Bøker i Dover Art Instruction-serien

Concise and beautifully illustrated, this guide provides invaluable instruction on the art of pencil drawing. It covers the basics of holding the pencil, applying different strokes, shading, perspective, and the rendering of different materials, as well as the finer points of pictorial composition and drawing from nature. 36 evocative sketches.

This instructive book presents excellent annotated line drawings of anatomical structure for the beginning artist, explaining the subject in simple terms, identifying parts of the body and demonstrating physical activities through the author's sketches. Chapters cover the human skeleton, head and neck, torso, arm, hand, leg, foot, and musculature. 179 black-and-white illustrations.

Students, designers, and craftspeople who want to create their own abstract patterns and designs will find this profusely illustrated guide one of the best books available on the subject. After an introductory chapter dealing with the geometric basis of design, the author goes on to discuss implements and their use (T-square, compass, dividers, ruling pen, etc.), borders, textile patterns, nature study, and treatment.Over 380 illustrations include many diagrams, designs for title pages, border patterns, allover patterns, textile patterns, and historical examples from an extraordinary number of cultures and periods: Assyrian stone carvings, Greek and Roman jewelry, 18th-century English silverwork, and more. Thorough and comprehensive, Abstract Design and How to Create It will be an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to learn the principles and techniques of creating nonrepresentative designs.

A truly admirable book.--Bookman's Journal and Print CollectorAs a book of reference to the practicing artists who wants to solve some particular difficulty, the book could hardly be bettered.--FieldRex Vicat Cole makes learning about perspective an enjoyable and fascinating pursuit in this clearly written and profusely illustrated book. Over 390 diagrams illustrate every aspect of the text, and more than 80 illustrations reproduce drawings and paintings--by old masters and by the author--that indicate how perspective is utilized in practice. The book is so well illustrated that many perspective problems can be answered without reference to the text at all. The text itself clarifies the theory of perspective and offers numerous practice exercises. Among the topics covered are the principle of perspective in theory, the rules of perspective and their application, depths, the use of plans in sketching foreshortened surfaces, inclined planes, the circle, arches, how to draw curves by straight lines, perspective of the sky and sea, perspective of shadows, and more. Two additional sections cover perspective in the history of art and mechanical perspective.A noted landscape painter and art instructor, Mr. Cole combines common sense with an understanding of Nature's laws to make perspective a subject that every artist can approach with confidence. Art students will also find this book extremely valuable.

"Monumental book . . . Mr. Vicat Cole is a born teacher."--Contemporary Review"Mr. Vicat Cole's ability as a landscape painter is well known, and he unites to his executive talents the qualifications of an accomplished teacher."--Connoisseur"The name of the author is itself a guarantee that the subject is adequately treated. It is handled in a systematic and lucid way, which the novice . . . can follow with ease."--StudioFor years greatly admired and widely used, this excellent text by one of Britain's foremost art instructors has achieved the status of a classic in its field. The author, also a noted landscape painter, offers complete and accurate instruction in painting and drawing trees to all serious artists--beginner or advanced, amateur or professional. Its extremely comprehensive and detailed coverage has earned this volume a permanent place in the libraries of landscape painters, students, and teachers. Every aspect of trees and how to depict them--in any style--is covered with unusual clarity and precision; problems of balancing tree groups, relations of light and shade, delicacy and weight, distance, sky apertures and their patterns, curves and straight lines in tree branches, tree color, the influence of special environmental factors (age, frost and snow, wind, moonlight), the effects of bud arrangements on the anatomy of trees, etc. Of special value is the very thorough and lucid analysis of tree anatomy: the proportion of boughs, branches, and twigs; the positioning of leaves on twigs; the form, texture, and color of leaves; leaf patterns; flower arrangement; stipules, bracts, buds, scales, spines, seedlings, the bark, and all the other essential details of structure. Specific information is given for each tree discussed: oaks, sycamores, willows, pines, maples, etc.; abstract and inaccurate generalizations are avoided. Nearly 500 illustrations by the author accompany the text, demonstrating all the anatomical features discussed. In addition, there are 48 full-page plates: magnificent landscape paintings and drawings by Giorgione, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van der Neer, Watteau, Hobbema, Turner, Gainsborough, Dupré, and many others, showing their compositional use of trees, their details in rendering, and similar material. Unabridged and unaltered republication of second edition.