Archives: Walter Foster Books
Perfect for both aspiring and established artists, this easy-to-understand guidebook shows you the secrets to drawing lifelike still life artwork in the dynamic medium of colored pencil.
*Named One of the 54 Best Colored Pencil Drawing Books of All Time by BookAuthority*
Rendering artwork that leaves your viewers contemplating whether a piece might actually be a photograph is no easy task! But if you want to learn how to render realistic still lifes using a wide range of techniques, the approachable and engaging Realistic Still Life in Colored Pencil is just the resource. After an introduction to the basic tools and materials, you will discover a variety of basic colored-pencil techniques, such as:
- Hatching
- Crosshatching
- Shading
- Blending
- Layering
- Burnishing
- And much more!
In addition, you will find more complex techniques for creating realistic still lifes, including how to render various textures like glass, wood, porcelain, flower petals, and others. Throughout the book, expert artist and art instructor Cynthia Knox offers tips and techniques for using layers to build color and depth, establishing dramatic and moody backgrounds, and working with “hidden” colors to achieve realistic effects. Also included is valuable information for connecting all of the elements for polished and professional results. Each project comes with a list of the colored pencils that are needed to complete the project.
Packed with easy-to- follow instructions, plenty of helpful tips, and beautiful artwork and photographs to inspire, Realistic Still Life in Colored Pencil is the perfect resource for taking your colored-pencil art to the next level.
The book follows the same format as the first in the Grown-Up’s Guide series, consisting of multiple creative prompts, exercises, and step-by-step crafting projects that children and adults can do together. Author Vicki Manning, who runs a popular Instagram account where she regularly posts craft projects that she’s done with her own kids, The Grown-Up’s Guide to Crafting with Kids appeals to parents, caregivers, grandparents, teachers, and anyone else who wants to spend creative time with the kids in their lives. Kids will love working with adults to make crafts, which include:
- Clay robots
- Pom-pom ice-cream cones
- Sun printing
- Treasure boxes
- Wax-resist bookmarks
- And much more
Chapters on tools and materials, sourcing materials around the home and outside, and suggestions for engagement and craft-making are included as well. Crafters and families likely already have most of the items they need for the projects, so it’s easy to get started now. Plus, cleanup is quick afterward!
With fun, colorful, and appealing artwork and projects; easy-to-follow instructions; and crafts made from accessible, affordable, and popular materials, The Grown-Up’s Guide to Crafting with Kids will quickly become an essential book for families, preschool and elementary schools, art classes, and more.
Perspective is a necessity for realistic drawing. Whether you are drawing people, still life, architecture, or landscapes, you must have a thorough understanding of perspective in order to create depth and dimension in your subject. Mastering Perspective explains one-, two-, and three-point perspective in a fresh, approachable way, through the eyes of an experienced artist. Learn how to use vanishing points and foreshortening to build scenes and compositions and render subjects in proportion. With clear, step-by-step instructions and illustrations outlining horizon lines, field of vision, point of view, and more, Mastering Perspective teaches artists how to master this basic, and often challenging, technique.
More than a basic step-by-step drawing guide, the Success in Art series focuses on subject matter that is often challenging for artists, regardless of skill level. From highly foundational art concepts, such as proportion and perspective, light and shadow, and composition to mastering textures and the human figure, Success in Art covers difficult subject matter in an approachable way using easy-to-grasp techniques and step-by-step exercises.
Drawing realistic hands and feet in graphite pencil is a challenging subject for most beginners. With Drawing Hands & Feet, follow along as you study the common forms of the fingers and toes and learn to create and meld basic shapes to build realistic final art. Discover how light and shadow play an important part in creating muscle definition, expression, and realism. Understand the effect of perspective when choosing and rendering a pose. Drawing Hands & Feet encourages artists to master the individual parts of the form—the pose, structure, values, and shading—before approaching the composition as a whole.
More than a basic step-by-step drawing guide, the Success in Art series focuses on subject matter that is often challenging for artists, regardless of skill level. From highly foundational art concepts, such as proportion and perspective, light and shadow, and composition to mastering textures and the human figure, Success in Art covers difficult subject matter in an approachable way using easy-to-grasp techniques and step-by-step exercises.
Paint pouring, also known as fluid art, uses acrylic paint and a variety of everyday tools to create colorful, abstract art poured on canvases and other surfaces. With The Grown-Up’s Guide to Painting With Kids, prepare to get messy—some techniques require touching or even hitting the paint—but that’s half the fun! Kids will love the tactile nature of paint pouring, while you and the other grown-ups in their lives will feel good knowing that your children are exercising their creative and artistic playful side. Consider doing the projects outside, where it's OK to make a mess!
The book opens with an introduction to the affordable tools required to pour paint, from cups and canvases to stir sticks, paper, reusable straws, and more. Older kids—with the help of their parents, of course—might even learn to use a heat torch to create the cell-like structure typical in fluid art. Techniques are outlined so that you and your children can read about the pouring process before getting started. Then there are chapters on color mixing tips, instructions for finishing paintings with varnish and other materials, and much more. The step-by-step projects that follow are fun, easy, and easily customizable by color, surface, and skill level. They can even be done on surfaces other than canvas, such as coasters, pieces of wood, gift boxes, and much more.
Kids of all ages will love pouring paint. You can help too, ensuring family togetherness for hours as you and your children learn to create colorful, abstract art together with The Grown-Up’s Guide to Painting With Kids.
Perfect for beginning artists, Faces & Expressions offers a comprehensive introduction on how to draw faces and expressions—the most important aspects of an individual. First, learn everything about the tools and materials you need to get started, including selecting the right pencils, papers, and erasers for their work. Then discover tips for drawing and shading techniques, such as how to achieve volume, suggest depth, and render various hair and skin textures. With some knowledge of pencil drawing basics, begin mastering the art of drawing the human face through a series of helpful examples and easy-to-follow, step-by-step projects. Projects include a child portrait, an adult portrait, a senior portrait, and others that feature different techniques for capturing expressions and rendering features, including eyes, mouths, noses, and hands.
Featuring the stunning artwork of gifted artist Diane Cardaci, this 10.25 × 13.75–inch book features artwork designed to inspire a classical approach to rendering faces in graphite pencil. With its wide-ranging instruction, plethora of artist tips, and beautiful artwork, Faces & Expressions is the perfect resource for any beginning portrait artist.
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: Faces & Expressions allows artists to develop drawing skills by demonstrating how to start with basic shapes and use pencil and shading techniques to create varied textures, values, and details for a realistic, completed portrait drawing.
Artists of all skill levels and bird enthusiasts alike will find creative inspiration and valuable drawing instruction in Drawing: Birds. This comprehensive, 10.25 × 13.75–inch book book opens with an introduction to essential drawing tools, including graphite pencils, erasers, paper, and other materials. Then learn a variety of basic drawing techniques, such as shading, stippling, hatching, crosshatching, and others. Discover helpful tips for creating a good composition, understanding and seeing value, transferring photo references, and taking artistic liberties. After learning the drawing basics, jump into the easy step-by-step projects to draw specific birds, including a barred owl, a great blue heron, a ruby-throated hummingbird, a gray parrot, a pileated woodpecker, and black-capped chickadees.
In this book, professional artist and nature enthusiast Maury Aaseng offers simple, comprehensive instruction for drawing a range of lovely birds, as well as information for achieving accurate proportions, capturing motion, and building up form. Aaseng also shows you how to create realistic textures, such as feathers, nests, tree bark, and water. With his easy step-by-step projects that start with basic shapes and progress to detailed final drawings, you can draw many birds, from the common to the exotic. Easy-to-follow instruction and art tips throughout make Drawing: Birds a complete guide for creating realistic and detailed drawings of these feathered friends. For the aspiring avian artist, this book is a must-have art-instruction reference.
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: Birds allows artists to develop drawing skills by demonstrating how to start with basic shapes and use pencil and shading techniques to create varied textures, values, and details for a realistic, completed drawing.
William F. Powell invites you into his artistic world to explore a number of basic drawing techniques and shows how to develop a drawing to its fullest through a series of step-by-step demonstrations. In this 10.25 × 13.75–inch book, Powell explains a number of drawing techniques and special effects and gives tips on how to design a well-balanced composition.
Landscapes provides you with the necessary knowledge to create your own landscape drawings from preliminary sketch to the completed work. Discover different methods of shading, ways of manipulating drawing tools to produce specific textures, and a wealth of beautiful landscapes to both copy and admire, includes scenes from American national parks.
Also included are simple techniques for developing common landscape elements—such as trees, clouds, rocks, and water—and how to apply a variety of methods to convey a sense of realism. Then, with a little practice, you will be able to apply your newfound skills and draw your own beautiful landscape masterpieces!
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: Landscapes allows artists to develop drawing skills by demonstrating how to start with basic shapes and use pencil and shading techniques to create varied textures, values, and details for a realistic, completed landscape drawing.
You will love learning to work with ink, pencil, and watercolor as you create your own favorite plants and flowers. Step-by-step projects feature popular flowers, including poppies, peonies, roses, freesias, snapdragons, and more, for a wide variety of well-loved plants that many of us have in our own gardens and/or see while out and about. The Illustration Studio series features interactive exercises, creative prompts, and step-by-step exercises to educate and excite beginning and aspiring artists working in a variety of media and techniques, from manga and anime to illustration done in ink.
Illustration Studio: Inking Florals opens with an introduction to plant structure. Essential tools and materials are covered as well, and then you can learn all about drawing basics, ink shading tips, and watercolor techniques so that you have some basic knowledge before getting started on the more than 15 step-by-step drawing projects that round out the book. The final project is a bouquet that incorporates all of the instructions and tips that you have learned throughout the book. Each project in the book makes a beautiful keepsake item or gift for a loved one.
With Illustration Studio: Inking Florals, you can learn to draw, ink, and add watercolor to all of your favorite botanicals!
Geared for beginning artists, En Plein Air: Light & Color introduces a variety of techniques for on-location watercolor painting. Following a brief introduction to the basics of painting en plein air and an overview of the necessary tools and materials, you will learn how to choose a subject and paint a compelling outdoor composition using the subtleties of watercolor to create beautifully expressive subjects and themes.
Other important topics include perspective, rendering the background and foreground, capturing both urban and pastoral landscapes, mastering color to convey weather and time of day, and much more. From choosing just the right subject to awaiting the perfect time of day, let En Plein Air: Light & Color guide you in your artistic travels as you explore this daring and expressive medium.
Painting outdoors is a rewarding, peaceful experience full of joy, adventure, and persistence. Let the En Plein Air Series guide you in your artistic travels as you explore this daring and expressive method of painting, wherever you may be.