Saturday 20 February 2010

Art Book Yumminess!!

Over the past couple of weeks, I've treated myself to some new art books...well, you can never have too many, right?

Click on any image to enlarge


I ordered An Illustrated Life online via Fishpond after having my beady little eyes on it for some time. An Illustrated Life draws inspiration from the private sketchbooks of various artists, illustrators and designers. As I've been focusing on visual journaling, particularly over the past four months, I found myself glued to the pages as I browsed each artist's thoughts on journaling and what it means to them. Sooooooo interesting! I also like that the artists share their favourite types of journals/sketchbooks as well as their sketching tools. So you don't get the wrong idea, note that this book focuses on sketchbooks, not art journals. In my view, money well spent....I love it!



I was lucky to come across the following two books when I went to Lincraft to check out their sketchbooks and noticed the Sale table instead. I couldn't resist having a peek and the first book to catch my attention was - Realism in Watermedia - and, at half price, I quickly grabbed a copy for myself. It has a protective hard cover with spiral-bound pages inside and covers 18 painting techniques for achieving realistic results with watermedia. It has great demonstations, tips, and lots of helpful information.



I couldn't believe my luck with - Watercolor for the Fun of it - because when I went to pay for it, the register wasn't recognising the bar code. When the attendant typed in the title, it wasn't even registering that they had the book in store. He went off to check with his supervisor and came back to tell me that, although it was already half-price, they were going to drop the price by another half!!! Don't ya just love it when you get a bargain on top of a bargain?! I was stoked!!!



Watercolor for the Fun of It is a weighty, hard-cover book filled with a wealth of information throughout its 477 pages. It's actually FIVE books in one and, when I tried to find this particular book on the net, I could only come up with the five individual books. Lots of pics, lots of demos, lots of info......perfect!



My verdict - I would highly recommend any of these books!

Love, light and peace

15 comments:

  1. I love art books Serena & you're right you can NEVER have too many of them lol :-)
    These looks great!! Enjoy :-)

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  2. Wow!! I love art books...craft books...well, books! These look like quite a find and at bargain prices, too!! It's always good to hear what other people think of a book, too. Have fun!! :):)

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  3. those were great buys :) that last book was a fabulous buy and looks like it would be very helpful

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  4. Serena these books look great. I love books anyway especially art books like The Illustrated Life.
    Have a great weekend.
    :-)

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  5. I love books and you are so right: you can never have too many!

    Enjoy them! I look forward to all your new work after being inspired by these books!

    Hugs,
    Tamerie

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  6. Wow! You really got some great deals! I love the bargain table at the bookstore. And you found some really nice books. I've been considering The Illustrated Life....I have it on my wish list.

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  7. Serena, I am glad to see you are taking the plunge into Watercolours. There is something about your style of expression I think will work well for you in this media. I have been going back to Watercolours again in recent months and forgotten how magical it can be. One tip I would offer is to get the best quality brushes you can afford. You can get away with so-so brushes with Acrylics, but with Watercolours they can be unforgiving and the brushes are especially important. Also do not buy into this strange urban legend that you cannot correct a mistake in Watercolours. Sure you can. But it's best to go with a thick paper as you can "scrub" out the layer of paper with a mistake on it. Another thing is there is nothing wrong with using white paint - that's another silly rule some one made up.

    The Realism in Watermedia is an excellent book. Good call.

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  8. That's so great that you stumbled across such amazing books...bargins are always good...makes me happy.

    I was lucky like that last night at a clothing store...sweaters that I had been looking at were 40%off an already 50% off...I got 2 sweaters ($6.00 and $7.00), a green T shirt ($2.59) & 4 pair of undies ($20.00)...Shelly

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  9. Hi Mum,

    This is a pretty good post! I especially found the info about the last book interesting to read and that's great that you got it real cheap since it wasn't being recognised on the register! I liked reading about the other books as well!

    Love Brad!
    xoxox

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  10. I have had my copy of Illustrated Life for many months now and every time I open it, I find more treasures. I had gotten the second one, Realism...at the library this last summer. Haven't seen the third one. I love art books and have a big collection of them.

    It's so fun buying new ones and settling down in a comfortable chair and going over them.

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  11. hi serena! i'm eleni from greece! your books seem so interesting! i'm thinking about ordering the one with the sketches! you are right ART books are never enough!

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  12. Wow Sarena, I envy you. Those look like treasures to me. How lucky can you get.

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  13. Wonderful selection of books and to think of the deals you got! I will have to look more closely at some of the technique-type books when I'm out searching! I get so intimidated by their wonderful drawings I end up putting them down and not reading what they have to say!

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  14. Oh! New art books! Woo Hoo- what fun you'll have with what you learn from them.

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  15. It's not possible to have too many art books! Your new ones look wonderful! :)

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