Instructional & How-To Books

The Artist's Way

Julia Cameron

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 281 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

brilliant! a great guide book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Julia Cameron's book was the reason I've been able to create plays, acting jobs! I can only say this: IT WORKS! I'm living proof! For anyone who is blocked, these tools used over years creates a strong powerful base upon which to create work!The Green Room

This book is the best friend you can ever have 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Just get it.

The first chapter as I remember was a little bit boring for me and when I start complaining to my friend, she told me :"Just read it."
And that was the best advice she ever gave me.
I gained a lot of self-confidence as an artist and person, came to conclusion in a lot of things that bothered me for a long time, it truly gave me a peace of mind.

So, for you, my friend:"Just ge-e-et it".

The Artist's Way 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is my second copy of this book. I've worn one out already. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. It is life altering!

A must read for anyone interested in being more creative, just being creative or living life to the fullest 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I can't even explain how much change I've made in my life since reading this book. Julia Cameron says things that every artist wants to hear. The main things I've taken from this book are Morning Pages, Artist Dates and going on walks - those three simple things have totally centered me. I wasn't even necessarily diligent with all the other worksheets.

Even if you don't care to increase your creativity, it will help anyone to live life!

Editorial Review:

NOW AVAILABLE _ Digitally remastered, and on CD for the first time

Read by the author

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Betty Edwards

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 169 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

illustrated with 12-page color photo insert and line art throughout

A revised and expanded edition of the classic drawing-instruction book that has sold more than 2,500,000 copies.

When Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was first published in 1979, it hit the New York Times bestseller list within two weeks and stayed there for more than a year. In 1989, when Dr. Betty Edwards revised the book, it went straight to the Times list again. Now Dr. Edwards celebrates the twentieth anniversary of her classic book with a second revised edition.

Over the last decade, Dr. Edwards has refined her material through teaching hundreds of workshops and seminars. Truly The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, this edition includes:

* the very latest developments in brain research;
* new material on using drawing techniques in the corporate world and in education;
* instruction on self-expression through drawing;
* an updated section on using color; and
* detailed information on using the five basic skills of drawing for problem solving.

Translated into thirteen languages, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is the world's most widely used drawing-instruction guide. People from just about every walk of life--artists, students, corporate executives, architects, real estate agents, designers, engineers--have applied its revolutionary approach to problem solving. The Los Angeles Times said it best: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is "not only a book about drawing, it is a book about living. This brilliant approach to the teaching of drawing . . . should not be dismissed as a mere text. It emancipates."

How to Draw 101 Animals (How to Draw 101)

By: Top That Publishing PLC Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $167.76

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A good idea, but probably not for children. In fact, probably not a good idea for adults either. 3 out of 5 stars.
12 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Well, it started out good enough. Owl, pig, dog, crab: easy peasy, mac and cheesy! I was in a drawing frenzy by animal number 8, which was a lion. I could draw a lion with my toes, and even then I could draw a decent one with only my left pinkie toes using one of those useless tiny stub pencils that you find in public libraries.

So then I turned the page and there was animal number 9: The Fishhawk. I had never seen a Fishhawk before, but there are a lot of animals I haven't seen. So I learned how to draw this half-fish half-hawk thing and continued on to number 10, which was a Fishbook. Now, Fishhawk, I'll buy. But I don't see how something could be fish and book all at once. Furthermore, the Fishbook was pictured as if it was reading about itself in a book called "Fishbooks: A True Story".

Well, there's a lot about science and zoology that I don't know, and I can't argue if there's a book out there called "Fishbooks: A True Story". So I drew this and continued on to number 11, which was, literally, the "Elevenosaur". Easy enough, I guess, but numbers 12-18 were, in order, the Twelvopotamus, Thirteentelope, Fourteencat, Goatifteen, Sixteengoose, Seventelephant, and Monkeighteen. Each of these was an anthropomorphized version of the number itself, only with some sort of vague animal resemblance.

Nineteen was actually just directions for writing the number "19". Under the side notes, called "Quick Hints," it says, "First draw the number 1 and then the number 9! Now combine them!" Number 20 was finally a real animal. It was some guy named Dave who, technically, is a human animal. However, 21 was "Doubledave" and 23 was "Tripledave" and so on until 29, "Polydave." Each of these was exactly the same drawing as the previous one, only with one more Dave.

The thirties were actually animals 1-10 again, but now with hats or actually themselves in the form of hats. For example, "Cat in a Hat" and "Lionhat" and "Dave wearing a pig hat." Although, I admit, #35 Crabhat looks pretty cool, but I don't see how it's kid-appropriate to have him injuring Dave's head with instructions on how to realistically draw arterial spray.

At this point, I started to skip ahead. Some of the notable animals in the remainder of the book are listed below:

#40. Beezoriite. A bunch of human-like bees coming out of a nest that looks like, I kid you not, the US Capitol Building. Bees aren't animals, but at this point I'm not going to nitpick. They are, however, illustrated with a strange accuracy. The queen is apparently Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, and several painstaking steps are included as how his "lipless smirk" should be precisely drawn.

#41. Jackelopemesopotamia. Described as "half jackrabbit, half antelope, half Mesopotamia".

#42. Dave, once again, but wearing a shirt that reads: "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything." I don't get it.

#52. The Syrripidon. The author took a full 80 pages to describe how to draw everything involving The Syrripidon. This apparently includes a pencil-like arm that the Syrripidon uses to draw other body parts onto itself. I supposed that explains why it has 4 beaks, 12 sets of legs, and something like 70 arm-like appendages that include a grappling hook, can opener, and "arm made of money". The final illustration is largely kid-inappropriate because the Syrripidon is pictured in a cartoon saying, in a vulgar and uncensored manner, how he cannot stop drawing things onto himself and that "no eraser can erase this pain."

As of the date of my writing this, Google cannot find one instance of the word "Syrripidon" on the internet.

#70. Cow. Strangely enough, these are well-written instructions on how to draw a pleasantly-cartoonish barnyard cow.

#72. Dogcow. Okay I see where this is going, all the way up to...

#79. Catdogcowcrabowlpigdavegooserabbit. As a "Quick Hint" the author instructs you that goose genes are the dominant phenotypes here, with rabbits coming in a close second.

#80-89. Multiple poses of the author's cat, Jinx, who is described as his "only friend now."

#90. A bottle of whiskey, but with arms. The bottle is drinking a smaller bottle of whiskey.

#98. The Authoridox. I believe this actually some sort of animal incarnation of the author. Included are several pages on how to draw everything from his "heart injured from the evil Exwifica", to his bloodshot eyes, and his "back, stabbed by the backstabbing best friend I once had." This is a very challenging animal to draw, which is probably why it's at the end of the book. I found the Authoridox's cirrhotic liver to be difficult to render, and I've never before attempted to illustrate the effects of a retrovirus-suppressed immune system.

#99. Daveasaurus Rex and Exwifica Regina. Well, this one really isn't child appropriate, and I don't see how the publisher failed to edit out this horrible, horrible image. There aren't even instructions on how to draw these "animals", but I don't see why you'd want to draw them anyway. Incidentally, Rex and Regina are the proper Latin words for king and queen, which tells me that a scary amount of thought went into this particular drawing.

Overall, I give this book a 3. I would have rated it lower, but it's difficult to fault a thorough, 900-page children's book for being incomplete. I would have rated it higher if not for giving me nightmares.

Wall and Piece

Banksy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great collection of graffiti art. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Banksy is a great artist. This book is 240 pages of both his graffiti and his "gallery" or more "Piece" art. I think he is an innovator and inspiration to all artists. We could all learn something from Banksy. If you like this book you might also like some Shepard Fairey work. Also check out Banksy's website at http://www.Banksy.co.uk its really great.

Mezmerizing! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Couldn't put it down. Images are mezmerizing. Everyone I show it to wants to buy it to. No profanity or sexually oriented photos make it a hip gift choice for young people.

Editorial Review:

Banksy, Britain's now-legendary "guerilla" street artist, has painted the walls, streets, and bridges of towns and cities throughout the world. Not only did he smuggle his pieces into four of  New York City's major art museums, he's also "hung" his work at London's Tate Gallery and adorned Israel's West Bank barrier with satirical images. Banksy's identity remains unknown, but his work is unmistakable—with prints selling for as much as $45,000.

Design of Everyday Things

Donald A. Norman

By: MIT Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $16.88

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 149 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Vey fast delivery very prompt service 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

very nice delivery very fast response. One of the best sellers at amazon.
will do business any time with them.

It's OK - but how can this be the seminal book on usability...? 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Having heard that this was the seminal work in usabiliy, my expectations were probably too high.

Some of the principles laid out are indeed excellent and well illustrated.

The structure of the book is - ironically - not crystal clear. As I am reading the book I find myself looking back at the table of contents to understand the structure.

The writing style is slightly entertaining at first and you sympathize with the author hanging out himself as a clumsy and spacey academic. However, after the first 30 pages the rambling style and the somewhat unstructured content makes the book really boring. I had to push myself to finish it.

What strikes me is the lack of other books in this topic. Despite my criticism I'd be curious to read Norman's new book.

One of the best books any designer could read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

So often "design" books seem to go on about looks and "feel" yet only brush over the physiology of design. This book shows you how to think like a user, explorer like a user, error like a user and design for helping the user love your product.

Anyone reading this book will instantly appreciate truly good design over the average mud we currently live in.

The Complete Maus

Art Spiegelman

List Price: $31.00 By: Penguin Books Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $19.40

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 192 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Yes. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I went to a exhibition on the history of comics a couple of years ago. They had all kinds, from Little Nemo to Jack Kirby, and many things in between. One of the things featured was several pages from Art Speigelman's Maus. I was so intrigued by what I saw that I had to buy it off Amazon, and I have not regretted it. Don't be fooled by Speigelman's seemingly simplistic black and white work. His storytelling is powerful stuff, I tell you.

For any who doubt what graphic fiction can do, this is the revelation. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Holocaust hangs over western society in the second half of the twentieth century. One man said that poetry was impossible after Auschwitz, but great artists in numerous mediums have dedicated themselves ot proving this wrong. The great crime has provided a great canvas for stories of humanity in the face of evil, such as Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List". "Maus" is the comics world's prime entry in this difficult field of literature. Writer and artist Art Spiegelman brings us the story of his father (and mother, by times), two Polish Jews who narrowly survived the war. Having already chosen to tell his story in the form of a comic, a medium often looked down upon as inherently childish by those who don't know any better, he further chooses to cast his characters as anthropomorphic animal, in the manner of an animal fable.

This choice has attracted some controversy (on display in many of the reviews on this site), in some cases because they believe it trivializes the subject-matter (to which I would say "Animal Farm"), or, more commonly, because they take issue with the seeming racialist use of different animals for different nationalities (Jews are mice, regardless of nationality, other Poles are pigs; Germans cats, the French frogs, Americans dogs, etc.). Spiegelman actually discusses the implications of the latter thing within the narrative, which includes an extensive b-story set in the then-present (from the 70s to the 80s), following Art, his wife Francoise, and his elderly father as Art writes "Maus". Francoise is a French Christian who converted to Judaism, and wonders what animal she should be cast as (he chooses a mouse, for the record). Spiegelman never casts all of one group as behaving the same way.

"Maus" reminds me a bit of Paul Verhoeven's "Black Book" in its depiction of wartime Europe's complexity, including the now-uncomfortable degree of collaboration or prejudice found in the occupied countries. Vladek and Anja encounter everything but solidarity with their fellow Poles on the journey through the war; fellow Jews rat them out to the Nazis, others require payment to help Jews avoid death, something that Art expresses amazement at, but Vladek seems to see as very reasonable. Spiegelman doesn't paint his father as a saint, indeed, expressing concern that his father comes across as a stereotypical miserly Jew; at one point, Vladek is shown to be strongly racist against blacks, again to Art and Francoise's amazement. The animal characterizations are never binding; for all Spiegelman's concern over France's history of anti-Semitism, the one French frog we see is an amiable fellow-inimate of Vladek's; even among the German cats we find a Polish Jew married to a German woman, the product of this union being peculiar cat/mouse hybrids.

"Maus" is ultimately a very affecting, personal work from Art Spiegelman, and does a fantastic job of communicating the life story of his father. it is a shining example of what the graphic novel form is capable of achieving.

Editorial Review:

Combined for the first time here are Maus I: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II - the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. A contemporary classic of immeasurable significance.

An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers

Danny Gregory

Amazon Price: $13.59 List Price: $19.99 Not yet published By: How

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Editorial Review:

An Illustrated Life offers a sneak peak into the wildly creative imaginations of top illustrators, designers and artists from around the world through the pages of their personal visual journals. Popular visual journalist and author Danny Gregory reveals how and why keeping a consistent, visual journal leads to a more fulfilling creative life. Designers and artists working in all mediums will find creative inspiration from these insightful interviews and stunning examples.

V for Vendetta

Alan Moore

List Price: $35.10 By: Titan Books Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $20.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 219 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

V For Vendetta and the Coming Anarchy 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Between 1982 and 1988, Alan Moore wrote one of the classic graphic novels while also simultaneously working on his famous Watchmen. This was V for Vendetta, a noirish thriller set in a near future England that had been transformed into a fascist state. The novel's protagonist was actually an anti-hero who went by the mysterious name of "V," and who was obsessed with destroying the fascist state of England. V's tactics are frankly, and unapologetically, terrorist in nature, for he is determined on blowing up the houses of Parliament and slaying the great Leviathanic monster which England has become.

During the course of the novel, V abducts a woman named "Evey," whose name is a homonym for the letters "E" and "V," the fifth and fifth from last letters of the alphabet respectively. The way in which the letter V is drawn by Moore's character and others as a graffiti symbol, however -- a V with a circle around it -- is suggestive of an upside down version of the "A" symbol for Anarchism, and indeed, Moore, in his deconstruction of the superhero myth has turned its traditional meanings upside down. For the purpose of the traditional superhero is to guard and protect the modern megalopolis from attacks by astral beings, whereas V's primary purpose is to destroy the modern megalopolis altogether. He is not an immune cell, but rather, like his prototype, the Phantom of the Opera, an antigen, for V's kidnapping of Evey, whereupon he spirits her away to his underground habitation which he calls the "Shadow gallery" very much recalls Gaston L'Hereux's famous villain, only instead of a phantom haunting an opera house, we have a masked phantom haunting an entire city, bent on its destruction.

The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek has pointed out the parallel between V and Sutler (as Adam Susan is called in the film), the fascist dictator who rules England, suggesting that V's tactics in imprisoning and torturing (mentally) Evey in order to help her attain true freedom is as brutally totalitarian in nature as Sutler's cruel treatment of the British. There is thus, Zizek insists, a secret inward identity between V and Sutler.

However, the most important point to note - and it is absolutely basic - about superhero narratives and what they mean, is to discover what values the superhero represents and what are those represented by the villain, and in V's case, we note that his underworld habitation is a realm of art and culture, a miniature monastery filled with books, paintings, jukeboxes and other mementoes of the realm of the humanities. V himself tends to speak in iambic pentameter, the dialect of Shakespeare's characters, and he is incredibly eloquent and learned. The fascist state represented by Sutler on the other hand is an absolutely technocentric, inhuman state in which book burning and heavy censorship is enforced through a complete militarization of the society. We note that cameras have been mounted everywhere, for the society of this "future" England is under complete surveillance.

But these cameras which Moore was envisioning in the 1980s have now become our living reality, for nowadays they are everywhere: mounted atop traffic lights, Walmarts, convenience stores, banks, etc., we are indeed under constant surveillance. As artists often function as a society's Distant Early Warning system, V for Vendetta is even more relevant now than when it came out, for it envisions precisely the type of society which is presently emerging. Moore's picture of a centralized state in which the media is owned and operated by the government is exactly what is taking place before our very eyes with the merging of corporations and the federal government (especially with the recent corporate bailout package). Ever since 9/11, we are becoming the kind of fascist state (albeit a technofascism) which Moore was merely warning us about twenty five years ago.

V, though he is a brutal murderer and a terrorist / anarchist, nonetheless stands up for and represents the values of the humanities, which are indeed currently under threat by the new fascism emerging at the behest of the political right and the neocons. Moore was telling us, with his great graphic novel, that unless we wish to see things like art and music and literature (and this includes popular culture) disappear altogether, we are going to have to stand up and fight for it.

George Bush, jr. and his neocon buddies, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the usual suspects, have compromised more human rights and freedoms in America than ever before, and they have cut funding for the arts and slashed budgets in order to support their imperialist conquest of the Middle East, while local American cities are drained of the resources to fund things which the neocons regard as superfluous, such as libraries, schools, the arts, etc. Make no mistake about it: the world of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta was no mere hyperbole, but rather a metaphoric vision of what is going on in this society right now.

Take a look around you: the cameras are everywhere, and they are watching you; the freedoms which our parents and their parents once took for granted are dissolving. Public funding for the humanities is disappearing into an ever increasing militarization of the American way of life, which is fading at the very moment that I am writing this and you are reading it.

Soon, and not too far off, I may not be able to take for granted the very freedoms which yet still enable me to articulate these ideas and which allow you, the reader, to ponder them. How far away?

Well, I think that's the point of Moore's great novel: that's up to you.

Are you willing to fight for your freedom?

Or are you going to stand by, surfing the Internet and flicking apathetically through the channels on your television set while the tanks and trucks are rumbling past your windows in the street outside?

Which type of society do you want to live in? The one that America fought for during World War II? Or the one that it fought against?

Funny how things change.

--John David Ebert, author of Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society

Editorial Review:

Originally published in 1990 V for Vendetta is a frightening and powerful story about the loss of freedom in a totalitarian England. Written against a background of third term Thatcherism and tabloid rants against minorites this is a work of startling clarity and intelligence. Everything that comics weren't supposed to be. Returning to print after a long absence fans of Alan Moore, old and new can now enjoy this remarkable piece of storytelling - a true classic of comic literature.

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)

Ellen Lupton

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton Architectural Press Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $12.49

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Strange, superficial overview of type-related topics 2 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I love type, but I lack an educated background on its use. I was so looking forward to learning about such details as when to prefer a sans-serif versus a serif in certain situations, how people react to various different families of faces, prescriptions for when to apply different types of layouts, and so forth.

When I got was a partially complete history lesson on how different types of faces and families evolved, an introduction to grid layouts with very little prescriptive advice, and weirdly, a brief editorial primer teaching how to mark up the printed page with pen.

To its credit, the book is full of examples of layouts. As I read, I expected any minute I'd penetrate the entry level "Here we see an example of a layout" to the real meat, but it never ever happened.

To the author's credit, the book was meticulously assembled and was clearly the product of a great deal of effort. And, this is not the first design-related book I've discovered that lacked meaningful depth.

But to any practicing designer looking for some guidance for taking their use of type to the next level, or understanding beyond his own innate instincts when to apply certain techniques, this is not the book for you. In fact, I'm not sure who this book is for.

Editorial Review:

The organization of letters on a blank sheet -- or screen -- is the most basic challenge facing anyone who practices design. What type of font to use? How big? How should those letters, words, and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered, shaped, and otherwise manipulated? In this groundbreaking new primer, leading design educator and historian Ellen Lupton provides clear and concise guidance for anyone learning or brushing up on their typographic skills.
Thinking with Type is divided into three sections: letter, text, and grid. Each section begins with an easy-to-grasp essay that reviews historical, technological, and theoretical concepts, and is then followed by a set of practical exercises that bring the material covered to life. Sections conclude with examples of work by leading practitioners that demonstrate creative possibilities (along with some classic no-no's to avoid).

STARDUST

Charles and Neil Gaiman VESS

By: Titan Books Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $23.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 347 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

entertaining, but easily forgettable 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

i finished this book in only 3 hours, and will probably forget it just as quickly as i read it. it was entertaining enough, and was a breeze to read through. the imagery was very vivid and the author has a great talent for descriptive prose that brings much needed color and richness to the story, or what little there is of one.

unfortunately everything else in this book is bland and uninspired. what could have been a fantastically imaginative and interesting storyline turns out to feel like an outline of events, heavily padded with pretty imagery, and nothing more. there is no suspense, no mystery, and no real intrigue in this book. the characters are flat and do not engage in meaningful, believable interactions with each other. there is very little dialogue between even the main characters, and their personalities and motives are far too transparent, and embarrasingly simplistic. other more interesting characters appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. in the end i didn't care what happened to any of them, which is probably a good thing, since the ending was extremely weak. i would call it an anti-climax if there had been any suspense at all and i actually cared about what was going to happen. there wasn't, and i didn't.

i would expect this from a young adult's novel, and think maybe it could succeed as one, minus a few more adult scenes in the book, but as an adult novel, it really didn't do it for me. i didn't expect deep, thought-provoking literature. it was okay as light, mindless entertainment, but i could very well have watched the movie again and found just as much entertainment, if not more, in half the time. the movie, which actually adds a lot more action, humor, and interest to the story, was so much better.