Showing posts with label techniques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label techniques. Show all posts

Early Book Review: Just Draw Fineliner Art: Incredible Illustrations Crafted With Fineliner Pens by Liam Carver

Just Draw Fineliner Art: Incredible Illustrations Crafted With Fineliner Pens by Liam Carver presents a collection of more than 85 beautiful blackwork images by contemporary artists from around the world. It is currently scheduled for release on March 3 2020. Readers can browse the book for advice or inspiration. Each image is accompanied by a short introduction, information on the approaches, techniques and tools used, and useful tips. Learn about stippling and hatching to produce immensely detailed drawings. This is the perfect guide for artists and art lovers alike.
Just Draw Fineliner Art might just be a thinly veiled advertisement for their products at first, but it can also be a solid resource for inspiration and technique. I have never been more than an amatur artist, someone that doodles for fun and has had no formal art education past some advanced high school courses. I enjoyed looking at the art, reading a bit about the tools and techniques used to create them, and might just pull out some of my art supplies to test my muscle memory and skills to see how much I remember and can still pull off. I did find some of the 'tips' to be things I still remember from those high school classes, which are farther away that I might like to admit. Other tips and challenges offered by them were more unique and had my full attention. I did like the information about the artist and how they achieved the look in each piece. Like any other collection of images or other art there will always be favorites and pieces that speak to us less. That is the case here as well, but each piece does show skill that I could fully appreciate while some just had me staring at an individual piece for a good length of time. I do appreciate that at the end of the book the is the recommendation to explore different brands of pens, and information on a variety of tools and mediums that any artist might want to try in the effort to find what works best for them. There are also resources for further information and an index of artists, so you can see if the artist of your favorite piece in the book has more that you might want to give attention to as well. 

Book Review: Nature Art Workshop: Tips, Techniques, and Step-by-Step Projects for Creating Nature-Inspired Art

Nature Art Workshop: Tips, Techniques, and Step-by-Step Projects for Creating Nature-Inspired Art 
by Katie Brooks, Sarah Lorraine Edwards, Allison Hetzell, and Mikko Sumulong is a visual resource for any artist or crafter desiring to combine their art with their love of the nature. Each page inspires artists to look at the world around them in a new light while they learn to create their own nature-inspired art. Four artists guide readers through finding and preparing traditional and natural elements to use in creating fun and unique nature-inspired projects with simple step-by-step instructions. Projects include a pressed-flower ceramic dish, fresh floral crown, and flower-adorned candles, in addition to painted feathers, stones, shells, leaves, and more. A fun, refreshing approach to mixed-media art, Nature Art Workshop proves that you can turn anything into a stunning work of art with the right materials and a bit of imagination.

Nature Art Workshop: Tips, Techniques, and Step-by-Step Projects for Creating Nature-Inspired Art is divided into sections based on the natural supplies that artists and crafters might be interested in using. THe brief information about each artist was interesting to read. I liked that I could browse based on the items I have on hand, the things I want to learn, or just read through the entire book for the full experience. The instructions are clear and understandable, with detailed photographs to help readers follow the steps and achieve the results they are looking for. While not all the projects were of my taste, or what I would consider in my skill set yet, I felt like there was something for all readers that might choose to pick up this title. It has given me some ideas for holiday gift giving this winter, and ideas for new things I want to try. I have not tested any of the projects yet, but I have plans to give several a go as soon as I can.

Nature Art Workshop: Tips, Techniques, and Step-by-Step Projects for Creating Nature-Inspired Art is a great resource for artists and crafters from a variety of skill and interest levels.