Archives: Walter Foster Books
This dynamic and inspirational guide from professional artist Kristin Van Leuven, owner of the online shop Hello Lovely People, will set you down a path of exploration as you learn to play with watercolors. Learn to use basic watercolor techniques and principles to create beautiful, expressive works of art. With Modern Watercolor, discover how to paint in watercolor by harnessing the medium's unique transparent qualities to create stunning works of art, stationery, gifts, and more. From selecting your first watercolor paints to learning to blend colors into a unique palette, this book will guide you as you begin your artistic journey and create cohesive, rich works of watercolor art.
The easy-to-follow lessons explore using watercolor on different surfaces, how to create basic shapes using fun techniques, and how to create myriad gorgeous effects that can be achieved with different brushes and strokes. You can even learn how to add layers of dimension and texture, as well as how to work with resist techniques to create pretty patterns and gorgeous backgrounds.
Whether you’re an experienced artist seeking a playful escape or a beginner who has never held a paintbrush, there’s something for everyone in Modern Watercolor.
The Modern Series of books offers a fun, contemporary approach to working with traditional art media, demonstrating that with the right type of instruction, encouragement, and tips, drawing and painting success can be achieved by any artist or creative type.
Also in the Modern Series:Modern Colored Pencil, Modern Acrylic, and Modern Drawing.
Perfect for beginning artists, The Art of Drawing Optical Illusions will help you create mind-bending optical illusions to fool your brain and tease your senses.
*Named One of the 54 Best Colored Pencil Drawing Books of All Time by BookAuthority*
Optical illusions are like magic tricks of the art world. They may look difficult to create, but with just a little bit of guidance, they can be easily achieved. Jonathan Stephen Harris guides you step-by-step in creating mind-blowing pencil drawings, starting with basic optical illusions and progressing to more challenging ones. From impossible shapes to three-dimensional sketches and trick art, you won’t believe your eyes as you learn to draw optical illusions in graphite and colored pencil.
Learn to draw 25 optical illusions, including:
- 3D Shapes
- Floating Shapes
- Impossible Shapes
- 5-Legged Elephant
- 3D Horse and Tyrannosaurus rex
- Transparent Cube
- Water Droplet
- Spiral Hole
- And much more!
Certain techniques can be used to create these types of illusions, and author Jonathan Stephen Harris gives clear instructions for everything you need to know. The Art of Drawing Optical Illusions begins with information on tools and materials, perspective, and shading, and then jumps into the first simple optical illusion. At the end of the book is an inspirational idea gallery for more illusions you can draw. As you work through the optical illusions in this book, you will hone your drawing skills in the most unique way possible, while also exercising your mind with these brain-boosting, unbelievable tricks! Just like a magician, you’ll be able to wow your family and friends with your own stunning optical illusions!
*Named One of the 54 Best Colored Pencil Drawing Books of All Time by BookAuthority*
What medium is as immediately relatable as the colored pencil? Vibrant, versatile, and familiar, the simple colored pencil is the proverbial first step on your journey to becoming an artist. Beginning Colored Pencil is an inviting and approachable guide loaded with everything an aspiring artist needs to know about colored pencil, including tools, materials, composition, and color theory.
Walter Foster Publishing’s Portfolio series takes a technique-driven approach, emphasizing topics like blending, shading, and creating form and texture to provide a well-rounded approach that allows readers to master key concepts. Try step-by-step demonstrations with a fresh, contemporary design to keep lessons vibrant, so you can practice your fresh, new skills. Get in touch with your inner creativity, and dive into colored pencils today!
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 Pastel, Beginning Color Mixing, Expressive Painting, Beginning Color Mixing, Beginning Pen & Ink, and Beginning Composition.
*Named One of the 54 Best Colored Pencil Drawing Books of All Time by BookAuthority*
There has never been a better opportunity to master textures. Knowing how to make your surfaces and textures look real is one of the most challenging aspects of creating art in colored pencil, even for experienced artists. 101 Textures in Colored Pencil provides artists with step-by-step instructions for drawing a wide variety of the most common textures and surfaces, including sand, water, metals, foliage, wood, fabrics, stone, grass, hair, and many more.
To get you started, this comprehensive guide opens with a review of tools and materials as well as basic skills, such as strokes, effects, and color mixing. Each page of instruction is a comprehensive resource on how to create a specific texture, complete with two to three easy-to-follow steps and a final, detailed image of the finished artwork. Plus, the book is organized into sections based on subject matter, so you can easily find the specific texture you're looking for. An artist's gallery in the back of the book provides examples of the textures in completed works of art.
Just a sample of the textures you will learn to render:
- People: smooth skin; aged skin; straight, curly, and wavy hair; lips
- Animals & Insects: smooth, curly, and course canine fur; elephant skin; feather; fish scales
- Fabrics & Textiles: burlap, tweed, silk, velvet, leather, lace, sequins
- Glass, Stone, Ceramics, Wood & Metal: porcelain, polished silver, hammered brass, peeling paint
- Food & Beverage: red wine, cut citrus fruit, coconut, peach, dark chocolate
- Nature: smooth and rough bark, moss, river pebbles, still and rippled lake, clouds
Finally, an art book that’s specially made for people that have no idea how to make art! Just for Fun: Drawing takes the pressure out of learning to draw by making the basics of art casual and fun.
With Just for Fun: Drawing, aspiring artists and art enthusiasts who have never before picked up a pencil can follow incredibly simple step-by-step instructions and discover how to draw everyday subjects. Each featured subject starts with basic lines and shapes, and slowly progresses with each new step to a fully rendered, completed drawing.
Saving the nitty-gritty technical aspects of drawing for the more advanced student, Just for Fun: Drawing simply touches upon key drawing concepts and fundamentals, including perspective, proportion, volume, shading, and composition, among others, that are relevant to a beginner’s core understanding of the craft.
With its abundance of approachable and contemporary drawings, as well as loads of tips, instruction, and inspiration, Just for Fun: Drawing will have even the most artistically challenged individuals mastering the art of pencil drawing in no time.
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.
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.