A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney

Booklist (11/01/2011):
Gayford, the London-based chief art critic for Bloomberg News and author of The Yellow House (2006), has been engaged in conversation with the protean artist David Hockney for a decade. He now turns their movable feast of a discussion about the nature and significance of pictures into a fluent chronicle that blends biographical narrative with question-and-answer sections to cover everything from cave paintings to Photoshop. After living in Los Angeles for many years, Hockney returned to his native ground along the northeast coast of England, where he is reinvigorating the tradition of landscape painting. Not only is this inquisitive virtuoso of saturated color and dynamic compositions working on enormous luminous paintings; he is also making exquisite drawings on his iPhone and iPad. Looking long and hard, Gayford observes, are essential activities in Hockney's life and artand also two of his greatest pleasures. Hockney muses over humankind's deep, deep desire to depict and how art helps us see the world more intensely. Sumptuously illustrated, this radiant volume encapsulates what it truly means to be a visual artist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
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Photo and Video Editing for Seniors

Created specifically for use with the free Windows Live programs Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, this guide helps seniors learn to edit their own digital photos and videos. The techniques described go beyond simple editing and retouching to include creating slide shows and online photo albums in Photo Gallery and using Movie Maker to incorporate visual effects and upload videos to YouTube. Each step in the clear instructions is accompanied by a screenshot that depicts that process, and a supplemental reference section and extensive index help older adults pinpoint exactly what they are looking for and troubleshoot any problems they run into with ease. Based on practical experience and tested by seniors, this computer reference is suitable for users of Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
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Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling

Library Journal (03/01/2012):
Salisbury (illustration, Anglia Ruskin Univ., UK) and Styles (children's literature, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) discuss all aspects of both the theory and the practice of the hybrid art form of picture books--e.g., the history of picture books, visual literacy, and the children's publishing industry. Professional case studies highlight individual works and explain particular techniques in detail. Essential for a book about picture books, this guide contains a wealth of picture book covers, page spreads, and initial sketches covering a very wide range of styles. VERDICT This book will serve as a thorough introduction to picture books for art students, education students, graphic designers, and parents. Copyright 2012 Reed Business Information.
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How to Draw Steampunk

Steampunk, once a little-known subcultural phenomenon, has gained popularity. After a brief discussion of the origins and influences of steampunk, husband and wife Marsocci and DeBlasio--who design steampunk props for films--and artist Berry provide background on basic tools and techniques, then go on to present exercises in steampunk-themed drawing, painting, and illustration. These projects increase in complexity over the course of the book, including some digital tools along the way. This title will appeal especially to young adult readers. Library Journal.
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Zoltan Szabo's 70 Favorite Watercolor Techniques

Lessons of a lifetime from one of watercolor's greatest painters
Avoid problems, create better paintings and take leaps forward in your art. Learn how from Zoltan Szabo, one of the most revered watercolor teachers in America. Using the same ease of approach that made his workshops so popular, this book makes watercolor painting simple, straightforward and fun.
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Tulips in Watercolour

Applying her clear, reassuring guidance to five step-by-step watercolor flower still lifes, Fiona Peart guides new artists through the basic principles of this inspiring medium. Each project shares a distinctive style: applying clean, very wet washes of watercolor in free and intuitive ways. Painters will learn the delicate technique of brushing different washes side by side with a striking, natural fluidity. Getting started is easy, as each project is accompanied by reusable tracing papers--painters need only trace the outline of the tulip with a soft graphite pencil, then rub the outline onto watercolor paper to achieve the transfer--eliminating the need for strong drawing skills, and ensuring a balanced, professional-quality composition.
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Bento's Sketchbook

"A deceptively brief volume offers profound meditations on art, the creative process and so much more.
Berger has long been difficult to categorize—philosopher? art critic? essayist? novelist?—and his latest defies pigeon-holing even by the standards of this British-born writer who has long lived in France. Let's start with the title, which alludes to a long-rumored but never-found sketchbook by the philosopher Spinoza, to whom Berger refers affectionately as "Bento" (the nickname for Benedict) and whom he excerpts liberally. In fact, dozens of passages from Spinoza's Ethics, accompanied by drawings from Berger (perhaps channeling Spinoza) and others might give this the appearance of an illustrated abridgement of that work. Yet Spinoza is more of a springboard, as Berger delves deeply into the processes of making and responding to art, of thinking and being, of narrative and history, of the essence of humanity. Taking inspiration from the possibility of a Spinoza sketchbook, the author "began to make drawings prompted by something asking to be drawn." In the process, he began to focus on what he drew and why he drew, connecting the creation of art to everything from philosophy to politics to religion. Each of the prose pieces—some as short as a paragraph, few longer than a couple of pages—is self-contained, yet this volume isn't exactly a collection of essays, for none are titled and all are thematically interconnected as well. Whether he's extending an analogy that compares making a drawing to riding a motorbike or discusses storytelling in a manner that could apply just as well to drawing ("In following a story, we follow a storyteller, or, more precisely, we follow the trajectory of a storyteller's attention, what it notices and what it ignores..."), he makes such interaction and interconnection seem central to the human condition.
Berger's readers will see with fresh eyes." Kirkus.
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