Archives: Walter Foster Books
Step-by-Step Studio: Drawing Concepts offers the fundamental information beginning artists need to kick off their creative pursuits in graphite pencil.
Featuring in-depth instruction on composition, value, creating textures, using and manipulating photo references, and more, Step-by-Step Studio: Drawing Concepts is the perfect guide for you as a beginning or intermediate artist. After an introduction to art tools and materials and very basic techniques, four accomplished artists offer insight, tips, and helpful demonstrations that illustrate important art concepts and techniques. You will also find an impressive and varied selection of step-by-step projects to re-create, including still lifes, flowers, animals, landscapes, and portraits in the four sections.
- Values: Covers shapes, form, the light source, how to create depth, and the elements of design.
- Dynamic Compositions: Discusses viewpoint, the golden mean, symmetry and asymmetry, focal points, landscapes, and negative space.
- Realistic Textures: Focuses on rendering the many different textures found in traditional still lifes, animals, people, plants and flowers, and landscapes.
- Step-by-Step Exercises: Includes additional drawing projects, such as a teddy bear, landscape, horse, floral still life, portrait of a girl, and fruit and wine.
Throughout the book, artists Ken Goldman, William F. Powell, Diane Cardaci, and Carol Rosinski offer practical and easy-to-understand drawing techniques and art principles. The journey through Step-by-Step Studio: Drawing Concepts is not about making perfect drawings; it’s about making each drawing better than the one before it, while having a great time.
The books in the Step-by-Step Studio series are project driven and introduce beginning artists to the fundamental tools and techniques of their chosen medium. Easy-to-follow step-by-step projects help beginners hone their skills while creating artwork across a variety of subjects, from still life and landscapes to animal portraits and botanicals.
Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor is the definitive color-mixing resource for watercolor artists. With a wide spectrum of paint recipes, each revealing the color proportions and dilution level needed to achieve the featured swatch, this user-friendly book also includes a color-mixing grid that makes measuring simple.
Follow these four simple steps to mix more than 450 color combinations:
- Look in the Color Guidance Index for the subject you want to paint—for example, "Eucalyptus Bark."
- Find the Color Recipe with the subject's recipe number ("293") and an example of the actual paint mixture.
- Use the Color Mixing Grid to measure each paint color.
- Mix the color.
It’s that easy! You’ll also learn about color theory, mixingvalues, graying color naturally, mixing portrait colors, and more.
Also available from Walter Foster's best-selling Color Mixing Recipes series: 1,500 Color Mixing Recipes for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor; Color Mixing Recipes for Oil & Acrylic; Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits; and Color Mixing Recipes for Landscapes.
Featuring an array of adorable pets and majestic wildlife, this exceptional 144-page book offers simple, step-by-step instructions for creating dozens of incredibly lifelike animal drawings.
Inside, five talented artists reveal their professional secrets for drawing all the features that are unique to our furry and feathered friends—from wet noses and expressive eyes to thick fur and delicate whiskers. The book opens with essential information about drawing tools and materials, followed by instruction on how to approach and render a subject––such as transferring a photo reference, building up forms with basic shapes, creating perspective, and pencil techniques such as shading and blending.
Then the authors demonstrate their unique approaches to drawing through an array of inspiring projects, guiding you from initial sketches through the detailed shading process to the finishing touches. As you progress from project to project, you will find a range of helpful topics, such as portraying accurate proportions, creating dynamic compositions, and using colored pencils. Each section features a different artist, with the themes:
- Baby animals in graphite pencil, including a bunny, foal, bear cub, and lamb
- Dogs and cats in graphite pencil, including a husky, Dalmation, Maine Coon cat, and Ocicat
- Horses and ponies in graphite pencil, including a an Arabian, Appaloosa, and Dappled pony
- Wild animals in graphite pencil, including an elephant, owl, tiger cub, and koala
- Animals in colored pencil, including a rooster, leopard, box turtle, and cow
Packed with convincing illustrations and expert instruction, The Art of Drawing Animals is a comprehensive and indispensable resource for all artists smitten with the animal kingdom.
Packed with practical advice, helpful tips, and fundamental techniques, this comprehensive, 144-page book is an essential resource to which artists of all skill levels will refer again and again. The Art of Drawing People comprises instruction from a group of four experienced artists who demonstrate the processes of drawing the human head and clothed figure from infancy through old age in a variety of poses.
The talented authors also share their knowledge about underlying anatomy, ethnic influences, and natural variations in shape, texture, and proportion, as well as basic information about drawing tools and pencil techniques.
Draw unique cartoon characters using simple geometric shapes!
In Cartooning Made Easy: Circle, Triangle, Square, professional artist and My Modern Met contributor Margherita Cole offers easy-to-follow instruction for using basic shapes to draw cute cartoon characters.
Her approach is simple: All you need are basic drawing tools and shapes to cartoon! The book features dozens of drawing projects and step-by-step instruction perfect for beginning and aspiring artists, cartoonists, illustrators, pen and graphite artists, and many others.
Each project combines simple geometric shapes—including circles and triangles and squares but also ovals, rectangles, and more—to draw adorable, cartoon-inspired artwork, including cartoon:
- Heads
- Faces
- Bodies
- Unique characters
- Animals, such as elephants
- And more!
Cartooning can be easy—with the right instruction! Learn to draw cartoon characters and more using geometric shapes with Cartooning Made Easy: Circle, Triangle, Square.
In Drawing: Manga, accomplished artist Jeannie Lee shares her artistic insights and techniques for creating captivating manga artwork and stories. From information on character and story development to an exploration of shading and coloring techniques, this 10.25 × 13.75–inch book covers all you need to know to become a master of manga. Each step-by-step project featuring specific characters simplifies and personalizes this drawing style, serving as both a lesson and inspirational guide to prepare you for crafting your own manga world.
This comprehensive book first introduces manga fans to drawing basics, including art tools and materials, the basic shapes drawing method, shading and coloring techniques, composition and perspective, and more. Simple instructions show how to draw heads, hair, facial features, and full bodies. After learning to draw manga characters, the book then delves in-depth into character development and story creation.
Drawing: Manga provides you with the necessary knowledge to create your own manga book, from character creation to a completed work. Discover different methods for finding inspiration for character design and story ideas. Also included are simple techniques for script writing and thumbnailing, penciling and inking, producing special effects, and lettering. Then, with a little practice, you will be able to apply your newfound skills and draw your own complete manga book!
Designed for beginners, the How to Draw & Paint series offers easy-to-follow guides that introduce artists to basic tools and materials and include simple step-by-step lessons for a variety of projects suitable for the aspiring artist. Drawing: Manga allows artists to develop drawing and storytelling skills by demonstrating drawing, coloring, composition, and storytelling techniques to create a manga book.
Drawing and painting heads, faces, and expressions can be an intimidating prospect for a beginning artist. Art Studio: Faces & Features is here to help, with more than 50 tips, techniques, and step-by-step projects that will have you creating expressive faces and mastering textures in all your drawings.
This intuitive guide shows you how to work with graphite and colored pencils; acrylic, oil, and watercolor paints; pastels; and even pen and ink. This range of mediums is the perfect way to experiment, build artistic confidence, and define your own unique style. Art Studio: Faces & Features makes the art of drawing expressions possible for beginning fine artists.
The Art Studio series is designed to help beginning artists venture into fine art; an overview of each art medium helps them determine which they like best.
Gouache paint has a long history, but it’s often associated with watercolor and multimedia art. Until now, that is! Trendy artists with large social-media followings are reinvigorating gouache, making this the ideal time to add this medium to your toolbox…or start your art journey with it!
Like the other books in the Anywhere, Anytime Art series, Gouache explores this medium in a portable, approachable, and contemporary way. Basic painting topics, such as tools and materials, techniques, and color theory, are presented in an easy-to-read, visual style. The subsequent step-by-step projects focus on various subjects that artists can find anywhere, whether they’re home or out and about. Artists can learn to paint their favorite things, including plants, flowers, cats, patterns, and more.
Anywhere, Anytime Art: Gouache is filled with vibrant, colorful artwork that’s sure to inspire any artist to give gouache a try and get out there and paint!
Mindful Artist: Birds and Botanicals features tips, techniques, and step-by-step projects for working mindfully with Japanese ink and brush pens to create elegant artwork featuring birds, flowers, plants, and more.
While harnessing the power of meditation, you will learn to create personalized pieces in black ink as well as color. There's no need to follow the instructions exactly; just make what inspires you.
Begin with an introduction to mindfulness and the connections between art and meditation. Then dive into detailed sections on the tools and materials needed to create the art in the book, as well as inking and coloring techniques, including brushstrokes.
The step-by-step projects that follow take you through the process of creating your own ink-and-brush art, with large images that illustrate the techniques and detailed, easy-to-follow instructions for brushwork, adding color, and more. The layout design is airy and contemporary to match the art style.
The Mindful Artist series from Walter Foster Publishing encourages artists to enjoy working in their favorite media to create relaxing, reflective art. With this series, artists of all skill levels can learn to focus on enjoying the creative process, rather than worrying about the end result. Throughout the books are tips for practicing mindfulness and meditation through art.
Mindful Artist: Birds and Botanicals encourages you to remain zen as you create beautiful, calming artwork.
Explore even more mindful creativity with Mindful Artist: Sumi-e Painting.
Learn about tarot reading, and then paint your own colorful deck! This step-by-step guide includes card stock at the back with 80 blank cards you can tear or cut out to get painting right away.
With painting lessons from Adrianne Hawthorne of Ponnopozz, an artist with a vibrant, contemporary style, Create Your Own Tarot Cards will inspire you to make your own beautifully expressive deck. To set the stage, Theresa Reed, The Tarot Lady, situates you in the world of tarot with a concise introduction to this ancient art, as well as an overview of tarot reading. It’s a perfect primer for beginners!
This modern guide to creating your own tarot art includes:
- An introduction to tarot cards and how to read them
- 20 step-by-step tarot card–painting projects for acrylic and gouache, all featuring a clean, contemporary design
- For each project, beautiful photography showing the painting process and the finished card
- Perforated card stock with 80 blank, one-sided cards (2.25" × 4.25") that allow you to jump right into painting
The act of painting allows you to go deep into tarot’s imagery and discover new ways to look at the cards. As you craft your own personal style and make the cards your own, you also imbue the cards with your magic. And it’s this kind of deep insight and connection that leads to the best readings!
Connect with your creativity and intuition with this fresh and fun take on this timeless tradition.