Art Books

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Farmer, I really enjoyed Bateman's bull elephant. Its abstract qualities are very beautiful, particularly its negative shapes and contrast between fuzzy (produced by "dust") and sharply defined forms. Obviously, it is important for a representational work of art to be more than a simple virtuosic copy of nature.
Vivien, the same applies to Kurt Jackson's scapes: I'm thinking in particular of his "Rain,Sun, Rain,Sun" and "Snipe." Wonderful compositions.

I havent posted in a while but the mention of Bateman got to me. I have 3 of Batemans books, i still enjoy them but when i was younger i was AMAZED by every painting, every caption. i also remember enjoying a Andrew Wyeth collection everytime i went to the library.

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CINDERWOLF! Great to see you again.

Who's the artist?

Robert... Rasheurgh or something like that? He invented Combine art, Hook me up with a good website and tell me his last name if you have any idea what I'm talking about.

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Robert Rauschenberg. one of the few Duchampians whose work I consistently like.

I forgot about this thread -- Jasper Johns has to be included in the annals of artist holding up the legacy of Marcel. That's just naming a few and I will still believe that artist had more influence on the new art being showin in institutions and the more avant garde galleries than any other. I can barely find one artist who is influence by Picasso (other than that young girl who was successfully marketed for a while until her apling of Picasso became quite tiresome).

BTW, it's debatable who came up with "combine" paintings -- Jasper Johns or Robert Rauschenberg and as they were discovered by Castelli on the same day, the mystery will continue. It is also an extension of the Trash Can genre of the 40's and 50's. They both certainly put the idea on the map -- it really is pop art married to abstract expressionism.

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Pop Art married to Abstract Expressionism. Well put. But I would also have accepted "welded to."

I doubt that either Robert or Jasper are the welder type!

currently my favorite art book is one i bought yesterday and waldenbooks on the sale rack 4.99 and is History of American Art. Late 19th and 20th century, a few foreign painters thrown in if they were influential and some unusual plates and lots of color plates for not much money. I like having them around for inspiration. Sometimes I can just open one and think, " if that got published in an art book, then I should really pick up these paint brushes".

That or start doing more socializing

Oh no not at all! I am a graduate of The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art and I can assure you that comics are just as serious as any other art form out there. In my opinion comic book paneled pages are more challenging to draw than most other illustration works. Not only do you have to create working composition for each individual panel, but you have to make sure all the panels work together to make a pleasing page. In short each panel is an entire project unto itself but at the same time you must ensure that all panels work together to make a complete page.
It's not as simple as it seems.

-Anastasia

I find such specialized illustration schools problematic - especially when they follow a specific period of influence or instructor, because it tends to make the students' style homogenous.

How did they avoid this at your school, and what did they teach?

I like the emphasis they give to the human figure.

"It is definitely not a fine arts school. You are there to learn how to make a living off of your artwork. You also take business classes that teach you about copyright, contracts, and the legal aspects of a business in art. "

That is awesome. I go to a college/ Fine arts school and they have absolutely nothing to prepare you for making money or marketing your work once you leave. I do freelance jobs, but I have to learn about contracts and business and conduct the hard way with each one.

(ex: right now I am working on children's book illustrations where I signed a contract for $20 an illustration, thinking they would only take me 2 hours each. They take me 6-10 hours each. And the woman keeps adding on new illustrations.)

When you sell your work, you sell original separate from copyright, correct?

Yes the human figure is the most important thing when you draw comics (next is perspective), we had life drawing class every year, and each class is about 2 hrs and 45 mins. The first hour is used to learn anatomy (names of muscles, what they do, why they're there, etc.) and the rest of class is drawing models and putting into practice what we just learned about the muscles.

If you need a little help with the legal and paperwork part of the job I would recommend these books:
Hand Book- Pricing and Ethical Guidelines put out by the Graphic Artists Guild, and
The Business of Comics by Lurene Haines (even if you have no interest in comics this book has copyright info and contract templates)
The first one should probably cover all your bases, though. These are the books we used in class. I'm not sure, but I think you should be able to order these online at kubertsworld.com in their cartoonist's depot (this is the school I graduated from).

Ouch. I hate when clients try that. You should stipulate in your contracts that they get so many free changes (especially for things like "Oh, Can you change the persons hair color? I know it's 32 pages, but it's just the hair, such a small thing!"). If it's something they change on a whim I charge them extra, if it's something I screwed up then it's free. A normal contract with a client for me includes that the client gets to see the work in sketch phase so they can give me a go ahead or change something, then they get to see it in 'finished pencil' phase and get to suggest changes or approval to move on to the finished project. Once the project is complete they get one freebie change and after that I charge extra. Each client is different and my charitable mood depends on the personality of the client.
You should also include a cancellation clause, nothing is worse than when you bust your bottom on a piece of art work and the person suddenly decides they don't want it or want something completely different.

Each piece of art is different. Some clients will purchase one- time user rights which means they can only use the picture that one time for a stipulated time and must pay you again if they want to re-use the image later. Sometimes they will buy the image out right so that they can reuse it any time they want, but they do not buy the copyright so you are able to sell or use the same image on your own (you can usually negotiate royalties with this kind of purchase). Or the client will buy the copyright and that means they own it lock, stock and barrel and you may even have to get their permission to use it in your portfolio (but most wont care about that).

I do want to say that some of this info is purely academic and not yet from personal experience. Most of the art I have sold has been to private clients who want they're portrait painted or something that is a one shot deal. The business work I've done has all fallen into the third category so I do not have any real experience with re-selling a picture or negotiating royalties, not YET anyway.

I tend to be long winded, so I'm sorry if this a bit more than you were asking for.

No, that is helpful, thank you. I am primarily a painter, but I do a wide variety of freelance jobs for cash. Unfortunately, I always underprice myself. Having such a book with reasonable guidelines would be helpful.

I'm pretty good with the human figure (although some more anatomy would be nice! I had one teacher who wanted me to go to an autopsy - couldn't stomach it) But I have been working on a painting with a horse in it, and I am so used to drawing human figures it is very difficult doing an animal with different musculature. I have some sketches, but still it would be very cool if there were an "animals" class .

I am also from Texas.

Drawing animals is my favorite, a close second would be the comics. One of our assignments in my 3rd year at school was that we had to do 3 paneled comic book pages depicting the stations of the cross (you know the whole Christ carrying the cross through town). Well as a twist, our teacher told us we did not have to use Christ (which meant for him 'please DON'T use Christ, use your imagination'). Well some guys still used Christ and others used different people or comic characters, but I used a wolf. My reasoning was to show how wolves are persecuted as dangerous and damaging to farmers when in actuality they really aren't so much. Till this day those 3 pages are some of my favorite and my teacher was very impressed. Drawing animals is so much fun, I could do it all day for free and be happy!

my fave drawing book is probably the usbourne complete book of drawing, and another one that i like is the usbourne book of drawing faces, this one is amazing for drawing faces in any medium.

my personal favorites so far are
The Joy of Art by Serge Clement & Marina Kamena
Gardner's Art Through the Ages- this book is THICK (almost 1200 pages)and cost me $180 but the reprints are amazing so its worth it.