No comments about Fashion Book, The - Midi Edition.

2 comments about Do It Yourself Screenprinting.

1. This book is a departure from the standard narrative of a craft or hobby book, and as such, I think it's one of those things; you'll either like it or lump it. Me? I didn't lump it, but I enjoy comics & 'toons anyway. The book was a quick read, but then again I'm a quick reader. I've only just gotten interested in screen printing, and have not yet created any of my own prints. But for the price, this book is a great value for an introduction and overview of simple to advanced processes.
   
   The book is in the form of 3 "zines", comic books that are interspersed with profiles of artists and people in the screen printing trade.
   
   Chapter 1 describes the process of obtaining a screen and making simple prints at home. Described are the processes of attaching screens, using emulsion, burning the screen, and inking. After the 1st chapter is a profile of a screen printer, and then an "insert", explaining that the comic is not intended as a "single source" for screen printing, and should be used as a "visual complement" to the booklet included in the "Diazo Photo Emulsion Kit". Then transparencies, photo emulsion, mesh count, supplies list, and curing & cleaning are explained. Another profile follows.
   
   The next chapter, or "zine" shows our protagonist's first experience selling shirts as a vendor in Berkeley. It's amusing and informative, and contains the F-word.
   
   Another profile follows, and the 3rd and last "zine" is about the author's adventures in a silk screen shop. And while I've never worked in one, it seemed to be a good overview of a shop, and discusses techniques and equipment, such as color separations, fixing stained shirts, registration marks, coating screens, fixing mistakes, setting up the screens so they'll be centered, washing out the screens, taping the screens and setting up & troubleshooting the multi-station press. This section is pretty detailed. Mixing ink & pantone color matching is also touched on. Squeegeeing, color registration & testing are covered next. Then on to curing & checking the cure. After that, it's on to discussing a couple of different techniques, flash-drying and reclaiming screens. after another misadventure, there is a small discussion touching upon different methods and techniques to achieve a few varied effects.
   
   After a thank you page, and another profile, there's a section about printing on paper, and building a vacuum table. Drying methods are talked about as well as troubleshooting. Then, another profile.
   
   At the end of the book are sections on manual color separations, cutting stencils by hand, squeegee moves (techniques), recommended reading, a last printer profile, a glossary, online resources, and some sample drawings to give you some inspiration.
   
   Unlike the other reviewer I found this book to be very informative. Yes, the narrative is different, but is by no means unreadable. Neither is it lacking in detail. I've read a couple of other books, and none of them mentioned newtons (a measurement of force) or a durometer (a device to measure newtons). Of course it's not intended as a book for "professionals" - the subtitle is "How to turn your home into a T-Shirt factory". I've yet to read an honest DIY book that is intended for the reader to become a professional based solely on the information in that book, and for any profession, a book intended as a DIY is most certainly going to be rudimentary, and lacking in depth for professional knowledge.
   
   I found it accessible and thorough enough that coupled with a few online tutorials (yay Makezine.com!) and practice, I'll be making great prints in no time. And, I've found a new catch phrase to describe someone that ticks me off. You'll know it when you read it.
   
   I hope you enjoy this book, should you decide to buy it.



2. This book is like a cartoon. I knew that when I bought it, but it is hard to read and not informative at all. Its written for someone who already knows about screenprinting or has the supplies but with the cartoons and attitude of the book doesn't make much sense. I think the author is confused as to who the targeted reader would be. I dont see who this book would fit with. Not the beginer and the expert could take it serious.

5 comments about Illustrating Nature: Right-Brain Art in a Left-Brain World.

1. Haven't had a chance to really study the book, but from glancing through it there's a lot to be learned. I got to mainly for the pen and ink drawings which are excellent. However, I never really did understand the right side and left side of the brain when it comes to art. Maybe this will help.



2. I had been wanting to order this book, but for one reason or another kept post-poning. I'm glad I finally ordered it. It is wonderful, inspiring and for any level.



3. I've looked at a lot of art instruction books, wondering if they'd perform
   as promised. This profusely illustrated book is the best I've seen!
   The first thing you notice when you leaf through Illustrating Nature ~
   Right-brain Art in a Left-brain World is that Irene Brady has skillfully
   constructed exercises to lead you by the hand at your own pace down her
   well-marked trail to professional illustration. For instance, the book begins by
   explaining that artistic skills are natural to most of us and that to open
   the door all you need is the key - then she hands you the key.
   Starting with right-brain exercises to help you access your creative
   skills, she then shows you how to really look at things, noticing and
   comparing shapes and angles. The next step is to convey that information to
   your hand and the paper - and amazingly, out comes a picture you'll be
   amazed you could create. While beginners can get started with this book,
   all artists can jump in at their own skill level and proceed from there to
   a stage of excellence they've only dreamed of. There are exercises to
   advance the artist's skill in such different areas as shading; use of
   pencil, pen, and computer; organizing and designing an illustration; field
   sketching (and taking notes about the subject); and a multitude of procedures and tips, both large and small, that go into creating beautiful, professional
   results. The heavily illustrated instructions for each exercise are clear,
   concise, and lead the artist from elemental to complex in easy increments.
   The appendix outlines steps to guide your art into a career in a wide array
   of professional fields.
   If you've ever thought you might like to jumpstart, improve, or hone your
   artistic skills to a fine point, this book is an excellent choice.



4. Irene Brady is an expert, biologically accurate nature artist, but that doesn't stop her from creating (and teaching others to create) lively, interesting nature art. I am very impressed by her book, Illustrating Nature, Right-brain Art in a Left-brain World. From the construction of a leaf or a wing to the hairs in an ear and the fur on the body, Brady leads you to analyze the structure of plant or animal parts. Then she skillfully helps you understand techniques to illustrate these features. You learn how to pay attention to the details and illustrate the entire organism in a realistic and delightful manner. Brady wisely encourages the developing artist to use computer graphics as part of their toolkit. She also provides an appendix with many design ideas for book and magazine layout and design and promotional graphics, brochures and the like for museums and nature centers. This is a superb book for classroom use and the individual learner. I would have given my eyeteeth for this book as a child. Maybe there is hope for me yet!
   
   Nancy Field
   Nature Publisher, Author and Wildlife Biologist
   Dog-Eared Publications
   Author of several titles, including Discovering Sharks and Rays, the winner of a 2004 Ben Franklin Award for Best Juvenile-Young Adult Nonfiction



5. Rebeccasreads highly recommends ILLUSTRATING NATURE as an important tool for every budding artist (no matter their age) with an eye for a career in illustration, scientific or otherwise, as well as an extraordinary assistance for elders wanting to keep their brains in tip-top shape!
   
   If you're a bit confused by all this Left Brain/Right Brain stuff, then Irene Brady ably guides you in discovering just what your Left Brain does, & what your magical Right Brain can do. Amazing stuff, folks!
   
   ILLUSTRATING NATURE is a superbly inter-active book -- you are in for an adventure in creating fascinating, realistic images.
   
   ILLUSTRATING NATURE is a textbook you will keep coming back to, as your skill progresses - highly recommended for home schooling, elder art classes & anyone of any age who loves to draw.

1 comments about Cath Kidston Book of Labels and Stickers.

1. A really lovely assortment of beautiful and useful stickers in all the classic Cath colors and patterns.

5 comments about Advanced RenderMan: Creating CGI for Motion Pictures (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics).

1. The book covers everything from the basics of setting up a scene with lighting to writing your own shaders with detailed descriptions of the Renderman API. Overall, excellent overview for the intermediate graphics prefessional.



2. The world of computer graphics books is filled with fat, pricy tomes that are frankly little better than rehashes of the manual. "Advanced Renderman" is a completely different sort of book.

   While Renderman is the ostensible subject, the authors actually cover the entire graphics workflow-- and explain the "why" of it all. Their section on anti-aliasing, for example, is concise, complete, and makes clear the implications of all those little doo-hickeys in 3DS -- you remember the AR explanation better, because its based around how rendering works, rather than how a particular application works (which may change in the next rev, anyway)

   Smart guys, smart book-- highly recommended.




3. This is a great book, written in clear and understandable English. It proivded me (a novice) great information about the RenderMan interface. Not only did it provide a reference to the various API calls, but it also includes an introduction to the basic maths behind it, as well as chapters that discuss CG in general. A thoroughly well written, useful and informative book. It is indespensible for any RenderMan user and in fact, for any CG artist.



4. This book is written by six renowned professionals in digital lighting field. Even you are not a shader programmer, chaper 1 and 13 show the aesthic architecture of lighting composition and tell us the beauty of 'Photosurrealism'. The depth of each paper is just amazing and you can find more beautiful tecnical information from other papers written by the same authors.



5. This book far exceeds both The Renderman Companiona and Texturing and Modeling: A procedural approach(Two very good books) in the presentation of massive amounts of information, as well as simplicity of presentation. While this book does sort of deal more with BMRT and PRMan(look at the authors, sheesh...) than the Interface, per se, it does a very nice job of presenting information specifically geared towards them. The inclusion of a section on mathmatics and physics is especially appealing for me, because I'm not yet out of high school. Anyway, if you aren't too much of a miser, buy this book.

   Oh, and since these reviews are not supposed to reveal cruical plot elements: There IS a self shading cloud shader!

5 comments about Exploring Drawing for Animation (Design Exploration Series).

1. This book has very little to do directly with animation.
   
   Plenty of the drawing principles explained are quite valuable to an animator. Rules of proportion, anatomy, perspective, etc... that are the foundation of most any form of drawing, This book is a decent primer in these principles, although there are plenty of other books that cover them better.
   
   But if you thought you were going to learn the about drawing in the manner & style of 2D animation, think again. Clean-up style linework is only covered briefly and most of the examples of it aren't that great. Most of the art in this book is too rough to be suitable for animation, which is fine for life drawings, but the rest can be little more than conceptual work, which can come from any style of art, really. There's not enough structure taught to create usable artwork for characters, backgrounds or even layouts for animation.
   
   There's definitely things you can learn from this book, but you're better off finding them somewhere else.



2. I bought tis book a few years ago. It has some good stuff of how drawing relates to animation. It also sheds more light on to the process than a lot of books. However, after a few years of animation art school, I realized how bad the drawings were. If you want to learn about drawing for animation, check out Glen Vilppu's books. (he worked as a drawing instructor/trainer at some of the bigger studios in L.A.)



3. Oh my, where to begin...
   
   I posted some images of a few of the drawings from the pages of this book on the customer images link above. Feel free to take a look at those to see where I am coming from.
   
   The authors of this book need a few drawing lessons themselves, though I'm not sure that would actually help, because they're beyond hopeless. The drawings in the book are beginner level, amateurish drawings and it's really sad to see that these guys are actually teaching students in an art school.
   
   Aside from the obvious lack of personal drawing skill on the authors' parts, there is a lot of bad advice from an animation drawing point of view, like too much emphasis on measuring and copying the model and a completely misunderstood/misrepresented view of the all-important line of action.
   
   Stay away from this book. These guys should be ashamed of themselves for putting this crap out there.



4. I made the mistake of buying this book, and I would like to warn you guys please , please dont waste your money on this title...This book is nothing more than a long overview on drawn animation , It is not and I repeate it is not a how to book , although the authors have tried to present it as a text book, its no more than an introduction to animaton drawing ,the authors try very hard to explain drawing and go all blah...blah...blah....but they dont tell you what to do , whats mentioned in this book can be known via a simple search on the net.I would advice customers to buy a copy of, Vilppu Drawing Manual by Glenn Vilppu and Animation : The mechanics of motion by Chris Webster. These books are practicle , simple , cheaper and would prove to be a thousand times more useful to the animation student.



5. I have worked as an animator, teacher and fine artist for over 30 years and this is the first art text I have ever seen that discusses how solid drawing skill relates to creating drawings for character designs and 2D animation. Most animation `how-to' books include some drawing instruction but do not address the important bridge between drawing and animation.
   
   The authors present an entertainingly written book in an easy-to-read conversational tone along with illustrations that show the well-honed professional drawing and painting skills of this book's creators. It is obvious to the reader that the authors are seasoned artists and educators.
   
   While this book is predominantly for learners of beginning to intermediate levels, anyone with an interest in the interdisciplinary issues within animation and drawing would benefit from picking up this gem of a text. Unfortunately, the title of the book suggests that it covers the technique of 2D animation in-depth, but this is a misnomer. Fortunately, 2D animation is commented on in a more important context: the development of effective observational drawing skills that will produce better animation drawings.

4 comments about Business Cards 2: More Ways of Saying Hello (Business Cards).

1. This book is not something that you would take the design from and carry over into your own work verbatim as most everything is pretty out there. But it is a good place to get inspiration on the details.



2. This book is great and shows so many great card designs. I must say that some are not A+ more of a C, But still great to see designs of cards from all around the world and is a great book to have!



3. This is an unusual but interesting approach to the design of business cards.
   
   The unusual is the norm here, offbeat, grunge, etc. Not the type of business cards that would probably be accepted by most of your business clients...but that said, this is a collection of thought inducing ideas and graphics which will stimulate your creative juices...give you a starting point to begin a new design approach when the challenge of creating an image for your client that will be presented at the initial introduction to a new business relationship.



4. Wspaniala ksiazka! Polecam serdecznie grafikom, designerom i wszyskim innym zajmujacym sie projektowaniem wizytowek. Jest skad zaczerpnac inspiracji. Po takiej ksiazce Twoje wizytowki juz nigdy nie beda takie same... I chyba o to chodzi.

No comments about T-Shirt Factory.

No comments about Icons of Graphic Design, Second Edition.

5 comments about Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures: 1,087 Renderings from Historic Sources (Dover Pictorial Archive Series).

1. Fantastic book. Highly recommended. Bought for inspiration and collection, def worth a look! If youre looking for tattoo ideas, this is perfect.



2. These illustration are mediocre at best and I wish I had realized that they were an artists interpretation of monsters from historical sources, not direct images. Darn.



3. Satisfaction with this purchase will very much depend on your purpose. It certainly does not have much text in the book to accompany the illustrations. Personally, I wasn't expecting any having purchased other Dover publications for artists and craftspeople. Which then left the illustrations. There is a diverse range here across different parts of the world. I was expecting different 'ages' rather than different 'locations'; only because some pictorial archives (especially costume ones) start with the oldest period and work forwards.
   
   As someone looking for different animals and creatures for use in collage art, altered books and card making, this is a good book to add to my collection. There are certainly all manner of creatures contained within.
   
   If you are looking for an informative archive through text, then this is certainly not the book for you. If like me, you are looking for a range of creatures; then this book has something to offer.



4. On the one hand, the book does offer wide-ranging coverage. There isn't a region of the world that isn't covered to some extent.

   On the other hand, the textual information provided is sparse and occasionally *wrong*, and some of the inclusions are questionable.

   Each illustration has a one-sentence caption, varying considerably in detail provided. Some give you all the information you would need to find the source of the original illustration, some are a single word identifying the type of creature, others are somewhere in-between. It's unclear how much of this dearth of information is because of the reliance on secondary rather than original sources, and how much of it is because the author and/or his editor over-did the cutting.

   Also, some of the captions are mis-assigned. Going through the book, I easily spotted several occasions where two of the illustrations on the same page were clearly given each other's captions. I only spotted this a few times but it begs the question, how many other such errors are there in the book that I didn't spot?

   Finally, some of the illustrations included really don't belong. Details from Bosch paintings make sense, they're demons ("fantastical and mythological creatures") from hundreds of years ago ("from historic sources"). But there are some figures from modern art included that don't seem to belong, particularly a Picasso that's just an abstract rendering of a normal human.

   It may well be more useful for its bibliography than for its content.




5. at first, i was terribly dissapointed at the simple black and white renderings and 1 sentance descriptions. however, i learned to appreciate it as a one of a kind book. it is not very insightful, special, creative, or informative, and i want to let let it be known that this book is not going to be good for a little kid who just likes little baby fairy tales or other things like that. this is especially for the advanced fan of mythological and fantastic creatures. i know that i tresure my copy though! love ya'!