Exceptional Art book

I've been collecting a series published by Parragon in the 1990s - a potted biog, then 50 selected paintings with extended captions under the title "The Art of " .. whoever it is. The Sisley and Pisarro books are superb. However, you guys know I like to pick up a pencil and draw. I've just got hold of a copy of Andrew Loomis' book "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth", originally published in 1943 and I've got the May 2011 reprint. It's excellent; I've learned so much from it in the couple of weeks I've been working with it and it's currently top of my "Faves" list. I've just uploaded a sketch to the gallery which uses the skills I'm learning - titled "You could have got a new suit for the trial". It ain't perfect, but I've never tried drawing two figures in one sketch before.

Love Sisley's work! My own favourite art book, and one I've kept, having let a few others go to dealers (what, me give books to a charity shop? Are you mad?) is Ray Smith's How To Draw and Paint What You See. The second and third on my list, both of which I sold I'm afraid to make space, were S Alleyn Schaffer's Light in the Landscape (I may have misremembered both the author's name and the title: someone correct me, because it's a really good book), and Norman Battershill's book on oil painting, the title of which I forget - I can remember just about every page, but not the title. Battershill was one of my favourite painters, too. One day, when I'm feeling especially sour, I'll tell you what books I found spectacularly useless: it was in reaction to a couple of them that I penned my own masterly tome, which modesty forbids me to mention and anyway they're dragging me away and stuffing a sock in my mouth...... http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

Hi all..I have nice book ,,,,and it is present that I will give to my friend Robert Jones if he wants it . it is an old book ,a little bit tatty on the hard back and a few blemished pages .but the inside is perfect it is the original print it is called LANDSCAPE PAINTING by ALFRED EAST . he was an artist admired by Mr Seago who read his book,, so I have read. I think it is around 1910, with extra leaves with post card size colour prints and black and white drawings ALFRED EAST was a great english landscape painter in oils ...it is mostly reading in large type but very interesting

Alan Owen - always on the take, me! I'm a great admirer of Alfred East, and would love the book but don't do what you usually do and send it to me at your own expense! Let me pay for the postage at least... I am thinking of re-stocking my art library: looking at my shelves, I have a few Dennis Wheatleys and James Pattersons, most of which weren't worth reading once (they sort of came my way ... that's my excuse) and certainly won't be read twice: so they could be thrown out. Perhaps it's a pity to deal with Amazon or Abe Books (which Amazon now owns anyway) rather than independent bookshops, but so many good books are out of print and you just can't get them through most bookshops. Dermot - you're a little tempter! Bad art books fall into different categories: there are those written by bad painters ... and I'm thinking of one who was actually sponsored by Winsor and Newton, presumably on the grounds that it wouldn't put off the amateurs, because they could hardly do worse than he did: I don't think it's fair to name him, I've criticized him before and it's going to look like a vendetta if I do it again!; then there are books in which the information is simply wrong - or just misleading, recommending highly fugitive colours, making pronouncements about the properties of colour which are plain daft: eg, the American writer who insists Pthalo Blue is a warm colour; she means strong, it's as warm as winter in Iceland; then there's the biggest problem area, which I tried to meet with with my own effort: the writers who have forgotten what absolute beginners most need to know, or write their books with no link between those beginners and more advanced painters, so they read rather like a child's instruction book and take their readers nowhere beyond the simplistic. A good book, which I recommend if you can still find it, was written by Don Harrison about Chromacolour: all the basic information was there, there was an excellent accompanying video, and yet it moved on from the basic to the complex without your really being aware of it - I still refer to it now and then, and anyway it's a pleasure to read. The title was/is Chromacolour, it was published originally by Collins, and I think it may still be available on the Chromacolour International website. While specifically about that paint, most of it is very applicable to other acrylics and there's good advice about painting and composition generally. So there you are - yet another recommendation. Books on art have to be good these days - even though some aren't - because they have to compete with the internet with its links to so many sites run by artists; some of those are excellent, some ..... well, some ain't! But it would be fun to compile a list of total stinkers - I'm going to have to be very strong-minded to resist the Dermot lure.... http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk