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

4 comments about Artist's Photo Reference: Wildlife.

1. This book is great as regards to being a visual guide of beautiful pictures of wildlife which will help me with my future oil paintings.



2. When I need a reference book it is because I want to see the different angles, and a wide variety of types of animals and activity. This book ventured off too often into a lesson and show and tell for one piece of art. I think that is where the effectiveness is lost. If I want a "how to book" for an art project, I'll get a more descriptive and helpful book. If I want a reference guide to see angles, I am probably going to opt for a photographic books. I still was able to find some of what I needed, but was overall very disappointed in the content of the book and some of the subjects (whale tails and wet otters). I'm not sure I'd waste my money on another from this series.



3. This photo reference is adequate, however, there are much better resources for the artist out there. For example, "Paradise on Earth" by Jim Thorsell puts this book to shame. It is not intended as a photo reference, and I came upon it by accident, but it is a far better reference. The photos are diverse and they are of superb quality. In addition, this is a coffee table sized book so the photos are of adequate size- often in the ARtist's photo reference series the photos are just too small to be of any practical use. Also, the photos just aren't that striking- they don't excite at all. Paradise on Earth will get you feeling creative guaranteed. The bottom line is that there are many books often at bargain prices that don't purport to be artist's photo references that do a better job than this book. I just wish I'd looked around before I purchased this book.



4. This is a fantastic book. It's a must for any wildlife artist and it even makes a great coffee table book for anyone who likes wildlife. The book is just full of great photographs and the step by step paintings are very usefull.

2 comments about Garden of Paris Sketchbook.

1. A lovely collection of art on the gardens around Paris, printed on high quality paper. The book displays your favourite gardens but does introduce you to a series off gardens that would otherwise go unnoticed by the casual tourist. Highly recommended for the quality of the art work and the informal conversational tone of the writing



2. This book is by far one of the very best art sketch books, like the other sketch books from Editions Didier Millet, it is printed on watercolor paper, the colors are bright and vivid. The drawings have just the right detail, and the text exciting to read. I learned about Paris, about drawing, and adding colors to my own works of art after seeing this book. This book is a must for a traveler, or just the person who wants insight to travel destinations. The pictures are so skillfully drawn and painted by Fabrice Moireau, they will fill your imagination with dreams of being in each scene. This book is a real treasure and keepsake. I think it would make a wonderful and impressive gift as well.

2 comments about Painting Light & Shade (Quarto Book).

1. I really appreciate this book, it deserves %100 of the money I gave for it. First of all, it gives out very much about the key points of ligth and shade in the context of watercolour. Additionally, I liked the way the author show the techniques and the demonstrations. They are really detailed, may be one of the most detailed, I have ever seen in a watercolor book. Most of all, as someone, who is interested in wc books, which doesnt spend their first 40 pages with wc materials, keys for a good composition and other story issues and etc.. this book has at least an intermediate level.



2. I love the book. I've found it in the library and checked it out many times. The book gives amazing feeling of light and shadows, shows many examples, consists of many helpful tips and schemes. Finally, I decided I want to have the book of my own...

No comments about Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections.

4 comments about The Watercolor Artist's Flower Handbook: Leading Floral Artists Show How to Capture the Beauty of Flowers.

1. I am a beginning watercolorist, and I found the book a pleasure to peruse. I especially liked how so many different artists' approaches are shown and briefly explained, and the bonus watercolor paper postcards in the back are elegant. I am finding it fun to try such varied styles to see which ones appeal to me, and learning a lot along the way. I enjoy having this book to refer to and for motivation and inspiration. While there is a helpful section regarding basic supplies, I do not believe this book was intended as a "complete beginning watercolorist how-to" book. (I have enjoyed stacks of "beginning watercolorist" books from - ahem - my local library! In fact, borrowing this book from my local library is what prompted me to want to add this one to my personal library.) Hope this helps.



2. This books is simply magically. I purchased it in hopes of improving my understanding of painting flowers, in order to really bring my fantasy artwork to life. It was all that I hoped for and more, showcasing the beautiful work of some of the most renowned watercolor flower artists.
   
   Each artist has a section that displays a sampling of their work, along with excerpts from their sketchbooks. These sketchbooks are accompanied by lovely notes regarding the artist's process and thoughts during creation. There is also a short section containing each artist's favorite paint colors, etc.
   
   A truly enjoy book for the artist, whether beginner or advanced as well as for the lover of flowers and art. Also comes with a few postcards in the back for you to paint on. A delight!



3. Artists and examples were not as varied as I would have liked. It lends itself more to keeping a watercolor flower journal than for techniques on painting floral pictures.



4. Any amateur artist interested in learning via the sketching efforts of others will find these step-by-step techniques in The Watercolor Artist's Flower Handbook: Leading Floral Artists Show How To Capture The Beauty Of Flowers to be specific and easy to follow. Thirteen leading floral artists offer insights on how they work, from choosing materials to sketching and producing polished results. Add ready-to-point postcards bound into the book and you have an extraordinary beginner's kit.

1 comments about Painting Angels in Watercolour (Fantasy Art).

1. This small tome makes an excellent coffee table book just on the merit of beauty alone. While a beginning watercolorist might find the art a tiny bit intricate, the clear, step by step instructions would guide them to a sucessfully finished project. Everything is covered; surfaces, paper, brushes, paints, mediums, techniques & colors, to how to use the illustrations to draw your own pictures. An expert might bypass the basic instructions but surely would find inspiration in the artwork and palette.

2 comments about Watercolor: The Complete Course.

1. This is no child's book but for the adult novice. Many tips from basic to advanced. Colored Photos. I love this book. See also Drawing: The Complete Course.



2. I just ordered a copy; it was out-of-print a month ago. I borrowed a copy for two weeks and it looked like an excellent book, considering that it was in Japanese, of which I can read maybe 2%. Most watercolor books teach a really stiff technique that is very literal ("First I put an underwash of Alizeran Crimson in the water areas and cobalt blue in the sky...") and totally out of touch with the art world of the last 50 years-- the kind of painters who show in County Fairs and Best Westerns. Smith's style is very loose and expressive, he has a wide variety of interests and subject matter, his images are contemporary, he's fun, and some of his landscapes are wonderful. What I like especially is his ability to present fine detail, yet leave a lot of spontaneity of gesture, and really allow the wateriness of watercolor do its thing-- he lets the watercolor meet him halfway without excessively controlling it. That's a man I can learn from. I learned a lot from chapters on tools, and foundational techniques like wet-on-wet. I bet I'll learn even more when I can read it in English.

4 comments about Paint by Number: The How-To Craze that Swept the Nation.

1. William Bird Jr's Paint By Number traces the history of a movement which swept across the country and created many a budding novice artist. Chapters provide plenty of color photo examples of a changing industry which recognized an unfulfilled desire in the common man to be an artist. The gorgeous displays and ads for the medium are compelling, even for the non-artist reader.



2. Bird does a decent job summarizing this kitschy topic in a succinct manner. In a sense though the length of this book is its worst enemy. He could have either been even more brief and cut about 50% of it to focus on the main issues rather than repeating himself. Alternatively, he could have truly explored the characterization of the individuals behind the craze as well as probed the American psyche and increased the length by 50%. Straddling the middle, Paint By Numbers ends up being pleasant but vaguely dissatisfying.



3. This is a really neat-o! book.

   It's a short book, beautifully illustrated with paint-by-number paintings on almost every page (including paintings completed by J. Edgar Hoover, Nelson Rockefeller, Ethel Merman, and others). There are also lots of photos of advertisements, packaging and promotional displays used to sell the kits. The author discusses Max Klein & Dan Robbins, the men who started the paint-by-number "craze", and some of the other artists who worked on the kits. Despite heavy criticism from the art community, the kits were enormously popular in many countries.

   I used to love doing these kits when I was a kid in the '60's and '70's. It may not be "art" but if nothing else I think people learn a little something about colors, shading and composition while working on these kits.




4. This is a beautifully-designed, lavishly illustrated, great-looking, smart book - every page a treat - that is part art book, part pop adventure story, part trenchant cultural history and analysis. Without the irony or condescension heretofore prevalent in discussions about the 1950s' remarkably popular and widespread middlebrow hobby of painting by number, William L. Bird, Jr., a curator at the Smithsonian, starts from the beginning and tells all.

   Leonardo da Vinci seems to have thought of it first, as a way to teach painting. In 1952 (after considerable work in the lab and at the drawing board) mass culture combined with smart American commercialism to sell eager Americans first, the rest of the world later - this surprisingly controversial and intensely pleasurable hobby: paint by number. The paintings and their deeply satisfying means of production were denigrated by cultural critics - and loved by millions of regular folks - and Andy Warhol, too.

   Students of popular and consumer culture and advertising, those curious about a popular phenomenon that provoked the critics of art and culture to attack relentlessly - or anyone interested in reading about the fun of these paintings and how they came to be - will love this perfect book. The author's mind is flexible and fertile; he takes us on a terrific tour. Clever and funny in places, with a bibliography hundreds of articles and books long. Great book.

4 comments about Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Painting: Book Illumination in the British Isles 600-800.

1. In a review by "The Old Philosopher" above he states that he doesn't find this books covers the classic Celtic art. Probably that';s because the title includes the words "Illumunated manuscripts" in it.



2. This book is more of an overview of several books than focused on one in particular, but still nice for the plates and a good sampler if you're not sure what to get. The title of this book is not misleading if you know anything about the history of Celtic art and it's later years in illumination, from my experience as a reviewer for the British Museum's publications and having worked in Ireland on archaeology digs as their sketch artist. ;-) During the Christian era of Celtic art they did have many influences of Coptic, Greek, Norse, *and* Persian design, especially in the Book of Kells. The Irish monks did quite a lot of travel during the dark ages to promote learning, and the monastaries in Ireland had students from countries all over the world, hence a good influx of other ideas which they of course fused into their own (masters of adaptation!). "The Old Philosopher"'s desire for Ogham to be used in the manuscripts is very far off... the latin uncial used in the manuscripts is standard for the period, as the ancients Celts (pre-Christianity) didn't have books per sae, only a sort of "runic" writing system of slashes used on staves and stone. They *had* no manuscripts so expecting to see Ogham in a manuscipt would be ridiculous! I think "The Old Philosopher" misunderstands the period of Celtic history these books were created in, as the title is certainly reflective for the period listed. If you enjoy Celtic manuscripts such as the Book of Kells or Lindisfarne Gospels this will be a nice overview of some of the different evolutionary flavors the artwork went through. If you want more information on Celtic art then any book by Ruth and Vincent Megaw (such as "Celtic Art", available from Amazon as well) will cover the early periods (typically only up to the Christian era, or briefly entering the Christian era), and then any book published on the old manuscritps such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Book of Kells are great. This book is more an overview of a bunch of books, so good for starting out your manuscript collection.



3. The title is quite misleading. The Amazon listing also says, "Book Illumination in the British Isles 600-800." Unfortunately that amendment is not shown on the cover, only on the inside title page and I missed it. I find that contradictory anyway since classic Celtic culture had pretty much vanished by the end of the Roman Empire. The title implies a book about painting of classic Celtic culture, a millennium spanning culture famous for it's art. Unfortunately that's not what this book contains. If you are looking for a book describing early Christian art from Irish Bibles this might be an excellent book to buy. It wasn't what I expected after reading the title.
   
   The civilization generally called "Celtic" consisted of a number of culturally related tribes and peoples dispersed across Western Europe. Celtic culture is generally identified by it's artwork including some very fine examples of sculpture, pottery, gold ornamentation, and painting which has been found in graves and other locations from Austria west. Gaul was probably the center of Celtic culture in the centuries when the Celts were strong enough to sack Rome. Many, many fine examples of Celtic art are still found in museums and galleries today. When I opened this book after reading the title I expected to find plates and descriptions of classic Celtic art. The word "CELTIC" is after all printed in huge letters on the top of the cover. Anglo-Saxon art is less well known than Celtic art, and I was curious to learn how Anglo-Saxon art succeeds the Celtic art. After all, the time period of the Anglo-Saxons was later than that of the Celtic culture.
   
   I was seriously disappointed with this book. The works shown in this book are almost entirely from christian bibles other books drawn and inscribed by Christian monks. The script in the plates (the paintings) is Latin or vulgate Latin, not the Celtic Ogham alphabet. Many of the symbols shown in the paintings are said by the author to be of Persian origin. Hello? When did Persian Christian art become Celtic?
   
   I found no examples of art from the historic Celtic culture in this book. Yes, the examples of early Irish Christian bibles were influenced by Celtic artistic history as well as Roman and Persian. I don't really believe that a Persian inspired portrait of Saint Mathew or Jesus is "CELTIC painting," even if the artist was Irish. Missing entirely was art from a thousand years of Celtic culture before and during Roman occupation of Celtic lands. As for Anglo-Saxon painting, you have to look really hard to find where that is even mentioned inside the cover.



4. This book features forty eight color plates that are reproduced in high quality paper from original manuscripts from the seventh and centuries. The author, Carl Nordenfalk, provides a historical background and commentry on each of the plates. The author 's style of writing lends itself well to one not overly knowledgeable of the subject matter. The manuscripts are taken from the Gospel Books which were richly ornate, having almost talismanic qualities having been produced in the native art style of the Celts and Anglo- Saxons as the Christian missionaries were proselytizing in the Bristish Isles. Most of the manuscripts come from the Book of Lindisfarne, the Book of Durrow and the Book of Kells. The manuscripts feature portraits of various Christian messengers such as Saint Luke, Saint John, Saint Chad and biblical figures such as King David, Madonna and Christ. There are also pages of the written word from the various gospels shown in the rich decorative style of the Celts. The looping interlocked letters and motiffs are an amazing contribution to civilization that everyone can enjoy from these ancient, partialy intact codex. The symbols and strange animation create symetrical patterns that are highly imaginative and will astound the viewer with it's complex primitivism. The intrinsic beauty and composition is sometimes in stark contrast to the flatness of the figures. You can literally get lost in the patterns, there are endless oblong patterns of scrollwork, tied together by knots, interwoven and intertwined animals stretching out and connecting to fancy letters or other motiffs that will dazzle your senses. This is a great book to gaze upon and reassure yourself of the beautiful beyond that has inspired many centuries of art work. The book also provides a complete list of color and black and white plates and a selected bibliography for future reference. This is a great book to look at anytime, especially in those tranquil moments of peace and reflection. Recommended for anyone interested in book illumination, Christian art and the similarities between Celtic art from this period and Byzantine and Italian art and the inspiration of the Gospel.