Archive for category Publisher: Mitchell Beazley
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.
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
