Lessons in Classical Drawing || Juliette Aristides

This quite scholarly book looks at drawing techniques through Old Master as well as contemporary examples, combined with a selection of specific lessons covering subjects from measured drawing to line work and the human form.

It’s very much a book to read and absorb rather than something to treat as a practical course and therefore probably best suited to someone who already has some facility and is wanting to study the subject in more, indeed considerable, depth. The range of subjects is comprehensive and the quality of both the work and the reproduction is superb, and it is in fact possible to enjoy the book for that alone and to ignore its use as a learning aid.

That the accompanying DVD is filmed in Florence is just the icing on the cake, really.

Digital Art Techniques for Artists & Illustrators || Joel Lardner & Paul Roberts

The risk run by all books in this fast-developing field is that they’re outdated by the next software upgrade. However, digital design is now beginning to settle down and most of the technical developments are at the edges, with minor interface tweaks. In fact, complaints abound that version advances often mean little more than moving frequently-used functions to unfamiliar places and ensuring that older versions won’t run under newer operating systems.

Wisely, the authors choose to stick to two software packages, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, with clear markers at the beginning of each chapter indicating which is covered. As the landscape settles down, certain programs become dominant and these two have been the lingua franca for long enough to assume they won’t be toast in the next few months.

Whilst there is a professional feel to the layout of the book and the topics covered, this is a book which is, in all probability, going to appeal to the non-professional market – and I use the term as a subtle differentiator from “amateur”. Anyone going into or already working in a professional studio will probably have had formal training in the field and the kind of work covered is more in the field of illustration than fine art.

All that said, this is a Quarto-produced book and therefore stands very much on its layout. There are no lengthy technical dissertations, but rather a series of spreads illustrating a variety of topics from using layers to the use of colours and the handling of vector art and creating animated gifs. Critically, the authors also show you how the many context menus will drop down and how the various effects will preview. It’s here that they give themselves the greatest hostage to fortune as packages are tweaked, but the basic principles usually win through, so it’s a risk worth taking.

For anyone, professional, semi-professional or, indeed, amateur, who wants a simple guide to the main drawing packages, this is invaluable and easy to understand. Given the complexity of such software, it’ll probably be an aide-memoire for the regular user as well.

The Encyclopaedia of Calligraphy Techniques || Diana Hardy Wilson

The Encyclopaedia series was a winning format when it first appeared and one that has stood the test of time well, setting the standard for design-led instruction books where each spread is an entity in its own right. Several of the volumes have been revamped and, although I can’t see any evidence that this one is more than a straight reissue, it retains a fresh and inviting feel.

There are two distinct sections, Techniques and Themes and the combination of what to do and what to do with it is pretty much unique, most calligraphy books going for just one or the other.

Techniques covers all the things you’d expect, from basic penmanship to letterforms in Carolingian, Copperplate, Italic, etc. Diana also includes extras such as gilding, the use of quill pens and ornamentation.

In Themes, she gives extensive examples of the sort of work you can produce, with illustrations from a variety of contemporary practitioners. There is a limited amount of detail here, so this is more a gallery than a series of projects, but the extended captions and chapter introductions go a long way towards giving you ideas to work on.

If you want what is effectively two books in one, you’ll get excellent value for money.

Light and Movement in Watercolour || Jake Winkle

Jake Winkle’s paintings are all about colour. These can frequently be surprising as, for example, in the front cover image of the boxing hares, where reds, blues and greens are used to give shade and depth as well as to impart vitality and movement.

It takes a little practice to get your eye accustomed to his style, which at first sight appears very loose. Well, it is very loose, but there’s more detail in there than you first realise and you’ll eventually begin to appreciate the way in which carefully placed and graduated blocks and splashes of colour are used to define shape and depth. The trick is in the juxtaposition of advancing and receding hues that give an almost 3-dimensional appearance. Look again at those hares: if they were done any other way, they’d be a magnificent image, but they’d be static and flat.

Not all Jake’s work is quite as avant-garde as this, but the sense of colour is always there, even if it’s sometimes more subtle, as in his more tranquil landscapes as well as interiors and flowers. The book is mostly about how Jake paints, although there are four demonstrations included so that you can have a go at a guided attempt at his style for yourself – and I’d certainly recommend that you try this.

This is without doubt a challenging book, but it’s also a rewarding one. As ever with a highly individualistic style, you wouldn’t want to copy it completely, but it’s certainly worth considering the way Jake uses colour and seeing if you can’t incorporate at least a few of his ideas.

The Painter’s Studio Handbook || Simon Fletcher

This is the sort of book I haven’t seen in perhaps twenty years. A book about the materials and equipment of painting rather than the methods of using them, other than in the most rudimentary way. And I’d have to say that the genre has come a long way in that time, with clear, full-colour illustrations that show you not only the items themselves, but also examples of the sort of results they can produce.

Flicking through, it all looks very attractive, but there’s no great sense of unity or of a theme emerging. The problem with it is that Simon assumes that your first action as an artist is going to be to equip a studio with everything you need to work in every single medium. Given that most artists start on their kitchen table, this isn’t very likely. The blurb says that he, “teaches masterclasses in drawing, pastels and watercolour at various academies in Europe and at his studio in France” and I think you have it there. If you were going to set up a teaching establishment, this book would tell you everything you need to know about equipping it. The trouble is, if you were doing that, you’d have your own very firm ideas already and I don’t think you’d need this book, or even consider someone else’s layout.

The blurb also says that the book is “a complete resource for all artists working in oils, acrylics, pastel, chalk or ink”. Up to a point, as I think I’ve demonstrated. It’s not, you see, a book about how to work in all these media, which very few people want to do anyway.

Sorry, but I can’t help feeling this is misplaced. I also can find little trace of the quoted “eight books about watercolour and pastel” Simon Fletcher has apparently written.

Drawing for Fantasy Artists || Socar Myles

When a book gives itself the strapline, “All the art techniques & shortcuts you need to master fantasy art”, it’s setting the bar as high as it can get. So it’s a delight to be able to say that this one clears it with room to spare.

I’ve frequently said that fantasy art isn’t my field, but there’s a lot more to this than just elves and grottoes and, as a manual on drawing, particularly the human figure, it’s spot-on. In fact, it’s one of the best drawing books I’ve ever seen. The author has a sensitive style that captures personality to perfection, bridging the gap between super-detail and soft-edge in a way that suits her subject matter ideally.

As well as the figures and landscapes you’d expect, Socar Myles looks at linear and non-linear perspective and the structure of the human body, as well as how to capture movement and develop character. There’s an enormous amount here and I’d have no hesitation in recommending it to any artist, even if they know less about fantasy art than I do.

Vibrant Acrylics || Hashim Akib

While the watercolour style of acrylics has been widely covered, the oils approach, and impasto in particular has been largely ignored. However, this has been remedied here quite spectacularly, for Hashim Akib paints in a very heavy impasto style as well as making full use of the brighter colours that generally feature in the acrylic palette. “Vibrant”, a word often bandied about in book titles, is certainly valid here.

I’ve said elsewhere that this isn’t so much about the mechanics of painting as the art and philosophy of it, and it’s worth repeating the book’s opening sentence, “The best tool for learning how to paint is to paint” because it sums up the attitude and feel that’s here.

Hashim Akib’s method is worth summing up, too. He starts almost every painting with a complementary coloured ground (done with a preparatory coat rather than a commercially prepared support) and then builds the body of the work on top of that. The result allows him also to use colours to define form as well as add depth and movement to subjects ranging from street scenes to portraits, landscapes and flowers.

Hashim’s style is very much his own and this isn’t a book you’ll probably want to follow through in detail, although there are plenty of demonstrations you can try. However, if you like the impasto style and want to have a go, there’s plenty to get you started. If you already paint in this way, then you’re certainly going to admire the book and want to own it for its own sake.

Trees, Woodlands & Forests (What to Paint) || Geoff Kersey

As a simple guide to painting scenes in which trees are a major feature, this can’t be bettered. That seems like a rather restricted view, but it’s important to understand that this isn’t a guide to painting trees and it isn’t exactly a guide to painting them in the landscape either.

The What to Paint series is based around a series of 24 finished paintings with, on the opposite page, a general description of what they are and why and how they were painted, with detailed illustrations of specific features and a note of the colours used. Then, at the back of the book, you get outline drawings for each one that you can trace down onto your own paper. As these are printed on normal book paper this is a bit of a challenge, especially if you leave the sheets in the book. Remove them and, eventually, you’ll have torn out the whole of the second half, leaving it difficult to manage.

Although I get the general idea and I think it’s a worthy attempt, I can’t help feeling it’s ungainly and I’m really not certain whether this adds anything to the (in my opinion) much better Ready to Paint series. I presume that this is supposed to be the next stage up, but I can’t help wondering if the reader would have been better served with an extra page of technical instruction for each painting and ditch the tracings.

All that said, if you ignore those, I like the book and the work that Geoff has produced is nicely done and well varied.

Drawing & Painting Sports Figures || Jim Scullion

There’s no doubt that this is a niche market and I’d rather suspect that there may be more take-up in the sports market and by those who are looking for a showcase of the author’s work than there will be among its avowed practical art audience.

That’s a shame because, as a guide to painting the human figure in action, this is hard to better. The author has clearly studied his topic, and his subjects, in depth and he captures both general and specific poses with confidence and aplomb. The original cover image was going to be a portrait of Andy Murray just after he has won a point (it now seems to be missing from the book altogether) that absolutely conveyed, far better than any photograph, the pose and expression as well as the pent-up aggression Murray displays on these occasions. I don’t want to labour this change, because there are plenty of other, similar images in the book, but it was always going to be my way into the review and it’s something I’m familiar with, my interest in sport not being all-encompassing.

One of the things you can’t help noticing as you look through the copious images (250 in a 96 page book is nothing less than generous) is that Jim’s paintings have a strongly commercial quality. This isn’t surprising, neither is it a criticism; there’s a particular style that the market for paintings of sportspeople demands. However, if you look a little further, although a lot of this is characterised by the modelling and the use of colour, it’s also about making the subject stand out from the background, which itself has to be appropriate. This is worth further consideration, as Jim uses both clearly-defined grounds, such as the St Andrews clubhouse in a golfing picture, as well as those which are more blurred when action but also context need to be defined, or completely abstract to show speed. It’s all cleverly done and a lesson in itself.

If you want to paint sport, then this is pretty much your only guide. However, I’d recommend that anyone interested in figure painting should give it at least a look. You may not find the style is to your taste, but the execution is superbly done and you can learn a lot from just that.

Watercolour Painting (Art Answers) || ed George James

There’s a nice feel to this the moment you pick it up. It’s a relatively small format with over 200 pages, so it sits comfortably in the hand and has a heft to it that gives an immediate feeling of solidity. The cover is semi-soft and the page corners are rounded, which adds to the sense of usability and quality. All that does add to the production costs, though, so the content had better be good if the value-for-money quotient is to be kept up.

All that may seem like concentrating on form over substance, but I’ve always maintained that initial impressions are important and a book that makes you feel welcome and confident before you even open it is always going to get off to a good start.

So how does it stack up when you get inside? Well, if you’re eagle-eyed, you’ll spot that it’s a compilation of material from previous works by the packager Quarto. This is not a bad thing, and they’re very good at layout and presentation, in which area they don’t let us down here. The smaller page size isn’t a disadvantage and that soft cover means you can get the book open without breaking down the spine.

As you’d expect from the series title, the help topics are arranged as a series of questions, “How can I…?” Each one takes up no more than a spread, sometimes less than a page and there are lots of illustrations which have a generous rather than a cramped feel. If I have a gripe, it’s that the paper used tends to knock the colours back so that there’s a feeling of flatness rather than vibrancy. Why do publishers do that? They have people who are paid to handle production and it really is a sine qua non that you use the appropriate stock for the project.

There are lots of hints and tips books and there’s nothing specific to mark this out from the crowd. However, everything has a slightly different emphasis and this is nicely done. If you haven’t already got a shelf full of similar works, this is a very good place to start.