Other Media Books - Page 2

Creating Characters with Personality: For Film, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Graphic Novels

Tom Bancroft

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

excellent resource for anyone wanting to improve character design skills! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book by Tom Bancroft was a very entertaining and helpful read. I am not a professional in the field of animation or illustration, but I am trying to learn how to improve my skills in the area of character design in hopes of moving into this field in the future. This book does an excellent job of covering all the different facets involved in designing and bringing to life a drawing with real personality. It teaches the basic principles needed to convey character types, emotion, and personality with many helpful examples.
The two best "stand-out" features of the book to me are the guest artists who each come from a different field of "cartooning"; whether it be humorous cartooning, tv animation, comic books, or feature film animation, to name a few. It was very interesting and informative to read these professional's take on designing the same character, and to see how each artist approached it. The other "stand-out" feature was the progression of assignments given throughout the book. These really helped me get a feel for what a real assignment could actually be like for a character designer. They were very helpful in allowing me to think through the process of designing each character for the "script" provided in the assignments.
All in all, my hat's off to Tom and company for a wonderful resource for aspiring professionals and hobby artists alike. Definitely a wonderful investment!

Editorial Review:

• Character design is the key in many industries—and they’re all covered in this book

• Practical step-by-step exercises

• Contributors include Glen Keane, Supervising Animator, Disney

From Snow White to Shrek, from Fred Flintstone to SpongeBob Square-Pants, the design of a character conveys personality before a single word of dialogue is spoken. Creating Characters with Personality shows artists how to create a distinctive character, then place that character in context with a script, establish hierarchy, and maximize the impact of pose and expression. Practical exercises help readers put everything together to make their new characters sparkle. Lessons from the author, who designed the dragon Mushu (voiced by Eddie Murphy) in Disney’s Mulan—plus big-name experts in film, TV, video games, and graphic novels—make a complex subject accessible to every artist.

Mixed Mania: Recipes for Delicious Mixed Media Creations

Debbi Crane, Cheryl Prater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great book for these times 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great book, beautiful pictures and conversation and ideas. What I like best is that so many of the projects draw on what things we save, like old calendars, bits from tag sales, etc. Very inspiring.

Cookin' Up Some Creative Projects! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Set up loosely like a cookbook (just for fun), the book begins with easy projects that get a little more sophisticated with each "course". Not to worry though because the instructions are clearly written, have lots of pictures, and use easy to pretty common supplies for artists at least a little familiar with mixed media. Even if you have been doing mixed media for years, I highly recommend reading the instructions to the projects, for neat tricks and advice, and lots of humor. We can always learn something new and if not, we can laugh along knowingly. (Impatient artists know that heat guns are your best friends! Isn't that true?!)

Some of the best things I like about this book is that a variety of mixed media projects are given included paper, fabric and assemblage. Personally, I work only with assemblage and paper, but the beautiful fabric projects seem too tempting not to try! --- I also like that the book is written by two very talented, very funny women with different personalities and art styles and the projects reflect this. There is something for everyone!

Editorial Review:

Featuring a wide range of mixed media projects, this outrageously fun craft primer takes a decidedly unstuffy approach to an immense range of art methods. Projects—including art quilts, painting, collage, bookbinding, assemblage, doll making, decoupage, and image transfers—are divided into three main sections: Artistic Appetizers, Creative Main Courses, and Sweet Treats and Special Occasions, with each addressing a different level of time invested and difficulty. Whimsically laid out like recipes, each project includes detailed ingredients (materials), instructions (what to mix and add), and tasting tips (how it should look).

500 Plates & Chargers: Innovative Expressions of Function & Style (500 Series)

Lark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Awesome book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is wonderful! If looking for creative ideas, methodology, glazing suggestions, or just browsing the photos, this is the book for you! As someone who has just finished my own home studio, I found this book to be incredibly helpful!

Beautiful Design Ideas 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wonderful photographs. VERY brief descriptions are given about the techniques used - so this is not a how-to book. However, it is rich in lovely design ideas and enjoyable to peruse.

Editorial Review:

Plates and chargers can serve as more than just places to put your food: they can be glorious art to show off on a table, sideboard, or hutch. These 500 spectacular pieces chosen by esteemed juror Linda Arbuckle range from the utilitarian yet beautifully glazed plate to dramatically decorated work, and they're crafted from a remarkable variety of materials--including pristine porcelain and bold earthenware. Nick Joerling's stoneware is the perfect canvas for a design: vigorous brush strokes set in wax resist race across its attractive surface. Kelly McKibben's hand-built Going for a Stroll showcases delicately inlaid and silk-screened images. The stunning gallery provides a unique and wide-ranging snapshot of contemporary ceramic arts.

Pretty Little Things: Collage Jewelry, Trinkets and Keepsakes

Sally Jean Alexander

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Pretty Little Not Much 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I checked this out from the library before buying it - and was very happy I had. There are some very good books on creating charms and other trinkets using soldering irons, glass and ephemera - buy one of those. I thought this book was not very entertaining, and even less enlightening about how to do the projects. I don't usually mind books that feature great photos of fun stuff - sometimes I get ideas and that will satisfy me. However, this book seems almost narcissistic and way too cutesy. And this review is written by someone - me - who bought a book about stuffed animals called "The Cute Book" and love it. The finished stuff looks good, but I suspect what you would make using the instructions would be pretty amateur hour looking.

Editorial Review:

Whimsical and Elegant Projects from Well-Known Collage Artist Sally Jean Alexander

*Shares 27 projects with 30 variations for additional inspiration
*Uses vintage ephemera to create charms, vials, miniature shrines, and reliquary boxes
*Features author Sally Jean Alexander’s signature style

With Pretty Little Things, readers will find collage projects that exhibit a playful air and a sense of magic. The twenty-seven projects and thirty variations feature vintage ephemera soldered within glass, for finished works that tell a romantic or whimsical story. All exhibit Sally Jean Alexander’s signature style--a style that brings new life to antique papers, vintage photographs, found projects, scavenged text, and more.

Terryworld (Photo Books S.)

Dian Hanson, Terry Richardson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Terror-World! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Terry's world might be, hell, it's MEANT to be a little scary for alot of people! Not in the sense of depicting violence or even real depravity but rather in the near-apocalypitc vulgarity with which it depicts post modern-hedonism, where sexual pleasure is about as idealized as a Tijuana donkey-show.

A man, laying half-passed-out on a bed, is seen puking, Terry (who appears in many of his own photos) pulls a tampon string out of a woman's vagina with his teeth, a guy pisses into his own mouth--you get the picture. It's a garbage-world where all the turn-ons are trashy. It is strangely arousing inspite of the yuck factor, but whether that's because it's sexy or because I'm just so jaded I'm happy for anything that can jolt and shock my deadened nerves, is up for debate!

Jolts and shocks are what Terryworld is all about. Terryworld is to erotica what Hustler was to Playboy. It's flat-out raunch,but with a fashion photographer's sensibility, which is to say that it does have some artistic merit beyond its novelty value, calling to mind the "provacateur" advertising campaigns of recent years, of which Terry himself has often played a part. His situation-heavy portraits are Tarantino-like movie stills from a movie I'm not sure I want to see.

Which brings me to my point; In the end, after all the money's come in, all the heads have turned and all the word-of-mouth has been exhausted, what is the final value of shock?

Remember when you were fourteen and looking at your stolen copy of Hustler, you felt kind of sick at the end of the ride. Your heart rate increased as you turned each page, your curiosity peaked to see the next lurid spectacle, you flipped faster and faster until finally it was over, you'd seen the whole thing--More, in fact, than your mind was capable of processing in one sitting. You were late for dinner, had a pressure headache, and a faint desire to go to church.

Welcome to Terryworld.

Editorial Review:

Who took 1970's porn esthetic and made it fashion chic? Terry Richardson. Who made the trailer park trendy and the tractor hat de rigueur? Richardson again. Who's equally at home in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Purple and Vice? Our boy Terry. Who uses his fashion money to fund an X-rated website? Yes, Richardson. And who can't resist getting his clothes off and jumping in front of his own lens? Well, that would be Terry Richardson as well. Pom stars, supermodels, transsexuals, hillblilies, friends, pets, and celebrities all do for his lens what they'll do for no other. And if anyone ever wonders why they did it, just blame it on Terryworld, where taboos are null and void, and fashion finds sex a perfect fit.

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs)

Ernst Haeckel, Olaf Breidbach, Richard Hartmann, Irenaeus Eibl-Eibesfeldt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The geometric shapes and natural forms, captured with exceptional precision in Ernst Haeckel's prints, still influence artists and designers to this day. This volume highlights the research and findings of this natural scientist. Powerful modern microscopes have confirmed the accuracy of Haeckel's prints, which even in their day, became world famous. Haeckel's portfolio, first published between 1899 and 1904 in separate installments, is described in the opening essays. The plates illustrate Haeckel's fundamental monistic notion of the "unity of all living things" and the wide variety of forms are executed with utmost delicacy. Incipient microscopic organisms are juxtaposed with highly developed plants and animals. The pages, ordered according to geometric and "constructive" aspects, document the oness of the world in its most diversified forms. This collection of plates was not only well-received by scientists, but by artists and architects as well. Rene Binet, a pioneer of glass and iron constructions, Emile Galle, a renowned Art Nouveau designer, and the photographer Karl Blossfeld all make explicit reference to Haeckel in their work.

Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques: Raku * Saggar * Pit * Barrel (A Lark Ceramics Book)

James C. Watkins, Paul Andrew Wandless

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I really like this book. The directions are clear and easy to understand. The pictures are great! I borrowed this book from a friend and immediately ordered it for myself.

Alternate Kiln and Firing Help 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I was very glad to get this book for several reasons. Jan Lee had some illustrations, and directions included and I am a big fan of her work. Also, I plan to do some of the Pit firing this summer in the mountains and the directions were clear and exciting.

Editorial Review:

Ceramicists searching for new ways to fire their creations now have a wealth of options. Authors James Watkins and Paul Wandless, along with a group of distinguished artisans, demonstrate in detail how to build low-cost, low-tech, yet high-quality kilns. The plans range from an easy, affordable, and versatile Raku Kiln to a unique wood-fueled Downdraft Stovepipe Barrel one. These clever devices make it possible to produce rich surface effects from alternative reduction firing techniques. In addition to showing the basic procedures for using each kiln, easy-to-follow directions for many fast-fire methods unfold in color photographs: You’ll see how to achieve terra sigillata surfaces with direct chemical application, and how to do traditional crackle-glaze raku and smoke finishes.

Structura: The Art of Sparth

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best Sparth book ever! But.... 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I've been a huge fan of Sparth's work for years and have awaited the arrival of this book for almost as long. Sparth's work is warm and highly creative and his influence over a generation of digital fantasy artists is only beginning to be seen as his style is frequently imitated. It's certainly a great book and a must-own, especially for a concept art book at this price.

My only disappointment is is the format size (which is why I still give this 5 stars, as I don't think this is the fault of the artist). These works deserve a much larger format than the medium/smallish 9 x 9 inches. Also, and this probably has more to do with who owns the image licenses than anything, there is a bit of "sameness", a slight lack of variety, about some of the work that's not apparent when viewing his website.

Still, a great book by any standard and an essential addition to any fantasy/sci-fi/art lover's book collection.

Editorial Review:

Structura: The Art of Sparth is a collection of his personal artwork. Sparth has been an active artistic director and concept designer for the gaming industry for over ten years. Currently with idsoftware in Texas, a renowned leader in the gaming world with such titles as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom I and II, and Quake I and II, Sparth has been integral in designing the games that the video game enthusiasts of today devour. In both his professional and personal work, there are no limits to Sparths creativity when it comes to translating forms and concepts with an creativity when it comes to translating forms and concepts with an experimental and original approach. Born in France and having traveled the globe extensively, he was influenced greatly by the various world cultures he encountered, and this is largely responsible for his multiple creative passions, which range from space to architecture, robotics and beyond.

Collage Unleashed

Traci Bautista

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting ideas for collage artists 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This was the first collage book I purchased when I found I was really interested in this art form. She has some really creative, interesting ideas for lettering etc. REALLY neat mixed media ideas in here.

Fun & funky 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Tracy inspires you to get your hands inky and have a ball! I recently took an all-day class with Tracy in which we made the "Big Sac" featured in this book. The time just flew by, we all had a blast, and I get tons of compliments on my finished bag. I spent another day dyeing paper towels, which are so much fun to use in collage. These projects are perfect for someone who is just getting into collage and doesn't want to use "precious" materials - for the price of a roll of paper towels and a few dye re-inkers, you can make wonderful art and have a great time doing it!

Editorial Review:

The funky, colorful projects in Collage Unleashed encourage readers to turn off their inner critics and tap into a childlike sense of wonder and imagination. With projects that range from art books and fabric journals to mixed-media paintings, this book:

-Showcases three of the most popular trends in papercrafting--collage, altered fabric and journaling

-Features a wide range of techniques for crafters at every level, including crayon transfers, funky embroidery, freestyle hand lettering and creative book binding

-Combines paper, fabric, beads, dyes, paints and more in unexpected ways

Everyone from collage artists and book-making enthusiasts to papercrafters will want to put this title at the top of their personal wish lists.

Exhibition 36: Mixed Media Demonstrations + Explorations

Susan Tuttle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Within the pages of Exhibition 36, readers will enter a virtual art exhibit featuring thirty-six mixed-media artists whose collage, digital, assemblage, altered and repurposed art adorn the walls and pedestals of this unique gallery. The artists are "present" throughout the exhibit, answering questions, sharing their thoughts, talking about their work and offering instruction. The tour is structured to provide insight into the creative process of the artists whose work is on display and the reader will be delighted with the plethora of inspiration, articles, techniques and general visual candy. As a final bonus, many artists featured in the book have contributed imagery as a gift to readers for attending the exhibit to reuse in their own creations.

Possesses great crossover appeal for mixed-media artists of nearly every discipline, including jewelry makers, collage artists and more.

Readers will enter a "virtual tour" featuring art from a variety of contributing artists, including well-known crafters such as Claudine Hellmuth (Collage Discovery Workshop) and Suzanne Simanaitis (Kaleidoscope).

Includes bonus collage imagery sheets for readers to use in their own art.