No comments about Cubism A&I (Art and Ideas).

4 comments about Art Across the Alphabet: Over 100 Art Experiences that Enrich Early Literacy.

1. This book proved not o be only satisfactory to me, but also to my daughter's english teacher. There are 4-5 different activities for each letter of the alphabet and each activity involves something preschoolers and kindergarter's are already familiar with, such as airplanes and bubbles. Each activity is a refridgerator paper and can be easily reviewed as well as inform those not so close-by relatives what your children are learning. Great book, would recommend it to anyone who is having a difficult time developing ideas for beginning letters.



2. Anybody could think of these ideas, no need for the book.



3. I borrowed this book from the local library and loved it. (I have the late fees to prove it). So I went hunting online and here it is on Amazon. Awesome book with illustrations, supply list and step by step on how to do your art project. My son is 3, you could easily use this for kids much older. The projects are fun even if you already know the alphabet. Use it for rainy day ideas. This week we made pet Rocks (our letter is R). My son went around telling everyone about his pet rock. Buy it - you won't be disappointed.



4. Teachers know that children learn best by engaging in hands-on, fun activities which reinforce the skill or concept being taught. Teachers also know that combining activities---say art and literacy, for example---make the learning process more vital, more engaging. We know these things; however, we don't always have the time to devise and plan those activities.

   To the rescue: Art Across the Alphabet. This jam-packed resource includes art-centered activities that will help your students with phonemic awareness, letter recognition, and pre-reading skills. Also included are sample letters home which will encourage parents to become involved, "alphabet gallery activities," as well as teacher-tested tips and suggestions.

   We "field-tested" many of the activities and found them easy to incorporate into our curriculum, well-written, and enjoyable. The letters home to parents are especially helpful and extremely well done. Highly Recommended.

   Reviewed by the Education Oasis staff.

5 comments about Creating the Art of the Game (New Riders Games).

1. This guy knows what he's talking about! I've been in game art for a long time now, but on every page I learn something new. I'm not the reading type of guy, but I'm slurping this up. Great, great stuff! I highly recommend it!



2. If you are completely new to creating game art then this book is for you. However if you have read a few of these then you prolly wont get much out of it. It is definaly more of a Game are theory book. There is some good information in here on optimising things for their best performance. The book cover all areas not just characters and props but, level design as well.
   
   Still, Very well written. I even though I have read may of these I still found many parts of it very interesting.



3. This book has really helped to guide my texturing skills in a more technical and marketable direction. Having some experience with UV layout, this book picks up with great Photoshop tips to transform boring textures into great ones. A great book for beginners and anyone wishing to look at an industry standard pipeline.



4. I've been reading a lot of books lately that talk about how to create various 3-d art. And also lots of books that talk about programming that assumes that you already have the "art assets", but there is obviously a big gap between those two things! This book fills that gap very well.
   
   This book talks about making art assets for games, period. So when he talks about making various pieces of art, he always puts it in the context of how it will be used in an actual game. Most of his points are illustrated with color photos of very popular games that the author has worked on (e.g. Metal of Honor).
   
   The book offers mostly theory, but the author isn't afraid to get his hands dirty either. Every once in a while to illustrate a point he offers very detailed, step by step instructions on how to do something (mainly using Maya, 3ds Max, or Photoshop). In this regard, users who use those tools will probably get a little bit more out of the book then those who use alternate tools, but most of the book is theory and general discussion.
   
   A lot of books I've been reading lately have been very "heavy" in terms of trying to cram so many facts into each page that I find myself counting down each page to the end of the chapter. Not this book. I find the pages turn a lot more easily and quickly in this book, and it is actually an enjoyable as well as informative read.



5. This book was very helpful when it comes to alpha mapping, bump mapping, and light mapping. I found it very informative and very well written. It's a must have for your collection.

5 comments about Ballet Class Coloring Book.

1. I love this book!! I am a middle school dance teacher and I just started to use this book in my class. The discriptions are great for all ages of beginning to intermediate ballet students.



2. This book is a nice version of the pictorial book we found and loved in our local library. I was thrilled to find a version my daughter could color any way she wanted. I felt like it was pretty accurate with how we have experienced starting ballet lessons, including being excited and nervous. The drawings are pretty but simple enough for my preK colorist to handle.



3. Like all the Dover coloring books, this one is an excellent educational tool as well as a fun coloring book. One thing that other reviewers have not noted is that many of the illustrations feature young male dancers. In fact, the dancers illustrated are of different ages and ethnicities as well which is nice to see.



4. I am a dance teacher and I bought this coloring book so that my students could learn while coloring. It is a nice book, with actual steps and definitions - quite thorough. It is not babyish, it is useable for students even a little older.



5. As a ballet instructor, I cannot recommend this coloring book enough for children who are serious about learning about ballet. I use this in my beginning ballet class (ages 5-8), giving them a "memory term" each week. The kids are excited to learn the terms in this book, and they get to color too!

3 comments about ArtSpoke: A Guide to Modern Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1848-1944.

1. I learned about this book during a docent training class I just took. Since it was deemed a reliable source by the museum's staff, I thought it would be one I could count on to help bone up on new exhibits that come to the gallery.
   
   It provides informative overviews of art movements, styles, and historical moments like Nazi Art. It does not provide explanations of media processes. For instance, I was hoping to find a quick definition of the mezzotint printmaking process, and couldn't.
   
   I would recommend this for any art lover's reference library.



2. This was one of my most indispensable reference books for my art history courses.



3. Modernism, Modern--now I undnerstand the difference! And so much more about twentieth centnury art. Students and experts both will finnd this invaluable. Atkins is a genius in the way he gets these complicated ideas across that I never understood in art history class. Great pictures and chronology, too.

5 comments about Samurai Sword: A Handbook.

1. mr. yumoto's work is very descriptive and pictures fill the pages more than text does.
   
   "Samurai Sword a Handbook" lacks an analytic quality that would bring togheter the social, historical, technical and martial dimensions of the nihonto.
   
   last but not least, such an important - and relatively undocumented - subject as care and maintenance of japanese blades is simply and vaguely evoked in two pages that make up a ridiculous chapter.
   
   all in all, yumoto's work is too old to be satisfying to comtemporary readers in search of a meaningful, concise handbook which would explain rather than describe.



2. A PERFECT SOURCE WHO WANTS TO LEARN ABAUT JAPANESE SWORDS AND THEIR HISTORY



3. I finished reading it yesterday. It is too much for beginner and not enough for intermediate or even expert...
   
   It is definitely usefull for future reference in terms of finding more about your sword or swords you want to buy and using some of the criterias. Photos are B&W and crappy and references text-to-drawings are badly organized.
   
   What is strongly missing is types of sword damage, how to eveluate type of damage and find it on blades etc...
   
   I dont know when book was written but some information also seems bit obsolete...
   
   If the book was hardcover, had two times more pages, colored photos to go with drawings, better organized and have more information, I would give 5. Now I give 3 of 5.



4. This is a good, short overview of the basics of Japanese Swords. Recommended.



5. This is an awesome book for anyone wnating to know more about samurai swords and speaking as a beginner myself, I found that this book explained everything clearly and concisely - I now know a lot more about swords than i did before :)

No comments about How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness.

No comments about Installation Art.

3 comments about The Drawing Book: A Survey of Drawing : The Primary Means of Expression.

1. Great selection and themes. Printing and layout are excellent. Significant pull quotes draw you in. The broad range of contributions is unusual in today's world of art stars and the system that supports it. An attractive and substantive addition to a library.



2. A great read and welll bound solid reference book. Tempted to give 5 stars but a personal quirk is that I was looking for more images less text, so rating is more about me than the book.



3. The weighty set of examples packed into THE DRAWING BOOK: A SURVEY OF DRAWING: THE PRIMARY MEANS OF EXPRESSION should deter no real artist: it provides an outstanding gathering of works by artists, architects, sculptors, filmmakers and more to demonstrate the versatility of drawing. Add essays by curators Kate Macfarlene and Katharine Stout and art writers Charles Darwent and you have an in-depth survey through five artistic themes - measurement, nature, the city, dreams, and the body. It's the color plates which stand out here, as silent testimony to the range of expression drawing can bring to each theme and thought.
   
   Diane C. Donovan, Editor
   California Bookwatch

3 comments about How To Draw Crazy Cars & Mad Monsters Like a Pro (Motorbooks Studio).

1. This book was written and drawn by some of the original artists of Ed Roth's studio. It doesn't get any closer than this, great book!



2. My kids just loved this book. They are both aspiring artists and have done some great work since Christmas!



3. I bought this book for my husband, after several refferals from other hot rod friends. This book is better than described.