this verity to the entire array of the arts. Let us recall Leonard Bernstein's statement that "the only way one can really say anything about music is to write music."
   
   Mr. Rothko's work possesses a stylistic charm brought to the surface, we believe, by a persistent ability to marry the subtleties of reflection with an astute manipulation of the linguistic gears. Let us remind ourselves that the words of artists are to be given the greatest reverence as they represent the best image we have of the flame arising from the nexus of anvil and creative hammer. The Artist's Reality, in particular, must be recognized as resident of the very top of that heap of illuminating works which by a peculiar level of insight become Rosetta stones to the secrets of the artistic mechanism.



5. One of the commercial reviews indicates that this book is a "period piece" and that description probably best describes the book. It was written in a period of time long before Rothko was working his signature style and had achieved any success.
   
   It also didn't help that the Introduction, by the late painter's son, Christopher Rothko, was unnecessarily portentious. The later parts concerning the history of the manuscripts, also written by Christopher Rothko, do tone down the excess language and are quite interesting.
   
   The essays themselves seem incomplete, pedestrian in spots, and extremely dated. As others have noted, Rothko doesn't talk about his own work.
   
   Who is the audience of this book? Completists? Researchers? It can't be that many people.
   
   Something like the publicaton of Kurt Cobain's Journals in book form several years after his suicide had relevance to that artist, even if it was a bit like peeking into somebody's diary. "The Artist's Reality" has almost no relevance to most fans of Mark Rothko and certainly none to those who appreciate his more famous style of painting.

No comments about Critical Readings in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: An Anthology (Ahmanson-Murphy Fine Arts Books).

2 comments about The Power of Art.

1. I took Art Appreciation 2 years ago and this was our textbook. It's a fabulous book that hits on many aspects of art. Starting with learning how to see art, Fundamentals of art & design, and Materials & Tools it leads through the different types of art (Painting, Printmaking, Photography, Sculpture, Drawing, Architecture, Crafts...). It hits on the different ages of art as well from Ancient China up through Modern Art. The book ends with Contemporary issues of Art. I personally found the discussion of Mapplethorp to be highly intriguing.

   If you don't know a thing about art , this book is easy to read & tons of photos make it easier to understand concepts and ideas. If you know tons about art, you'll love this book because it reminds you of all aspects of are such as fauvism, earth art & installations. Even the anti-artist will find something to love in this information rich book.




2. What a great book to sit down with on a quiet day! Beautiful color pages document the art of man and how changes in history have changed what we call "art." After reading this, you will feel comfortable going to the art gallery and talking to others about various artists like Raphael, Picasso, Monet, Jasper Jones, etc. Great beginner book for those interested in the arts.

No comments about Surrealism and Modernism: From the Collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

5 comments about Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics ([Marvel comics).

1. Marvel Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics is a well-presented but incomplete volume that I would highly recommend for those interested in the history of pulp fiction and comic books, especially Marvel Comics.
   
   It is a brilliant summary of a large portion of the genres, formats, and marketing strategies of Marvel Comics, which dates back to the 1930s and 1940s. Even a reader who is not particularly a comics fan will likely find this book fascinating and enlightening.
   
   To me, this publication is a decent effort to document the history and development of the superhero fantasy. Introduced in this publication are highlighted stories and photographed covers of the various pulp fiction magazines, including Marvel Tales, The Spider, Weird Tales, etc., all of which were prevalent in American dime stores and contained various tales about time travel, unlimited atomic energy, ghosts, and alien invaders. Though these fantasies were popular, the pulp novel editors, most notably Martin Goodman, eventually needed to find a way to publish their stories at a pace in sync with an accelerating, thus increasingly demanding, society that was producing faster machines, trains, planes, and automobiles.
   
   Thus was developed and introduced by Goodman, along with illustrator, Bill Everett, what would be the very first issue of Marvel Comics, which has its cover photographed in miniaturized form as displayed in this book. So according to the following pages, the cornerstone of Marvel Comics was laid, and there was to be no turning back.
   
   In Five Fabulous Decades, each page is glossy and contains several photographs in color of the various aforementioned pulp fiction works along with the very early issues that would lead to an expanding Marvel Universe. It is also stated that contrary to what many comic book history writers have informed their respective readers, the creation of the comic book itself did not immediately replace and eradicate the pulp fiction magazine, because pulps continued to be printed well into 1955.
   
   All in all, Marvel did a good chapter-by-chapter sequence, bringing forth names of the great contributors to the comic book universe. Some very poignant moments are presented, especially in the 1950s when the comic book medium comes under scrutiny for presenting violent images. Outrage, according to the book, was so loudly expressed by individuals who alleged the comic book industry was corrupting America's youth that matters were taken before the Federal government and ultimately, Congressional hearings were being held so as to determine the link between comic books and juvenile delinquency. It is then stated that, as a result, the reputation of the comic book industry was maligned and left many editors, publishers, and illustrators without work.
   
   Following this crisis passage is a long-winded narrative of the Marvel Comics resurgence in popularity in 1961 that would spawn the creation of heroes such as The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Spider-Man, as well as the return of old favorites, such as Ka-Zar, Captain America, and The Sub-Mariner. From then on are trivial profiles of the central Marvel characters and how each inspired the creation of TV shows, movies, toys, as well as the creation of superhero groups.
   
   All in all, this is a very good book to own. My only complaint is that the second half focuses more on marketing strategies revolved around the superheroes than on the impact that the superheroes' stories had on their readers. What started out as a potentially perfect rendition of one facet of comic book history got lost in the shuffle with the commercialization of Marvel Entertainment, which is still fascinating in itself.
   
   As a recommendation, for those who are genuinely interested in the history of comic books as a whole, and not just Marvel, please try and find copies of both volumes of The Steranko History of Comics by none other than the great Jim Steranko!



2. i got the book, opened it in my car and spent half an hour fliiping through it until i realized that i had to get to the office...finished it that evening!
   i liked the whole concept and found out a lot (!) of interesting information about marvel, the people behind it, the philosophies, the characters.
   the book is easy to read and easy to use.
   i dropped off one star from the rating because, in the end, it is rather shallow and there were times when i wanted more information but there just wasn't any.
   a good read.



3. The incredible reprinted art from a lot of old comics makes this book worthwhile. The text is very, very weak.



4. THis book is a very generic portrait of Marvel, with one serious flaw: the book is edited by Marvel itself. This means that the writer, altough a real expert in comic book history, could not deal with all the subjects in a neutral way all the time. So, what we have is, generally, praise after praise for this mighty (with justice) company, but no real insight into their history. Of course, there is not space for such, since the book is crowded with magnific art from various artists and various comics. I think it lacked appendices, which could have lists of Marvel's greates artists, MArvel's greatest selling books, Marvel's greates histories. The book is also clearly outdated, since it was first published in 1992. Since then, there was the "mutiny" from the artists (Silvestri, Jim Lee and McFarlane, amongst others) who left to form their own company; the writer, altough mentions it, doesn't explain why Stan Lee, whose role in the company since 1980 is to supervise adaptations to movies and animated features, permitted such lousy adaptations as THE PUNISHER, for example. It does not touch the fact of how the artists were totally underpaid until Jim Shooter was Editor-In-Chief, nor how Lee permitted one editor after another to resign due to the sheer impossibility of editing 54 books at the same time. All in all, this book is great for the art, but for text PEter Sanderson's work, MARVEK UNIVERSE, is better.



5. MARVEL:FIVE FABULOUS DECADES is a long book with a lot of details that the average comic fan isn't interested in, but what I liked the most about it was the analysis of the work of Jack "The King" Kirby, Stan "The Man" Lee, Gene "The Dean" Colan, and INKER SUPREME Joe Sinnott!

   But what made an overwhelming impression on me about this book--and forced me to give it 5 stars!!!--was the surprise appearance of FANTASTIC FOUR #51--"This Man, This Monster"-- right in the middle of the book, a comic book I had never seen before, and probably one of the top 4 FANTASTIC FOUR ISSUES EVER MADE!!!

   BUY MARVEL:FIVE FABULOUS DECADES JUST TO GET A COPY OF FANTASTIC FOUR #51!!!

   EXCELSIOR!!! Chari Krishnan RESEARCHKING

3 comments about Old Master Life Drawings: 44 Plates (Dover Art Library).

1. As a seasoned life drawing artist, I felt obliged to write a review of this book, considering it has been highly rated in the other review. This book is all right for its price, but far from excellent despite the fact that works were done by the old masters. The reason, I think, is most of these drawings were done to serve as preliminary studies for oil painting projects by the old masters. Readers have a chance to see the works of the old masters to, as in my case, be inspired by the fact that excellence is a reachable commitment to any of us. I have seen better.



2. This book is an excellent and accessible resource for students. It has clear reproductions to analyze and draw from at a very low price. While, the entire genre of master drawings can scarcely be touched with only 44 plates, a nice selection of drawings has been chosen. I recommend it for anyone beginning their collection of fine art books, students, or someone who wants to give the subject a try without blowing a bundle on an art book. An excellent resource!



3. This book is an excellent and accessible resource for students. It has clear reproductions to analyze and draw from at a very low price. While, the entire genre of master drawings can scarcely be touched with only 44 plates, a nice selection of drawings has been chosen. I recommend it for anyone beginning their collection of fine art books, students, or someone who wants to give the subject a try without blowing a bundle on an art book. An excellent resource!

No comments about Performance: A Critical Introduction.