as title states, I’m curious what you all would recommend artist to read.
I recently picked up a couple books from the library that I have really enjoyed and think more artists-in-development could get something out of them than their titles imply.
The first was The Watercolorist’s Essential Notebook by Gordon MacKenzie. It’s hard for me to explain what I think this has to offer the digital artist, and truthfully, a lot of what I liked about it was learning about the traditional materials. But I found the way he talks about his workflow to be thought provoking on how to develop compositions and paint backgrounds. I also think there’s probably something to learn from traditional pigment mixing/layering for those working digitally but in a painterly style.
The second was Beginner’s guide to digital painting in Procreate : how to create art on an iPad by \Max Ulichney. I don’t even own an iPad. What I thought was useful about this book was the discussion of digital tools and workflow. While Krita’s brushes and layer types (Normal, Multiply, Screen, etc) are definitely different in the details, I feel like the succinct explanation of the way these different tools can be used or adjusted helped improve my understanding overall of these types of features. There also was various digital art process tips sprinkled throughout the explanations of the example projects.
The first book I feel like digital artist can learn the techniques and art style from traditional watercolor for their own digital art pieces. I have this book based about oil painting. I still read it, just because of how artist does landscapes in the book.
The second book sounds nice and nothing wrong with learning other art apps, Procreate brushes and krita has a similar interface in a way in terms to making brushes. Not exactly similar krita does have more options that is considered to be more confusing.
Both books sounds amazing to read thank you for telling me about them ![]()
Here is what I have in my library
- Andrew loomis, Creative Illustration in Public domain according to wikipedia
- Andrew Loomis, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth in Public domain according to wikipedia
- Bridgman’s Complete Guide to Drawing from Life - George Bridgman
- Figure Drawing: Design and Invention - Michael Hampton
- Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter: Volume 2 - James Gurney
- How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination - Scott Robertson
I’m gonna check out/read the first 2 books since it available to read. Thank you for telling me about your library. ![]()
If you like some of the traditional ways of painting and drawing then any of the Adrain Hill books would be good for you to read. They are vintage and take a bit of finding but if you can find any I recommend them. Your library may have some copies. The way he talks is formal but there’s some really good advice.
The first two book are a bit old so some of the theories are improved upon by recent authors, but all the artbooks fall-back to same concepts. Checkout Michael Hamptons book it is like improved version. They also have a youtube channel which have some lectures about gesture drawing.
Will do, ![]()
Thank you so much for sharing this information. ![]()
I can also highly recommend Scott Robertson’s books. He also has a few tutorials over on his Youtube channel.. Industrial design sketchbooks usually have a good introduction on shading and materials, but the more advanced ones I have seen date back to before digital painting and are therefore rather expensive and rare to come by, even for used copies.
Will be checking out his YouTube channel first, I didn’t know he had a YouTube channel.
Thank you for letting me know that his advanced books might be hard to come by. ![]()
I will be making a note on that so I don’t go off on a goose chase for the advanced books.
With advanced industrial design books, I don’t refer to Scott Robertson, his books are widely available as far as I can tell. I first came across it from his youtube channel about 10 years or so ago and his books are really easy to find still nowadays.
What I did refer to, though, were books for industrial design in the pre-digital era. Back when rendering referred to the ‘colouring’ of a drawing to make it look real with no digital media involved. People made insanely accurate drawings back then. A quick google search shows what I mean: GM Design photos from the early ’90s, Part 1 – Dean’s Garage
Back then, people couldn’t fake things or just render out a 3d model for the lighting or general form, so they were really skilled with regards to drawing things.
ohhh… make sense, that sounds both talented and insane to do that today with all resources of technology the society we live in has today compared to early 90’s. ![]()
There a few different types of books that I would recommend to artists. The first type of book is a how-to book. These books can teach you the basics of art, as well as more advanced techniques. They can be especially helpful if you are just starting out, or if you are looking to improve your skills. The second type of book I would recommend is an art history book. These books can provide you with a better understanding of the development of art, and can also introduce you to new styles and movements. Finally, I would also recommend books that are specifically about the artist you are studying. These biographies can give you insight into their lives and work, and can help you to understand their paintings or sculptures on a more personal level. Ultimately, the best book for an artist is one that speaks to them on a personal level and helps them to improve their skills.
@Takiro it is possible with Discourse to turn a page into a wiki page where people with a certain trust level can add books to the opening post. I think we could compile a list of these books and create such a topic, don’t you think?
In that sense, @raghukamath shouldn’t this topic be merged with the linked one from @Takiro from the second comment onwards? Then we could change the opening post of the other thread into the actual wiki post. What do the two of you think?
Discourse has a wiki feature and I think Regulars and higher can edit them but I have no idea how to create one.
Only admin can create wiki topics ![]()
Here’s an example:
Grum999
Do you want me to make that post into a wiki? you can collate all the books mentioned in this post and add it to the list.
Many drawing books are available on the Internet Archive
• Constructive Anatomy - George Bridgman
• Andrew Loomis’ six books (links at the end of this post on my blog).
Yes please, is it also possible to add tags/order/organized the books from different topics/concepts in categories maybe?