100 Things Every Artist Should Know: Tips, tricks & essential concepts

by Artists of Walter Foster

Overview

What's the best way to stretch watercolor paper? What basic materials do I need to start oil painting? How can I use color to create mood in my paintings? You'll find answers to these questions and much more in 100 Things Every Artist Should Know.

This broad book aims to equip and inspire beginners with fundamental art knowledge, as well as provide a refresher course for more experienced artists. Readers can discover or re-discover essential concepts, tips, and techniques distilled into a collection of 100 instructional entries by a range of Walter Foster authors.

From lessons on value and color theory to helpful shortcuts, this book seeks to cover it all!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600582431
Publisher:	Foster, Walter Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/01/2012
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	8.74(w) x 11.44(h) x 0.38(d)

Read an Excerpt

Whether you’re a seasoned artist or just beginning to explore your artistic side, this book features an educational and inspirational journey in drawing, painting, and other artistic mediums. We’ve distilled these art forms into 100 of the most important topics, including definitions, demonstrations, tips, shortcuts, and much more. Packed full of expertise from dozens of Walter Foster’s notable artists, you’ll discover everything from basic pastel techniques to color theory and perspective, organized into several chapters noted below.

General Tools and Materials: Learn about the most basic art materials, and discover how to set up your workspace.

Pencil Drawing: Dive into the details of drawing with graphite and colored pencil as you learn techniques for creating a variety of strokes and textures.

Pastel: Get your hands dirty and discover the unique characteristics of hard, soft, and oil pastel.

Watercolor: Practice your hand at this fluid and vibrant medium, and find out the best ways to create special effects and more.

Oil and Acrylic: Master the basics of these similar paints, including brushwork and color mixing.

Additional Mediums: Touch on less common mediums such as charcoal, airbrush, calligraphy, and even Chinese brush painting.

Color and Light: Create a sense of mood, time, and place through your treatment of color, light, and shadow.

Perspective and Proportion: Discover the more technical side of creating realistic artwork, from suggesting depth and distance to representing accurate proportions.

Composition: Focus on the placement of objects in your artwork and learn how to create dynamic designs.

Read this book from start to finish, or flip through to find a topic that interests you! Regardless of your approach, we’re sure you’ll discover—or rediscover—valuable information and exciting tips that will enrich your artistic knowledge.

 

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: General Tools and Materials
Chapter 2: Pencil Drawing
Chapter 3: Pastel
Chapter 4: Watercolor
Chapter 5: Oil and Acrylic
Chapter 6: Additional Mediums
Chapter 7: Color and Light
Chapter 8: Perspective and Proportion
Chapter 9: Composition
Index

Editorial Reviews

Gather any three or four artists together and chances are that before long, they will be discussing how they arduously learned tricks and techniques that now seem simple. In hindsight, those reminiscences are funny, but at the time, they were maddening exercises of futility. 100 Things Every Artist Should Know aims at bankrupting artistic schools of hard knocks by teaching students and professionals effort-saving tricks of the trade. This inexpensive paperback covers it all: materials, preparation tips, color theory, shortcuts, concepts, and techniques. An inexpensive starter or refresher kit.

— Michelle Marozik