The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters (Voices That Matter)
by Joe McNally
from New Riders Press
THE FIRST BOOK WITH ONE FOOT ON THE COFFEE TABLE, AND ONE FOOT IN THE
CLASSROOM
Joe McNally, one of the world’s top pro digital photographers, whose celebrated work has graced the pages of Sports Illustrated, Time, and National Geographic (to name a few), breaks new ground by doing something no photography book has ever done—blending the rich, stunning images and elegant layout of a coffee-table book with the invaluable training, no-nonsense insights, and photography secrets usually found only in those rare, best-of-breed educational books.
When Joe’s not on assignment for the biggest-name magazines and Fortune 500 clients, he’s in the classroom teaching location lighting, environmental portraiture, and how to “get the shot” at workshops around the world. These on-location workshops are usually reserved for a handful of photographers each year, but now you can learn the same techniques that Joe shares in his seminars and lectures in a book that brings Joe’s sessions to life.
What makes the book so unique is the “triangle of learning” where (1) Joe distills the concept down to one brief sentence. It usually starts with something like, “An editor at National Geographic once told me…” and then he shares one of those hard-earned tricks of the trade that you only get from spending a lifetime behind the lens. Then, (2) on the facing page is one of Joe’s brilliant images that perfectly illustrates the technique (you’ll recognize many of his photos from magazine covers). And (3) you get the inside story of how that shot was taken, including which equipment he used (lens, f/stop, lighting, accessories, etc.), along with the challenges that type of project brings, and how to set up a shot like that of your own.
This book also gives you something more. It inspires. It challenges. It informs. But perhaps most importantly, it will help you understand photography and the art of making great photos at a level you never thought possible. This book is packed with those “Ah ha!” moments—those clever insights that make it all come together for you. It brings you that wonderful moment when it suddenly all makes sense—that “moment it clicks.”
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
by Marjane Satrapi
from Pantheon
A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year”
A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller
Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.
Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
by Betty Edwards
from Tarcher
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."
A Time it Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties
by Bill Eppridge
from Abrams
On June 6, 1968, at the age of 42 and at the height of his popularity, Robert F. Kennedy was tragically assassinated. Presidential candidate, U.S. Senator, father—Kennedy was all of these things—and, to many Americans, he embodied the power of possibility and positive change during a period of social unrest, racial inequality, and war.
Renowned Life photographer Bill Eppridge followed and photographed Kennedy during his early campaign days up to his untimely death, and A Time It Was features dynamic images of the public Kennedy, as well as rare, intimate ones, many of which have never before been published. An essay by Pete Hamill places the events in historical context, while Eppridge shares his insider’s perspective on Kennedy. Released to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Kennedy’s death, A Time It Was reveals why the memory and legacy of Kennedy and his dreams continue to be relevant today.
The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century
by Edward Dolnick
from Harper
As riveting as a World War II thriller, The Forger's Spell is the true story of Johannes Vermeer and the small-time Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him centuries later. The con man's mark was Hermann Goering, one of the most reviled leaders of Nazi Germany and a fanatic collector of art.
It was an almost perfect crime. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of one of the most beloved and admired artists who ever lived. But, as Edward Dolnick reveals, the reason for the forger's success was not his artistic skill. Van Meegeren was a mediocre artist. His true genius lay in psychological manipulation, and he came within inches of fooling both the Nazis and the world. Instead, he landed in an Amsterdam court on trial for his life.
ARTnews called Dolnick's previous book, the Edgar Award-winning The Rescue Artist, "the best book ever written on art crime." In The Forger's Spell, the stage is bigger, the stakes are higher, and the villains are blacker.
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
from Basic Books
Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think.
Hofstadter's great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (like undecidability, recursion, and 'strange loops') accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatize concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centering on his Musical Offering) and Escher's continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers.
The world has moved on since 1979, of course. The book predicted that computers probably won't ever beat humans in chess, though Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997. And the vinyl record, which serves for some of Hofstadter's best analogies, is now left to collectors. Sections on recursion and the graphs of certain functions from physics look tantalizing, like the fractals of recent chaos theory. And AI has moved on, of course, with mixed results. Yet Gödel, Escher, Bach remains a remarkable achievement. Its intellectual range and ability to let us visualize difficult mathematical concepts help make it one of this century's best for anyone who's interested in computers and their potential for real intelligence. --Richard Dragan
Topics Covered: J.S. Bach, M.C. Escher, Kurt Gödel: biographical information and work, artificial intelligence (AI) history and theories, strange loops and tangled hierarchies, formal and informal systems, number theory, form in mathematics, figure and ground, consistency, completeness, Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, recursive structures, theories of meaning, propositional calculus, typographical number theory, Zen and mathematics, levels of description and computers; theory of mind: neurons, minds and thoughts; undecidability; self-reference and self-representation; Turing test for machine intelligence.
Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium
by Nancy Reyner
from North Light Books
Liberate Your Creativity With Acrylic Paints!
Acrylic Revolution is your essential, all-in-one guide for acrylic painting techniques and more. It features over 101 ways to break through the boundaries of conventional painting and re-define the creative potential of this all-purpose medium.
Every page provides insight on how to use acrylic paint in ways you never thought possible to create stunning visual effects and textures. Ten complete sections detail a range of empowering applications, including how to:
- Prepare and paint on virtually any surface
- Create textures of all kinds
- Work with transfers, collage, resists and mixed media
- Achieve innovative stenciling and line work
- Customize your paint to adjust thickness, transparency and drying time
- Simulate other mediums, such as oil, tempera or watercolor
- Create faux finishes, magical effects, sheens and more
Pick up a brush and start your own acrylic revolution today!
Use the techniques in this book to free your creative spirit and create the paintings you've always dreamed of.
New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing
by Betty Edwards
from Tarcher
Millions of people have learned to draw using the methods of Dr. Betty Edwards. Now, in an essential companion to her bestselling classic, Edwards offers readers the key to mastering this art form: guided practice in their newfound creative abilities.
Here are forty new exercises that cover each of the five basic skills of drawing. Each practice session includes a brief explanation and instructional drawings, suggestions for materials, sample drawings, and blank pages for the reader's own drawings. Also provided in this spiral-bound workbook is a pullout viewfinder, a crucial tool for effective practice. While The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain focused primarily on portrait drawing with pencil, this workbook gives readers experience in various subject matter-still life, landscape, imaginative drawing-using alternative mediums such as pen and ink, charcoal, and conté crayon.
For all those who are taking a drawing class, who have already received instruction through a book or course, or who prefer to learn by doing, this volume of carefully structured "homework" offers the perfect opportunity to reinforce and improve their skills and expand their repertoire.
Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters)
by Martha Sielman
from Lark Books
Abstract appliquéd shapes cascade across the surface of Ita Ziv’s brilliantly colored quilts, creating vibrant celebrations of life. Noriko Endo captures her deep feeling for trees in a stunning interplay of light, shadow, and leaves. Gloves appear in nearly every quilt by Jane Burch Cochran, representing probing hands and, sometimes, angel wings. John Lefelhocz’s fantastic imagery—including an airplane silhouette that lights up—grabs viewers’ attention.
Esteemed curator Martha Sielman contributes an illuminating essay for each of the 40 featured artists, who are showcased in eight-page features.
.
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)
by Ellen Lupton
from Princeton Architectural Press
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).
+++
Independent Publishers How to Talk to Children About Art How to Talk to Children About Art ISBN: 155652580X
Anticipating how kids react to paintings by artists as diverse as Botticelli, Vermeer, Degas, Chagall, and Pollack, this resource for adults who want children to love and understand art prepares them for the types of questions kids ask. Providing parents and teachers with valuable tips for making any visit to a museum with children a success, this guide offers a great primer or refresher course on art history, allowing adults to confidently answer common questions, such as why some paintings are signed and others are not, some pictures are small and others are very large, and why the Dutch paint so much fruit. Questions and answers about 30 well-known paintings provide historical background, explain genres such as still life and portrait, and demystify religious and mythological themes. Color-coded tabs let adults flip to sections appropriate to the ages of their children (5?7 years, 8?10 years, 11?13+ years). Book specifications: paperback, 182 pgs., 5 1/2 in. x 8 1/4 in. Publishers: Chicago Review Press, 2005.
Yarka St. Petersburg Watercolor Set set of 24 full pan colors
A professional quality watercolor made in a country rich with art history. These liquid-poured, semi-moist, full pan watercolors are manufactured in a St. Petersburg factory that has been producing color for more than100 years. The liquid-poured process is thought by professionals to produce the highest quality grade watercolors. The finest raw materials and pigments are used to guarantee the highest possible light and colorfastness. Set contains 24 full pans. Colors are English red, English green, Russian blue, Russian green, ochre yellow, ochre golden, ochre red, carmine, cobalt blue, cadmium orange, cadmium lemon, cadmium yellow, black neutral, emerald green, red violet, raw umber, raw sienna, burnt umber, burnt sienna, sepia, scarlet, yellow green, ultramarine, mars brown, and madder lake.
Lickle Publishing Come Look With Me: Discovering Women Artists for Children Come Look With Me: Discovering Women Artists for Children ISBN: 1890674087
Come Look With Me: Discovering Women Artists for Children introduces children to twelve magnificent works of art. Children will share the excitement of Sofonisba Anguissola and her sisters; and feel their determination as they play in "The Chess Player." They will relax with Mary Cassatt in "The Tea Party," looking at how women lived, and ask questions about the roles women take. Children will also have fun examining their own faces and dress with Frieda Kahlo's "Self Portrait With Monkey." In this study of women artists, children will become familiar with painters who are often forgotten in art history books because of their gender. All these works are striking images, created by women who would not let society's gender biases deter their love of art and their creativity, and who, today, can be accepted as equals. From the medieval realism in Artemesia Gentileschi's "Lute Player," to the Impressionism of Berthe Morisot's "The Coiffure," children can explore what differences there are in a woman's way of painting and what they see. They can end up softly with Grandma Moses' "Sugaring Off," or they can tease out the story in Faith Ringgold's "Love in the School Yard." Book specifications: hardcover, 32 pgs., 10 in. x 10 in. Publisher: Lickle Publishing, 2005.
