Since 1940, when it was originally published, The Artist's Handbook has become indispensable for thousands of practicing artists and art students. The book has remained continually in print through many editions and has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. A detailed index makes a wealth of information readily available. Charts and line drawings throughout.

Experience has confirmed John Mill's belief that modelling, and the necessary technical aspects that accompany this skill, must be taught. This book provides all the necessary information and instruction for a student of sculpture to master the technique of casting.

Much more than just another guide to artists’ materials, The Painter’s Handbook is an amazingly useful resource, with information on everything from the canvas up: the canvas itself, plus paper, sizes and grounds, pigments and binders, solvents and thinners, varnishes and preservatives. Dozens of step-by-step recipes for make-it-yourself paints, pastels, varnishes, gessoes, sizes, supports, and equipment take this indispensable guide way beyond the competition. Authoritatively written by Mark David Gottsegen, chair of the federal government’s ASTM committee on artist’s materials, the revised Painter’s Handbook considers the enormous changes in the art-materials world since the first edition was published in 1993. New materials, new health issues, new information on outmoded and even harmful supplies and practices mean that every painter needs a copy of The Painter’s Handbook.

200 formulas for making paints, glazes, mediums, varnishes, grounds, fixatives, sizes, and adhesives for tempera, oil, acrylic, gouache, pastel, encaustic, fresco, and other painting techniques. Here is a unique reference book which every serious painter will find indispensable. Formulas for Painters gathers for the first time in a single volume over 200 recipes for making sizes, grounds, mediums, glazes, varnishes, fixatives, and adhesives. These recipes--some dating as far back as the Renaissance--have been tested by artists through the ages and retested by the author under controlled laboratory conditions. There are forty-two recipes for paints alone, ranging from ancient encaustic and tempera to modern acrylic and silica resins, dozens of mediums for every purpose, and a score of grounds for canvas, panels, and fresco. Each formula is presented in a uniform format which explains the purpose of the material being made, specifies precise ingredients, and gives clear directions for manufacture and use. For quick reference, all the formulas are numbered and frequently cross-referenced. Formulas for Painters also contains a section of notes on studio equipment; substitutes for hard-to-find materials; a fund of practical tips and miscellaneous information; and useful tables of drying times, solvents, melting points--making this comprehensive, compact handbook an invaluable source of reference for painters in all media. Robert Massey is Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso, as well as a distinguished lecturer, painter, draftsman, mosaicist, sculptor, and printmaker who has exhibited widely and won numerous awards throughout the United States. A native Texan, Massey received a B.A. from Oklahoma State University, where he studied with Doel Reed; an M.FA. from Syracuse University; and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas. He has taught at Oklahoma State University, the University of Michigan, Florida State University, and Syracuse University. Since 1953, he has been a member of the faculty of the University of Texas at El Paso, where he conceived, researched, and wrote Formulas for Painters. Robert Massey's works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, El Paso Museum of Art, Oklahoma State University, and the Syracuse Museum. The author, an active member of both the National Society of Arts and Letters and the Texas Fine Arts Association, is listed in Who's Who in American Art.

This book is about the interaction of laser radiation with various surfaces at variable parameters of radiation. As a basic principle of classification we chose the energetic or intensity level of interaction of laser radiation with the surfaces. These two characteristics of laser radiation are the most important parameters defining entire spectrum of the processes occurring on the surfaces during interaction with electromagnetic waves. This is a first book containing a whole spectrum of the laser-surface interactions distinguished by the ranges of used laser intensity. It combines the surface response starting from extremely weak laser intensities (~1 W cm-2) up to the relativistic intensities (~1020 W cm-2 and higher). The book provides the basic information about lasers and acquaints the reader with both common applications of laser-surface interactions (laser-related printers, scanners, barcode readers, discs, material processing, military, holography, medicine, etc) and unusual uses of the processes on the surfaces under the action of lasers (art conservation, rangefinders and velocimeters, space and earth explorations, surface engineering and ablation, and others). The scientific applications of laser-surfaces interactions (surface optical nonlinearities, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, surface nanostructuring, nanoripples and clusters formation, X-ray lasers and harmonic generation from the surfaces) are discussed from the point of view of the close relations between the properties of surface and matter, which is a cornerstone of most of studies of materials. The novelty of the approach developed in Laser - Surface Interactions is related with the interconnection of scientific studies with numerous applications of the laser-surface interactions separated in different chapters by the ranges of laser intensities. We present most recent achievements in this field. The book provides valuable information for different ranges of reader's preparedness to the laser-related topics (from unprepared readers, to students, engineers and researchers, professionals and academics).

Painting is a continually expanding and evolving medium. The radical changes that have taken place since the 1960s and 1970s—the period that saw the shift from a modernist to a postmodernist visual language—have led to its reinvigoration as a practice, lending it an energy and diversity that persists today. In Painting Now, renowned critic and art historian Suzanne Hudson offers an intelligent and original survey of contemporary painting—a critical snapshot that brings together more than 200 artists from around the world whose work is defining the ideas and aesthetics that characterize the painting of our time. Hudson’s rigorous inquiry takes shape through the analysis of a range of internationally renowned painters, alongside reproductions of their key works to illustrate the concepts being discussed. These luminaries include Franz Ackermann, Michaël Borremans, Chuck Close, Angela de la Cruz, Subodh Gupta, Julie Mehretu, Vik Muniz, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Peyton, Wilhelm Sasnal, Luc Tuymans, Zhang Xiaogang, and many others. Organized into six thematic chapters exploring aspects of contemporary painting such as appropriation, attitude, production and distribution, the body, painting about painting, and introducing additional media into painting, this is an essential volume for art history enthusiasts, critics, and practitioners.

Photo-realism, abstraction, portraiture, installation painting, neo-expressionism and the Leipzig School are just some of the areas of this thriving medium explored in Painting Today. This comprehensive survey of contemporary painting presents the broad range of styles, materials and methods that comprise the artform, extending the tradition of Phaidon's trail-blazing Art Today. Since the proclaimed ‘death of painting’ in 1968, artists around the globe have nevertheless continued to expand its imagery, techniques and meanings, and in over 500 illustrations this book presents the work of both famous and emergent painters active around the world. Tony Godfrey presents a lively and authoritive view of the vast range of possibilities that painting today encompasses.

Unlike many books on painting that usually talk about art or painters, James Elkins compelling and original work focuses on alchemy, for like the alchemist, the painter seeks to transform and be transformed by the medium. In What Painting Is, James Elkins communicates the experience of painting beyond the traditional vocabulary of art history. Alchemy provides a magical language to explore what it is a painter really does in her or his studio - the smells, the mess, the struggle to control the uncontrollable, the special knowledge only painters hold of how colours will mix, and how they will look. Written from the perspective of a painter-turned-art historian, What Painting Is is like nothing you have ever read about art. "

Learning to Look at Paintingsis an accessible guide to the study and appraisal of paintings, drawings and prints. Mary Acton shows how you can develop visual, analytical and historical skills in learning to look at and understand an image by analysing how it works, what its pictorial elements are and how they relate to each other. This fully revised and updated new edition is illustrated with over 100 images by a wide range of Western European and American artists, ranging from Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Botticelli to Picasso, Matisse and Rothko, and now includes modern and contemporary artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Anselm Kiefer, Tacita Dean and Marlene Dumas. In addition, Mary Acton presents new examples highlighting the survival and revival of painting in recent years. A new introduction situates the book in the wider context of recent changes in the approach to Art History. A glossary of critical and technical terms used in the language of Art History is also included, with an updated but still selective reading list.

"Reading Dedra Johnson's Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow, I was fully in the presence of the mind, heart and soul of a richly rendered, fascinating fictional character. I knew I was also in the presence of the brillian voice and sensibility of a major new American writer. This is an important novel by a true artist."--Robert Olen Butler "Dedra Johnson has caught something wonderful in Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow. She writes brilliantly about childhood, New Orleans, the intricacies of a vexed family life. Sandrine is a remarkable debut novel that will catch your heart."--Frederick Barthelme Despite being a straight-A student and voracious reader, eight-year old Sandrine Miller is treated as little more than a servant by her mother, who forces Sandrine to clean house, do chores and take care of her younger half sister, Yolanda. On top of the despair of her life at home, Sandrine must confront growing up against the harshness of life in 1970s-era New Orleans, where men in cars follow her home from school and she is ostracized because she is a light-skinned black girl. The only refuge Sandrine has against her bleak world is spending summers with her beloved grandmother, Mamalita. After Mamalita's death, Sandrine realizes that she must escape from her mother, from New Orleans, from everything she has known, if she is to have any kind of future. In the tradition of Toni Morrison'sThe Bluest Eye and Alice Walker'sThe Color Purple,Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow is a brilliant debut from an important new African-American voice in literary fiction. A native and current resident of New Orleans, Dedra Johnson received her MFA from the University of Florida, where she was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers.Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow was a runner-up for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award in 2006.

A Best Book of the Year: Mother Jones,nbsp;Bloomberg News,nbsp;National Post,nbsp;Kirkusnbsp; In these pages, Nicholas Basbanes--the consummate bibliophile's bibliophile--shows how paper has been civilization's constant companion. It preserves our history and gives record to our very finest literary, cultural, and scientific accomplishments. Since its invention in China nearly two millennia ago, the technology of paper has spread throughout the inhabited world. nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; With deep knowledge and care, Basbanes traces paper's trail from the earliest handmade sheets to the modern-day mills. Paper, yoked to politics, has played a crucial role in the unfolding of landmark events, from the American Revolution to Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon Papers to the aftermath of 9/11. Without paper, modern hygienic practice would be unimaginable; as currency, people will do almost anything to possess it; and, as a tool of expression, it is inextricable from human culture. Lavishly researched, compellingly written, this masterful guide illuminates paper's endless possibilities.nbsp;

Stimulating, informative guide by noted teacher covers painting technique, painting from life, materials - paints, varnishes, oils and mediums, grounds, etc. - a painter's training, more. Speed also provides expert analysis of works by Velasquez, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hals, Rembrandt, and others. 64 photos. 5 line drawings.

Discover the tantalizing true stories behind your favorite colors. For example: Cleopatra used saffron—a source of the color yellow—for seduction. Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue “ultramarine” paint used by Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn’t afford to buy it himself. Since ancient times, carmine red—still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today—has come from the blood of insects.