Art Books

Drawing With Charcoal, Chalk, and Sanguine Crayon
~ by Gabriel Martin Roig

A thoughtful Christmas present that kick started the new "Carbon Footprints" series.

It has a lot of step-by-step demonstrations using charcoal, chalk, powdered charocal, and sanguine. It is a constant companion at the moment.


The Power of Art
~ Simon Schama

Eight conversational essays placing the great works of art in the context of the times they were created, examining not only the personal struggles of the artist, but also often the political upheavals of the time.

I read the book before watching the TV series to which it is meant to be an accompaniment, but found the book far juicier and more educational.  Maybe because I could spend more time looking at each art work, maybe because I find reading a more active form of learning, rather than the comparatively passive enjoyment of watching TV.

Truly scrumptious photography too.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
~ Steven Pressfield

It is theoretically possible to read this slim book in one sitting, but if this is your intention can I suggest you put yourself out of reach from your paints; your computer; the tools of your trade. Half way through you will find a nugget of wisdom that will compel you to stop reading this book and get back to work. I only managed to read the whole thing because I was stuck on a transatlantic flight.

The book is written in short snippets, easy to bookmark for those desperate times when Resistance strikes and doing something else...anything else seems the right way to go. This will get you back to work, back to producing, back to creating.

The Colored Pencil: Key Concepts for Handling the Medium
~ Bet Borgeson

A great book for explaining the different color pencil techniques, including using frisket film and tape to lift color, sgraffito, burnishing, liquefying and using colored papers.

I try to read this book once a year to refresh my techniques and give me new ideas to try.

Colored Pencil Solution Book
~ Janie Gildow

There are a lot of good books on color pencils, but this is still one of the best. There is a great section on materials and a specific analysis of color pencil brands, which I still refer to.

A great book for beginners, with chapters on setting up your work space, designing your composition, color theory, different application techniques and specific solutions for rendering different textures and fixing common problems. The whole book is illustrated with step-by-step demonstrations and even has line drawings for you to practice along with the demos.

If realism is your goal, then check out this book.

Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green
~ Michael Wilcox

Have you ever mixed blue and red and made a dirty lavender mess instead of the rich juicy purple you wanted? Well read this and find out why.

There is an easy to follow technical explanation together with color mixing exercises to illustrate the lessons. Then you too will be able to produce Imperial Purple or Dirty Lavender at will.
(I find Dirty Lavender awfully useful for shadows)