Archives: Walter Foster Books

Artist Toolbox: Color explains how color captures mood and helps communicate meaning, as well as how to use color to create personal, expressive works of art.

In Artist Toolbox: Color, painters will learn how to create impactful work with an understanding of basic color theory. Topics include the color wheel, hue, saturation, value, temperature, relativity, color relationships, and color mixing. You will learn how color captures mood and to communicate meaning with nothing more than color as you create personal, expressive works of art. Step-by-step projects and accessible technique demonstrations show color theory in action, making this book a useful reference for any beginning artist's library.

The Artist Toolbox series provides easy-to-use reference guides for beginning and aspiring artists. While many instructional art books gloss over important concepts, focusing instead on how to replicate a piece of art, the Artist Toolboxseries breaks down the whats, whens, whys, and hows of each relevant tool or technique, clearly demonstrating its purpose and how to employ it to achieve the desired effects.

Beginning Pastel guides beginning artists through an exploration of pastel techniques and step-by-step projects for a comprehensive and approachable overview of the vibrant pastel medium.

Pastels are a unique tool, and Beginning Pastel is the perfect introductory resource for artists just getting started in this colorful medium. Before jumping into the step-by-step projects, this book covers choosing the right paper, pastels, and colors, to basic techniques like blending, gradating, and masking. Each stroke and technique is clearly explained and beautifully illustrated. After learning the key concepts, you’ll promptly put them into practice through simple step-by-step exercises. With pastel often considered an advanced medium, Beginning Pastel makes the tricky task of drawing in pastel accessible and achievable for any artist.

The Portfolio series covers essential art techniques, core concepts, and media with an approach and format that’s perfect for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate artists.

Also available from the series: Beginning Acrylic, Beginning Drawing, Beginning Watercolor, Beginning Colored Pencil, Beginning Color Mixing, Expressive Painting, Beginning Color Mixing, Beginning Pen & Ink, and Beginning Composition.

With Beginning Drawing, discover and master the fundamentals of drawing with professional tips and expert instruction.

Designed especially for aspiring artists, Beginning Drawing offers a well-rounded introduction to the art of basic drawing. In this concept-and technique-driven approach, beginning artists will discover the fundamentals of the craft and how to put those skills into practice for creating realistic works of art. From showing how to select and work with the tools of the trade to demonstrating a range of basic techniques, Beginning Drawing provides a thorough, easily digestible overview of key drawing concepts, including lighting, shading, shadows, perspective, texture, and composition, and then demonstrates how these techniques intersect, both functionally and creatively, in a wider context within a complete piece of art. Step-by-step lessons encourage practice, focusing readers on the methods and techniques designed to enhance their overall skill level, before graduating on to more subject-specific works. Packed with professional tips and expert instruction, Beginning Drawing is the perfect book for anyone desiring to learn, and ultimately master, the art of drawing.

The Portfolio series covers essential art techniques, core concepts, and media with an approach and format that’s perfect for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate artists.

Also available from the series:Beginning Acrylic, Beginning Watercolor, Beginning Pastel, Beginning Colored Pencil, Beginning Color Mixing, Expressive Painting, Beginning Color Mixing, Beginning Pen & Ink, and Beginning Composition.

Packed with helpful photographs, hundreds of techniques, and loads of expert instruction, The Complete Book of Posesfor Artists is the perfect resource for artists of all skill levels.

The human figure is one of the most difficult subjects to capture in drawing. The Complete Book of Poses for Artists combines photographs and illustrations that demonstrate how to accurately render the human form in hundreds of realistic poses. The book guides artists through the process of drawing the human figure as it pertains to anatomy, proportions, volume, mass, gesture, movement, and expression. From there, the book reveals how these characteristics come together using light, shape, line, and form to accurately depict the human figure in a variety of everyday poses, including standing, sitting, reclining, and action. Each section features color photographs of people in several "core" poses (e.g., sitting, reclining, and action), as well as multiple variations of those poses. Step-by-step artist illustrations demonstrate how to render the core pose, whereas illustrations and professional tips demonstrate how to turn the core pose into a new variation. In addition, step-by-step drawing instructions and techniques demonstrate how to capture realistic poses as they differ from one person to the next across a range of human characteristics, such as age (child, teen, adult, senior citizen); body type (ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph); gender; and activity (e.g., athlete, dancer, etc.). Packed with helpful photographs, hundreds of techniques, and loads of expert instruction, The Complete Book of Posesfor Artists is the perfect resource for artists of all skill levels-and one that will be referred to over and over again.

With comprehensive instruction and artist tips and tricks, Beginning Acrylic is the perfect resource for aspiring painters just getting started in this colorful medium.

Beginning Acrylic teaches aspiring artists everything they need to know to get started painting in acrylic. From showing how to choose the right paper, brushes, and paints to basic painting tips and techniques, this beginner’s guide to acrylic painting is bursting with valuable exercises and advice to help artists master this colorful and approachable medium. This book guides beginners through an exploration of acrylic painting with easy-to-understand concepts and step-by-step methods, including how to paint a variety of skies, trees, mountains, roads, clouds, and waterscapes from start to finish. Building on these basic, fundamental techniques, novice artists can practice their craft with step-by-step painting projects that are broken down and explained with large, detailed images and examples. ​From the first brushstroke to the finishing touch, let Beginning Acrylic guide you as you begin your artistic journey in acrylic painting.

The Portfolio series covers essential art techniques, core concepts, and media with an approach and format that’s perfect for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate artists.

Also available from the series:Beginning Drawing, Beginning Watercolor, Beginning Pastel, Beginning Colored Pencil, Beginning Color Mixing, Expressive Painting, Beginning Color Mixing, Beginning Pen & Ink, and Beginning Composition.

The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Drawing contains more than 200 drawing techniques, tips, and lessons for budding artists looking to practice drawing a variety of subjects.

This comprehensive, 240-page hardcover drawing guide covers a vast array of subjects, from landscapes, still lifes, and flowers to animals, portraits, and the human figure. Begin with a thorough introduction to the essential tools and materials you need to get started, including different types of pencils, sketchbooks, papers, and other tools. Then learn the fundamentals of drawing, as well as a variety of drawing techniques, including rendering realistic textures, creating volume, and capturing perspective. A series of easy-to-follow, step-by-step projects cover a variety of techniques, including:

  • Developing form
  • Rendering texture
  • Depth and distance
  • Foreshortening
  • Values and shading
  • Perspective
  • Balance and composition
  • Capturing realism and likeness
  • Depicting figures in action

With helpful tips and straightforward step-by-step lessons, The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Drawing is the perfect resource for beginning artists who want to improve their drawing skills.
 
The Complete Book of … series provides a comprehensive guide to drawing a vast array of subjects, from landscapes and flowers to animals and poses. Artists will learn the fundamentals of drawing, as well as a variety of techniques, including rendering realistic textures, capturing perspective, and creating dynamic portraits and compositions. With helpful tips and step-by-step artwork to inspire, the Complete Book of … series is the perfect resource for practiced beginning to intermediate artists looking to hone their drawing skills and techniques.

Beginning Still Life teaches aspiring artists everything they need to know to get started in drawing with graphite pencil. From choosing paper and pencils to basic pencil techniques to composition and development, this book is bursting with valuable lessons to help beginning artists master this captivating medium. Talented artist Steven Pearce guides the readers through an exploration of pencil drawing, covering basic concepts and techniques, such as value, shading, blending, setting up a still life, and more. Building on these basic techniques, artists can further practice their craft with step-by-step drawing projects that cover a variety of still life subjects, including fruits and vegetables, flowers, and more. With comprehensive instruction and artist tips and tricks, Beginning Still Life is the perfect resource for aspiring artists.

Learn to illustrate and create unique manga art and characters in this fun and engaging step-by-step book written and illustrated by award-winning manga artist Sonia Leong.

Beginning Manga treats aspiring illustrators to a fun, interactive learning experience with a variety of creative prompts, tips, exercises, and engaging step-by-step projects.

Starting with an introduction to tools and materials, you can learn new drawing and inking techniques, as well as how to work with color, thanks to a variety of simple step-by-step projects and prompts designed to spark creativity and inspire you to create unique manga worlds of your own. The easy-to-follow projects focus on character design, facial expressions, popular poses, characters from different genres like science fiction and fantasy, and much more.

Also included are templates and practice pages to assist with developing your craft in addition to brainstorming, sketching, and gathering project inspiration. Create your own manga story using page layout tips and Sonia Leong’s well-crafted script and design instructions.

For even more manga drawing instruction, see Sonia Leong’s second book with Walter Foster, Illustration Studio: Drawing Manga Heroines & Heroes.

Leave your artistic insecurities behind as you easily re-create the simple but beautiful drawings in Art Made Easy: Easy Drawing.

Easy Drawing offers beginning artists a definite way to succeed. Without getting bogged down in a lot of technical detail, aspiring artists just need to gather a few inexpensive supplies and put pencil to paper! Even if you have never drawn before, the engaging yet easy subjects are simple to re-create by following the step-by-step progressive images.

Projects include:

  • Flowers, leaves, and trees
  • Landscapes
  • Animal portraits
  • Gestures of animals and people
  • Still lifes of everyday objects
  • And much more

Along with the beautiful, on-trend art projects, tips and common pitfalls are explained throughout to ensure your art is the best it can be. No matter your skill level going in, you will be proud to frame your creations and just might feel encouraged to progress to more in-depth art in the future.

And the best part is, as you’re drawing, you’ll be familiarizing yourself with art concepts without feeling like you’re taking a serious class. If you want to move on to more difficult subjects, you’ll have a basic understanding of color, value, form, texture, perspective, composition, and more.

With the simple, fun, and low-pressure approach found in Walter Foster’s Art Made Easy series, absolutely anyone can create a work of art! Continue your streak of creative successes with another book in this series, Easy Watercolor.

With a wealth of illustrated graphite portrait references and step-by-step pencil lessons, The Art of Drawing Poses for Beginners will help you master drawing realistic human figures in a range of different positions.

This helpful 128-page guide reveals the process of drawing the human figure as it pertains to anatomy, proportions, volume, mass, gesture, movement, and expression. From there, discover how these characteristics come together using light, shape, line, and form to accurately depict the human figure in a variety of everyday poses. Step-by-step drawing instructions and techniques demonstrate how to capture realistic poses as they differ from one person to the next across a range of human characteristics.

In section 1 of this book, learn the tools, materials, and techniques used in drawing before diving into the basics of portraiture and human anatomy. In section 2, practice a variety of basic stationary poses before moving on to the dynamic poses in section 3. Section 4 covers expressive portraits and conveying mood and facial expressions. Finally, with lots of examples, section 5 covers many of the artistic compositions you can use when drawing people.

Packed with helpful illustrated references, hundreds of tips, and loads of expert instruction, The Art of Drawing Poses for Beginners is the perfect resource for artists of all skill levels—and one that will be referred to over and over again.

Walter Foster Publishing’s Collector’s Series offers a broad range of projects across a variety of mediums and genres, such as drawing, oil, acrylic, watercolor, cartooning, calligraphy, and others. Suitable for beginning to intermediate artists, each book features in-depth instruction about how to work with the tools of the trade, master techniques, and use newfound skills in practical application via step-by-step projects.