What are some of the art books that have inspired you or helped your work?

**Madman!** · November 23rd, 2004, 06:08 PM

here is another one I got..

This book is fantastic it's got some amazing art in there and tons of it. Here are some examples of his stuff..

there is great sketches in there is well and all the art is at least as good as above of better. Now I haven't read it all the way through yet, but just based on the art I would say definitely recommended.

**faB** · November 23rd, 2004, 09:35 PM

The Art of Simon Bisley" ... a real feast for the eyes.

"The Great American Pin Up" ... a real treat for the eyes

Faeries This book fueled many strange and scary dreams when I was 10 years old... I remember my father reading me some stories from it while listening to Mike Oldfield 's "Incantations". Anyways... the woods at night have never been the same after this.

Lilo & Stitch : Collected Stories From the Film's Creators Cool concepts, sketches and watercolor backgrounds.

There, I can't resist :

**eliWolff** · November 23rd, 2004, 09:52 PM

here's one I like..

**Bojee** · November 23rd, 2004, 10:05 PM

Wow, you guys have been busy. Here's one Eli turned me on to.

Tell them all about it Eli.

**tagHeuer** · November 29th, 2004, 12:27 AM

What an awesome thread, I can't believe this is not stuck to the top of the page yet.

**Chingwa** · November 29th, 2004, 12:45 AM

This is my bible:

Richard Schmid goes really deep into all sorts of techniques, materials, setups etc. The guy knows what hes talking about and knows how to tell you about it. This has been out of print for a long time, but if you can find a decently priced copy(I got mine 10 years ago for $11 used, but I see them now going for around $200 from used book dealers...), GET IT, you'll love it.

**Bojee** · November 29th, 2004, 01:48 AM

Chingwa- thanks I've got that one but I've yet to read it yet, one more on the list that I've yet to read, thanks for the recomendation.

tagHeur- Thanks bro, I've started a couple of other things but this is the only one that caught on.

**one2hit** · November 29th, 2004, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by Chingwa

This is my bible:
Richard Schmid goes really deep into all sorts of techniques, materials, setups etc. The guy knows what hes talking about and knows how to tell you about it. This has been out of print for a long time, but if you can find a decently priced copy(I got mine 10 years ago for $11 used, but I see them now going for around $200 from used book dealers...), GET IT, you'll love it.

what the...I can't even find that book for under $170! ahhh...I want that book so bad!

**Bojee** · November 29th, 2004, 12:16 PM

Another one I found at the library that has a lot of the old school illustrators.

The Art of National Geographic

**Chingwa** · November 29th, 2004, 10:12 PM

Well I wouldn't say it's worth $170 personally, but if you can find it for $50 or so that is more like it. Sounds like something to watch for on Ebay

**Denart** · November 29th, 2004, 10:59 PM

yo chingwa,
is your "bible" the same thing as Richard's, "Everything I know about Painting" book? Or is it better/worse?

Thanks!

**Chingwa** · November 30th, 2004, 08:01 AM

Well I haven't seen any of his other books before so I can't comment on how better this one is compared to those. But this is definately a different book. He concentrates completely on human figure painting in this one.

**Jeff Jaws** · December 2nd, 2004, 06:56 PM

another one that was not mentioned - afaik.
Horst Janssen

the book "drawings" has some very interesting pieces in it, esp. the "vriederich" series.
He was a graphical master in my eyes, and is a huge inspiration.

Jj.

**Crunch** · December 6th, 2004, 09:39 AM

bojee thanks so much for starting this thread...i am also impressed on your variety of inspirational books...sweet man..

**Madman!** · December 6th, 2004, 05:41 PM

a new one I got...

Vilppu drawing manual and I also got the mini quick sketch book. I got a print out of the circle lesson in class once and just kinda did it without thinking much about it...so now I thought hey I'll really see what's going on here and wow I really need to go back to the basics and this book is definitely helping. Planning on getting as many of the videos as I can too.

**Ryu** · December 10th, 2004, 12:03 PM

Just wanted to say that i have this book, it's awesome,
i should receive the dvds soon, so if you want to know if they're good let me know.
Otherwise there is a small discussion group he opened, where he post images and answer questions,
he is really good.
Vilppu discussion group

cya

**Main Loop** · December 24th, 2004, 10:33 PM

I dont know if anyone's mentioned him and his work, i think a lot more people should know and respect him.. he's been a major influence since i started looking at his stuff earlier this year..

image from "precursor"

**Madman!** · December 30th, 2004, 01:38 AM

Ryu thanks for the link I actually got the drapery dvd for christmas I'm still waiting for it in the mail. If it's as good as the book I'm sure I'll be getting more.

I got lots of books for christmas...well some for christmas and some I bought after...

Targete's book..got it cause well it's Targete nuff said.

Drew Struzan...this books is huge and way better than the other book that game out.

Brom...always wanted to get this but for some reason didn't pick it up. well now I have it. Isn't there others from him I know darkwerks but isn't there another one too?

The Art of Lord of the Rings. It has more pictures that aren't in the other ones and some that are, also has some sculptures too.

Star Wars panel to panel..this book is really cool has art from tons of people. Some from Jon Foster there was one from him I've never seen before and also some great ones from Dave Dorman as well as others.

hmm I think that's it..oh and all the Syd Mead dvds but those aren't books are they

...It was a good Christmas.

**Ryu** · December 30th, 2004, 05:31 AM

Hi !
I have bought more dvds no now i have 9

I recommend buying those from the book, in my opinion number one on Gesture is awesome, it has made me learn sooo much !
I didn't buy the drapery one, 'cause i didn't know if it was applied to the figure, could you tell me when you'll have it?
I think i'l buy the anatomy next time i have money, any thought on this, no one already has these?

cya soon,
and enjoy the dvd

**Mr. Barman** · December 30th, 2004, 07:51 AM

hey all, i've been looking over the stuff at this forum for a while now and i gotta say im really impressed with the stuff here.

i was just wondering what makes you decide to draw something, not the inspiration, but what makes you decide on the subject. ive got a bit of a block going on right now, ive got the inspiration to draw but not the inspiration on a subject to draw, if you can understand that.

**Madman!** · December 30th, 2004, 05:39 PM

Hey Ryu yeah I'll let you know how the dvd is and I only got this one so far I don't have any others. I'll probably let you know either tomorrow or monday depending on when I get it.

I too am the same way Mr. Barman I always want to draw but I never know what to draw. I think the books and dvds of artists help because I see their stuff and I might be looking at some environments and be saying wow those are beautiful..I should make my own environments and see what I can come up with. So you know don't copy but more of the lines just draw the same subject matter that they are drawing. If you see a picture that maybe like Justin Sweet did of lets say a guy fighting a dragon..draw a guy fighting a dragon, but ask yourself how you would handle the same scene/characters and then draw that. So using the pictures for their subject rather than for reference. Or like lets say your looking at the Star Wars art books and looking at Iain McCaig's concepts of Darth Maul, ask yourself how you would've drawn the character differently....the cool thing is you'll end up with your own character (eventhough you were drawing Maul) and you can then use it however you want. That's just one way I get inspiration looking at what subjects the artists did and then creating the same but my own. Hope all that makes sense.

**AdamBlack** · December 31st, 2004, 11:51 AM

Wow. Lots of good books.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned "Rendering in Pen and Ink" by Arthur Guptill. Here's a quick Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

Absolutely fantastic. It's one of my favorite books, and a big reason why I never really got into painting. I'm still learning techniques from this book. Maybe one day I'll be done with it, and can move on to oils or something.

Adam

**Madman!** · January 2nd, 2005, 10:56 PM

Hey Ryu I got that dvd and finally was able to watch it. So here goes my review...

(this is for the drapery video)

I think that Vilppu really teaches things well. I really feel that he really breaks it down into basic understandable steps. Before drapery seemed a little confusing but now I think I actually do understand things a lot better. So as far as his teaching it's top notch...

Now for the video production that's a bit different. It's shot like in an actually class. I lose what's being said because someone is moving a desk in the background or continues shuffling papers or something. It lasted several mintues and you can actually see him get upset in areas. It also was really short in comparison to the guys on the Gnomon dvds...I don't know if that's just because I got the drapery one and maybe it isn't that much to go over incomparision to maybe his anatomy ones. I really wish it was like the Gnomon dvds more, where it's just them alone.

As far as him teaching though I think it's very helpful. I know I will be getting more in the future...

**Ryu** · January 3rd, 2005, 05:58 AM

Thx madman, just a question, does the lecture focus on drapery alone,
or drapery on a figure?
You also have the drawing manual, which is very good complement to the dvds in my opinion, i just watched the spherical form one, and i just understood lot of things.
He is recommended for anyone interested in animation (which is my situation)

Other book :
Koji morimoto, A sketchbook has been edited in japan, try to find the import,
it 's woth it !!!

peter de Seve, (maybe already said ) , top stuff.

**Madman!** · January 3rd, 2005, 06:52 PM

He talks about like I think 7 different types of folds(I need to watch it again and take notes) of the drapery and then he shows how they are applied on the figure.

Peter de Seve is great I need to get his book soon.

**Madman!** · January 10th, 2005, 07:43 PM

okay got a new one today Syd Mead's book. I decided to get this after I watched the dvds.

and here is one I got a couple weeks ago. It's not really an artbook but it's a super refernce book. It's got 500 pages and each page has at least one picture and all are great quality and there is a huge range of animals. If you go to barnes and noble you can get it for like 7.99$. called Africa's Animal Kingdom: A Visual Celebration.

**stani** · January 11th, 2005, 05:49 PM

Hello everybody

At first i want excuse me for my english, im not so good - but i´m still learning to get better

Since i found this great forum i love it, i love all here the people are so great and skilled thats so nice, all the great threads, for me it is so intressting to learn more and more and see how people do they art, GREAT pls keep on !!!!

And this Thread is very nice, its like a big supermarket for artists !!

Now i have little question :

I saw here 2 books from Don Seegmiller

1.

AND

2.

So in the first book its about PAINTER and in the second its about PHOTOSHOP CS

I have photoshop 7 AND NOW THE QUESTION : Are there varieties between ps 7 and ps cs - i mean i think they are varieties but do you think i can use this book also with ps 7 - becouse i want to learn to be better in this programm.

I hope you understand my quastion and can answer me, that would realy help me out

THANK YOU

**Madman!** · January 18th, 2005, 05:48 AM

here is a new one I got...

the english version Street Fighter Eternal Challange book and if you look on the last page you can see my name...yeah I got mentioned in the book for sending them a scan they wanted...so I didn't do anything special but still cool it's not every day you get mentioned in a book.

and yeah there is japanese writing on the front but it is the english version.

I also got a question for book owners. What are some books to help study architecture? I mean I know there are books that you can see asweome buildings but I mean ones more for studying it.