5 comments about Fundamentals of Illustration.

1. I am a self taught illustrator and I found this book extremely useful - it really covers the fundamentals of illustration! I love it.



2. As an aspiring illustrator, I was looking for a book that would not only tell me the different avenues I could pursue as an illustrator, but the pros and cons to each path, the best process to follow and how I could become a successful illustrator. This book really had it all! I highly recommend it to anyone getting started in illustration.



3. this book only has one small problem: small captions.
   That's it! It is everything that says in the book description and more!



4. This book is absolutely wonderful. It is superbly written, beautifully designed, and contains examples covering a vast array of Illustration styles that tie in perfectly with the text.
   
   While the focus is obviously on illustration, I would highly recommend that freelance people in the related disciplines of Web and Graphic Design read this too, since there's a lot of more general information about the challenges of going it alone. I would hope that educators are integrating books like this into their curriculum, since it's important for students to understand these challenges before being unleashed into the world!
   
   Thanks for a great book!



5. This book is currently being used as our "unofficial textbook" in my illustration class. A very good overview of illustration careers and practices. Also, this book is great eye candy. I've been inspired to experiment a little more based on the different types of illustration in this book.
   
   Excellent for art students and those considering careers in illustration or graphic design.

5 comments about The Mission of Art.

1. The book is well written. I have been enjoying reading it. However, I can't give it 5 stars because the author takes drugs and writes about it. How about a kid reads this book? So, the kid will think is cool or ok? I don't think the author has the right to inspire people to do what he chooses to do with his body. The body is a temple to take care of not to abuse it and exploited in actions, words, thoughts or writing.
   He also mentions the dark side of his nature that it's too personal and too dark. Almost evil to the point, that I felt he should have left it out. Nobody needs to know about this of his past. Only God should judge, and he knows all our sides including the dark ones.
   If you are spiritually sensitive, you will feel the darkness of his spirit in the past while reading his words. Words are powerful and words can manifest.
   Some parts of the book with these are repulsive!
   The rest is excellent! He has great thoughts and ways to present his visions of art. The author can also inspired other artists.
   To the Author, I would suggest asw a friend reader for him to see "The Secret." Hopefully, he won't repeat writing events of his inner demons. Sorry, but nobody cares...besides this should be in a personal journal or talked with a theraphist.
   The author uses his writtings to heal and confess himself. The bible says, to confess to God only. If you don't want criticism like this don't exploit your past weakneses by writting to the world!
   This book should not be given to kids under 25 yrs old. When you are 25 yrs old. your thoughts patterns are mature to make the best judgement before then your brain is still developing and is highly impressionable. This is a fact and one can google it too.



2. Soul Expression Can Be Visionary Artistry
   Imagine, for a moment, the Creative Forces. How do you envision the Spirit of Life, as it expresses itself within you? When I suggest this meditation in my classes, people usually enjoy it. When I suggest to pick up a colored crayon or two and help the Creative Spirit express itself on paper, this second instruction creates more anxiety than pleasure. I hear the protest, "But I can't draw what I envisioned!" I might reply, "Just allow yourself to enjoy the process and don't be worrying so much about how you think it should look. Let it be easy, let the vision guide the drawing, let it do what it wants with itself."
   After we have made our drawings, people share a little of what was experienced during the meditation and we get to see how it came out on paper. The drawings are so different, yet group members usually recognize the mark of the Creative Spirit in them. Their sheets of paper contain precious revelations. People remark favorably, of course, about those that are more "artistic." Some may denigrate their own work when comparing it with those that win the group's "artistic" award. I try to draw their attention elsewhere. It's not about being "artistic," but about honoring one's experience as best one can.
   Alex Grey, author of The Mission of Art (Shambhala), writes that the purpose of making art should not be trivialized into a career path toward fame and fortune. The essential purpose of making art, he reminds us, is to honor Spirit, to make it visible, to make it real in this world. If we create also for the purpose that it might further awaken Spirit in others, then making art becomes a spiritual mission as well. If sufficient talent, dedication and hard work are present in the mix, then it can also be a profession. He calls the professional artist to a higher mission, explaining how to invite Spirit into the work. If the artist commits to bringing Spirit into the work, he claims, Spirit will collaborate with the artist.
   Creating is an essential part of the soul's activity and thus belongs to everyone as their natural birthright. So he aims his book also at the rest of us, just as he does his painting. He writes, "When people are profoundly moved by art, they recall from their depths their own intuition of spiritual truth." Like Edgar Cayce, he would have us all involved in some sort of creative activity and wants us to appreciate the spiritual importance of doing so.
   Even if you do not recognize the name of Alex Grey, very likely you have seen a reproduction of one of his visionary paintings. Best known are his stunning, anatomically correct renditions of a person with transparent skin, revealing the inner body as well as the spiritual energies flowing through that body. In his painting of the kissing couple, for example, you can see the spirit of the man and woman intertwine. His paintings show beautifully the truth of Spirit's activity in this world.
   The fact that his stuff is extraordinarily good--dazzlingly good--doesn't take away from the fact that he is sincere when he writes that each of us is an artist. He urges us to recognize that our soul yearns to find outward expression in creative acts. Echoing the understanding of Edgar Cayce, he writes, "Seeing with the eye of the heart, the mystic eye, is seeing with the soul." Responding to the creative itch, taking the time to express it, in poetry, in cooking, in painting, honors the source. Allowing the imagination to become involved in our activities invites the soul's involvement in what we do.
   I explain to my students that our doodling exercise is something of a sacred ritual. I note that we attuned ourselves to a very special inner reality, and then expressed it outwardly as honestly as we could. In other words, we gave testimony to our own experience of Spirit. By sharing our drawings, our spiritual intuitions made visible, we treated ourselves to witnessing several reflections of Spirit, expanding and sharpening our sensitivity to its qualities.
   But the exercise was not without struggle. It took something akin to what Grey calls "egocide." We had to let go of notions of what the drawing "should" look like, and allow the expression of something greater than our own willful abilities." It requires turning our focus away from the ego's perceived "artistic" outcome and focus instead upon the authenticity of having honored our experience. In the back of my mind is one of my favorite ideas from the Cayce material, that the one of highest service we can give to one another is to share our experience of the Creator. I am also aware of his teachings about art being an essential path of spiritual experience. The purpose of our exercise is not to see who can make commercial art, but to enhance our connection with Spirit. We can not all be commercial artists, but by honoring the muse and being willing to share, we can all serve as visionary artists. [...]



3. I bought this for my fiance and he ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. I really enjoyed it too. My fiance is a HUGE Alex Grey and TOOL fan and if you are too you will love it too!!!



4. Warp your mind and you just might see God. Haven't tried LSD. Have tried "Salvia Divinorum" (still legal as I write this in most areas) I don't smoke and rarely drink, and I've never even tried pot, something most who know me don't believe since my parents were hippies.
   
   But, after being stuck in a 70 hour week overtime job for 3 years, I had an art block that made me feel almost suicidal. The flood of ideas trying to focus through that tiny speck of time I had burned me out.
   
   So, against everything I'd ever done in life, I got some Salvia Divinorum after a lot of net research on anything "Psychedelic". And after a few trys had a hallucination beyond comprehension. Literally seeing God and his infinite love and creativity and how bright that burns in all of us, even as tiny and insignifigant the universe is in the greater universe beyond.
   
   Reading this book I felt kinship. Someone who'd used a psychoactive and seen his true purpose.
   
   I reccomend to anyone who wants to do art (with or without earning a dime from it) but feels limited or blocked by stress interferring with creativity to do this. Try a hallucinogen ONCE (or a couple times) and check out visionary stuff like this.



5. In The Mission of Art, Alex Grey shows that his prodigious artistic gifts are moored in intellectual depth. Grey discusses art history, aesthetics, mysticism, religion, postmodernism, and processes of art reception with equal facility. This kind of writing is a rare treat. Only a small number of American artists have articulated their ideas in writing and fewer have done so with as much skill and alacrity. Grey's writing is reminiscent of G. Albert Aurier, the French Symbolist critic who shared Grey's mystical inclinations and his views about the spiritual and moral potential of art. Grey believes that mystically inspired art can in turn inspire its viewers to transcend today's oppressive consensual values of materialism, utilitarianism, and consumerism, and become aware of more authentic spiritual realities. There are a couple of factual inaccuracies, perhaps due to exaggeration or oversight, as where Grey states that mystical art was virtually absent in late nineteenth century Europe (p.37) and that Van Gogh labored in "complete obscurity" (p.90). Many prominent artists of the late nineteenth century French Symbolist movement were deeply inspired by neo-Platonic mysticism. Though Van Gogh never achieved material success, he was well known and respected by some major artists of his time. Aurier praised Van Gogh's art in a published review shortly before the latter's death. As the world seems to plummet ever deeper into eco-devastation and strife, to continue to hold out faith in general processes of human spiritual "evolution" which are aided by art, as Grey does, appears to demand ever more credulity. In my view, one can now realistically expect mystical art only to be a source of some personal inspiration and an exemplar of humanity's highest but tragically failed ideals. Its ideals of spiritual perfection might still be realizable, or approachable, by the minority of persons and minds which are receptive to it, but it has been virtually impotent as a means of producing a generalized social-spiritual transformation. Indeed, our society seems to appropriate such art as a means of a repressive desublimation of mystical idealism. Mystical art might tend to palliate and pacify idealistic urges, lulling some viewers into complacency by its pleasant presentations of images of spiritual self-actualization, images which, as wonderful as they may be, are only shadows of real conditions of actualization. Our society allows access to these images while doing its best to restrict access to the kinds of experiences which might truly facilitate such an actualization, such as the entheogenic experiences which largely inspired Grey, and competent shamanic guidance. Nevertheless, such mystical representations of what might be more realizable in a better world may for some others highlight the differences between what is and what ought to be, inspiring greater efforts to close the gap. Mystical imagery, as a means of Bildung or of the cultivation of consciousness, is capable of helping to "magnetize" the minds of receptive viewers, helping to keep some minds freed from Plato's cave and aimed toward the light.

5 comments about Sailor Jerrys Tattoo Stencils.

1. A good source of very nice Sailor Jerry Stencils from the man who in my opinion did the best traditional tattoo flash ever.
   
   Not as good as the now difficult to get Sailor Jerry Tattoo Flash books (volumes 1 and 2), which give a better of idea of this man's talents drawing flash. It has some extra stencils of things not in those books, so it is well worthwhile.



2. I feel that every single tattoo artist,inspiring tattoo artist, or any kind of artists and even art historian should,must own this book. I will admit that when I read the first 15 pages cause thats all there is with any writting on. I had a tear in both my eyes. Every single page back to back is covered with Jerrys tattoo stencils. Also every page is in a very heavy duty paper and they are perforated so you can take each page out and laminate them and use in your shop or portfolio of flash to use for you customer/clients. Every page is full of history. I highly recomend this book and the otherjerrys stencil books they are a very big must have specialy for you buisness/shop you will be so excited to look at the tats not to mention the money you will make from the stencils. I noticed that every single Tattoo magazine has countless tattoos specialy the women are covered in this art. I recomend this book in a big way.
   You are very welcome for the big tip.



3. The book is good for simple, traditional stencils. The drawings are super basic (as they should be for that time), but I was hoping I can get an idea for what the stencils looks like with color and shading. The drawings are fun to mimic and be creative with your own shading and color.



4. I was looking for Pin Up Art Styles and found it all in this book. All the styles are for men & women. When You go into a tattoo shop and look at all the art work on the walls and books; this book has it all summed up. This cool book has it all.



5. Beautiful old school stencils of the original artwork of Sailor Jerry...what more could you want! :)

5 comments about Art in Story: Teaching Art History to Elementary School Children Second Edition.

1. We are a homeschooling family and this book has been an absolute treasure for our learning adventures. Saccardi's book shares information on the history of art during each time period, stories about the artists, suggestions for famous works of that artist to show, journaling exercises and recommended art projects done in the method or similar style of the artist you are studying.
   
   We've used this book along with our history. When we started with ancient history and nomads we studied cave paintings and drew chalk pictures on brown grocery sacks. When we reached the Middle Ages we found a kit to help us do illumination. When we reached American history we painted historical scenes on large sheets of tagboard in effort to paint like Benjamin West. I'm very careful about money spent on materials and this book is one I've never regretted buying. I'm so glad to see it in print again so others can discover it!
   
   -Jeanne



2. This is one of the only books I've seen that approaches teaching art in a holistic, content-rich manner. The author has compiled a wonderful set of resources. Each section begins with a brief overview of the period or style being discussed....very helpful refresher. This is followed by a story about the artist that really captures the kids' attention. There is no need for extensive research on your own, the author has done it for you. She provided extensive lists of resources for each topic, along with a brief comment about each. I am a National Board Certified Teacher, with experience and think this book is one of the best finds ever, a must-have resource for art teachers!



3. This book has been a lifesaver for my art classes. The students love for me to read the stories as they are working on their art project! Which keeps them very quiet!! Never before have I seen so many great stories of so many great artist all in one book! Any art teacher will love it!!



4. Has your school district cut back on the arts. This book will help you intergrate art into social studies and Langauge Arts. In addition to the excelent lessons, the format is easily adaptable to author/illustrators.



5. This book is a marvelous resource for all teachers, but especially art teachers. The author has researched art from all times and places and then written stories that will delight children as they draw them into other worlds through art. The bibliographies alone are worth the price of the book.

No comments about Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities, Alternate Edition (Book & CD-ROM).

5 comments about Living with Art w/ Timeline.

1. I just started my summer class a few weeks ago, and I definitely agree with the instructor that it's a truly great textbook! It's not as pricey as I initially thought it was going to be and it has a ton of art information. The CD and timeline are kind of useless, but I would still use them to study for exams or quizzes. If you want to learn about art in SOOO many ways, get this book because it's a treat!



2. I got this book for a class, and besides just using it for tests, I haven't opened it much. Most of the paintings in the first few chapters are also the same paintings in the last few chapters, though, and I thought it would have more variations. However, the info in each section is concise, easy to read, and the whole book is a great introduction for the beginner to the study of art.



3. I found it to be detailed enough to learn about art without boring me. It was actually for a class I'm taking by found I read more chapters than required because it was a great overview on many diffent subjects from art to architecture



4. Received the book in time and actually it was very fast too. Product is great. A Million thanks.



5. the book is great but the service shipping to me was horrible. it follows my introduction to art history class very well.

No comments about The Nancy Book.

5 comments about Creative Authenticity: 16 Principles to Clarify and Deepen Your Artistic Vision.

1. Ian Roberts, thank you for your wonderful book, Creative Authenticity: 16 Principles to Clarify and Deepen Your Artistic Vision! I have read it four times and will continue to refer to it. I have read many art books in the past few years and yours is the best. It isn't a 'how-to' book but more of a 'why' book and Roberts has truly pegged the drive and spirit that makes one want to create art.



2. Ian Robert's book is inspiring, straightforward, and has served as a continual reference of inspiration for me throughout the years. He has put into words things that I often feel but have never been able to say, things that no one else seems to understand. I highly recommend this book.



3. I am impressed by the contents of this book. I have been thinking most of these thoughts but this has put these thoughts all together in a way that solidifies all of those thoughts on creativity. I am about half way through it now and will certainly be going back through this book many times over. I do wish that it was available in an audio format. Those of us with failing vision really could use that kind of help.



4. I've just completed reading this treasure of a book and plan to go back to it again and again. I have something highlighted in every chapter! So often I found myself nodding and saying "Yes! Yes! That's exactly how it is!" Ian Roberts understands the quirky artistic brain, our fantasy fears and foibles and writes so well about them. His writing style is a joy to read.



5. As a practicing graphic artists for many years, and always trying to understand the creative mood swings in making and creating art. I completely enjoyed the insight Ian Roberts writes about being an artists. Even though he writes from a painter's perspective, his book is completely applicable for all visual art makers. Being a serious artist is not easy and it shouldn't be...doing art is about stuggles...looking at a blank piece of paper or canvas can be frightening and this book breaks down the various areas to help understand and ease that fear. I highly recommend this book to any serious artists who is seeking to understand their own creative process.

5 comments about Art Fraud Detective: Spot the Difference, Solve the Crime!.

1. Perfect gift for the child with an interest in art and a love of reading.



2. Our kids love solving mystery games. They seem to be having a lot of fun with this book, but getting them started was a little slow: there is a clue-tracker sheet that one must create before moving on with the book and, for some reason, our girls (9 and 12) seemed a little put off by this task. But, now they have done that and seem very engrossed in the art scandal.
   
   My only recommendation is to 1. Maybe plan to help your kids create this clue-tracker sheet or, 2. The publisher should include it as a tear-out item in the book (which probably adds to production cost).



3. This book was a lot of fun for my son and I. Readers are told that four gangs of forgers have replaced most of an art museum's paintings, and only we can help figure out which are real and which are forged. Using a magnifying glass, you compare 8" by 5" four color paintings to 4" by 4" originals, looking for changes (such as missing items or objects with different coloration). This allows you to fill in a chart which allows you to deduce the forgers, the snitch and the unchanged paintings, thereby saving the museum. 34 painintgs are here, by Van Eyck, Piero, Uccello, Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo, Gossaert, Massys, Holbein, Marinus, Brueghel, Avercamp, Brugghen, Rembrandt, Steenwyck, Velde, Hooch, Vermeer, Chardin, Perronneau, Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, Watteau, Os, Delaroche, Ingres, Morisot, Degas, Monet, Rousseau, Seurat, Van Gogh and Picasso. Each painting is accompanied by a couple of paragraphs about the artist and the painting. We both enjoyed finding the mistakes, filling out the chart and solving the puzzle; the game also stimulated a discussion of painting and artists. It took us a few sessions to solve everything, but it was enjoyable time. I would buy other books by this author.



4. I have found that this book sets the stage for helping children to really look at art. The "fraud puzzle" presented in the book makes the children really spot unique techniques of the artists in several different styles. They are able to see what makes one style of art unique from others over the centuries as styles changed.



5. I bought this book for my very bright 10 year old granddaughter's birthday. My friend who is a librarian had bought it for her 12 year old niece and said she loved it and has asked if there are anymore in the series which there are. My daughter taped the answer pages together so she couldn't look at the answers and says that my granddaughter can't put it down. She loves it and I am willing to bet she will ask for the next in the series when she finishes Art Fraud Detective. This book is a great way to foster interest in art and artists.

4 comments about The Disasters of War (Dover Books on Fine Art).

1. When I look at these prints, I am reminded of: the "contractors" whose dismembered bodies were hung from the bridge in Fallujah; the lynching postcards that were commonly mailed around the USA only a few generations ago to celebrate the murder of black men; Auschwitz; All Quiet on the Western Front; Sherman's March; the Trojan War; you get the idea. Unfortunately these powerful images are and shall remain contemporary. There is some topical political comment here, but you're mostly looking at the human condition, and with a few changes of costume and props, these prints are applicable to almost any conflict, anywhere. Good for the kids' room.



2. Consistently all things published by Dover are of the highest and most comprehensive quality technically and academically, and yet at a very low and democratic price, as if they actually wish to place high culture into the hands of the common man and the poorest person, rather than charging top dollar for instantly disposable art and airport lounge short-lived literature. Dover rather presents for our constant use high quality and durable books: Our Daily Book.
   
   And thus this book which we need to see and weep every night as we grow dull with constant war and violence. We see here why war must wage nevermore, in this brave new era of total and indiscriminate and disproportionate yet profitable colonialist warfare.
   
   When allowed by our media we may now see the same or similar images to these which Goya so accurately depicts, both realistically and fantastically. Goya, so well known as a painter of the Spanish courts, but also of Saturn consuming his children, here shows us grotesquely and coldly the true meaning of war, the true fruits of warfare, the moral and the spiritual causes and effects of war: the disasters of war.
   
   As I pride myself as bilingual and am certified superlatively fluent in Spanish with some English besides, as well as a few other tongues, I found occasion here to wince at Dover's translations of Goya's carefully scripted captions, or to shout aloud more probable interpretations, yet I find this the only possible objection to this excellent and gratefully received volume, which must be on the table of every American home, lacking as we are the graphics from Fallujah or Gaza. Read this book and pray for peace. Read this book and study war no more. Read this book with Mark Twain's War Prayer, and turn aside from the ever more rugged war path surging with the blood of innocents.
   
   Even more than Barefoot Gen, more than the immortal Guernica, more even than Speigelman's Maus series, this realistic, classical and careful draftsmanship of the great Goya brings home to us across the centuries the true horrors and disasters of war, with poignant captions. Please read this book in this excellent, scholarly and complete presentation by Dover Editions, now at an even lower price here upon the amazon. Here must we see that the victims of our violence are human beings, our brothers and sisters, children and elders, and not some dehumanized uncounted collateral statistic alienated into separate labels of faith or of nation. We strike our own family in these disasters of war. This is a powerful book which must be seen today, and most gratefully Dover offers it still upon this amazon.



3. The Disasters of war is a difficult book to read, containing the most impressing pictures of war and its consequences. The black/white drawings are as real as life itself, and sometimes even more!
   
   Goya depicts tortures made on public squares, people starving to death, and warriors fighting. But the most amazing is the vividness and actuality of the pictures. The Disasters of war is like a poetry book, it has no time, and no defined significance; it can be interpreted in infinite different ways and it is always an up-to-date work.
   
   In my view, one of the best ways to fight war is using art. War leads on to war, art leads on to art. Understanding what and how war happens is essential in order to fight it (I excluded Why since I believe there is no explanation for it). This book shows the What perfectly. I have written a review of the book 'Why?' by Nikolai Popov which is about the How.



4. Like most dover press books, we have here a wonderful bargain: clear reproductions and good paper stock. Goya was a court painter trying to please his patrons, but in this series of etchings, he indulged his twisted soul in the first recorded anti war propaganda. These etchings are both lovely in their technique and horrifying in their imagery.