There are thousands of art books in print. And you could build a bonfire with most of them and be better off. I'm talking about the how-to-paint sort of book which presumably fills the gaping void left by a standard art college education. (On the foundation course I went to, we had a visit from some scrofulous midget who showed us home made porn videos and seriously suggested making them was a good way to fund an art career. Hey, it was the 70s.)
Unfortunately, the people who write most of these books evidently haven't a clue. Their horrid paintings give you fair warning on the front cover, but if, despite this, you venture inside, you'll soon discover the truth: most art instruction books are written by people who can't paint or draw. So which art instruction books are worth a look, or better still, worth adding to your permanent collection? Here's a handful of the ones I've read over the years that pass muster, and won't steer you wrong.
Lessons in Classical Drawing
by Juliette Aristides. This includes a companion DVD, and
has over 200 pages of excellent tuition for anyone who wants
to learn how to draw properly. Alla Prima: Everything I Know about Painting by Richard Schmid. Excellent advice about how to paint what you see, expressed in a calm, simple, ordered way.
Albinus on Anatomy (Dover Anatomy for Artists)
by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle. I picked up a
hardback copy of this 18th century classic in The Works for
next to nothing. 200 pages of beautifully detailed etchings of
the bones and musculature of the human body, taken from the
originals by Jan Wandelaar, working for Bernard Siegfried
Albinus. It comes with an essay by Robert Beverly Hale, a
renowned art tutor whose anatomy lectures can still be seen
on YouTube here: The Anatomy of the Horse (Dover Anatomy for Artists)
Again, a great find in The Works, in which the great horse
painter does for the horse what Albinus did for humans. How To Make A £Iving A$ An Arti$T
, by Colin Ruffell. This offers 12 'Golden Rules' for making a living from your
work, something that never cropped up in the course of my art
education.
Anyone out there got any further recommendations? 