Archive for category Author: Simon Jennings
Face Parts || Simon Jennings
Posted by henry in Author: Simon Jennings, Medium: Drawing, Medium: Oil, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, Subject: Faces, Subject: Figure, Subject: Portraiture on November 21, 2008
This is the companion volume to Simon’s very successful Body Parts, which appeared last year, and was planned at the same time. It features the same layout, with a huge variety of photographic images and artistic interpretations in a variety of media. Neither book is a step-by-step how-to of its subject, but rather an in-depth guide to detail work that is absolutely invaluable for any figurative or portrait artist. Using either book it is possible to dispense with a model for most work, allowing much greater freedom in terms of both time taken and variety of interpretation and experimentation.
Simon’s approach in all his books is simply to immerse the reader in visual material to the extent almost of sensory overload so that the subject simply takes over your consciousness. It’s a bold and brave way of working and won’t be for everyone; certainly I wouldn’t recommend this as a book for beginners, who are going to want rather more hand-holding than Simon has to offer. However, for anyone who is reasonably confident with their medium and materials, both books are an invaluable source of reference material as well as guides to methods of working.
Collins Artist's Little Book Of Colour || Simon Jennings
Posted by henry in Author: Simon Jennings, Medium: Acrylic, Medium: Oil, Medium: Pastel, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Collins, Subject: Colour on November 6, 2007
Simon Jennings’ original Artist’s Colour Manual was a tour de force of total immersion that celebrated, indeed wallowed in, what is the artist’s lingua franca, colour. It wasn’t just a list of facts or a blow-by-blow account of how to mix any shade you could possibly want. By telling you nothing, of course, it told you everything.
I suppose this pocket sized volume had to come, but it’s a reductio ad absurdum with all the character of its bigger brother taken out. If you want a list of colour facts and a handy index to what most of the popular colours from most of the main manufacturers look like straight out of the tube, well, this is the book you’ve been waiting all those years for. It’ll tell you everything and, in doing so, it’ll tell you nothing.
I’m not one of those people who say that colour mixing should be instinctive and can’t be taught, or one of those others who says that facts are useless in this context and that you should just concentrate on artistic interpretation. I will shout that, “knowledge is power”, “the truth shall make you free” from the rooftops, but “the facts, ma’am, just the facts” won’t help you at all and there’s nothing in this book to tell you what to do with all this new-found information; that’s what the original book was all about.
The main selling pitch from the back cover is: “Did you know that Ultramarine Blue was originally made from ground-up lapis lazuli or that both yellow and green once contained arsenic?”. Well, yes I did and I also know that Cochineal used to be made from ground-up beetles but, do you know what?, I don’t care. Even if I didn’t know, I wouldn’t be looking around for a book to tell me.
There’s a traditional Christmas market in books that contain useless information and it’s just a pity that this one is dressed up as being somehow useful to the artist. Start a “what I don’t want for Christmas” list now and put this right at the top, just in case someone has the misguided idea of buying it for you.
Collins 2007
£8.99
Body Parts || Simon Jennings
Posted by henry in Author: Simon Jennings, Medium: Drawing, Medium: Oil, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, Subject: Figure on October 16, 2007
No, this isn’t a CSI companion but a rather excellent guide to figure drawing that includes a wide selection of photographed poses that bring the benefits of a life model to your own home.
There’s a huge variety of material here, from full figure studies to hands, feet, heads and faces and plenty of ideas for interpreting them in a variety of media. Simon Jennings is an accomplished designer as well as an artist and a writer and he offers a total immersion in the subject in a way that no one else really manages; the book is an experience in itself as much as an instruction manual and all the better for that.
Mitchell Beazley 2007
£14.99
Collins Complete Artist's Manual || Simon Jennings
Posted by henry in Author: Simon Jennings, Medium: Various, Publisher: Collins, Subject: Techniques on March 27, 2006
This book is a reworking of some of the material that previously appeared in Collins Artist’s Manual and Collins Art Class. By selecting sections from both titles, as well as enlarging the format, the publishers have created a weighty tome (nearly 400 pages) that has visual as well as practical appeal and provides a comprehensive overview of the world of painting.
Just opening the book is a bit like diving into a bazaar. There’s a wealth of material, both pictorial and written, on every page with complete paintings, colour swatches, technical details and graphical tips shouting for attention. All of this isn’t something that can be taken in all at once and, although the initial reaction might be to shut the book in fright, progression and perseverance will be rewarded. Simon Jennings is a capable artist and writer and what he has to say is worth listening to, but he is also a book designer, so the way he says it is just as important. If a slim volume of watercolour is a simple melody, then this is full-on bebop jazz, something you have to be attuned to before you can appreciate it fully.
This isn’t a book that you should really try to work through in any kind of logical progress, but rather one to pick up, open at random and then wander around as serendipity takes you. There’s stuff about materials, techniques, composition, landscapes, portraits, water – well, just about everything in fact and illustrations by a huge number of different artists in many different styles as well as media.
Year published: 2005
List price: £30
