andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes


Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes
by Walt Stanchfield (1919-2000). Edited by Don Hahn.

Walt Stanchfield began his animation career in 1937. In the 1980s and 90s he taught figure drawing classes for animators at Disney on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Disney producer Don Hahn compiled Stanchfield’s lecture notes and handouts into two volumes. The highlights below from Volume One capture some recurring themes.

The book includes drawings from Stanchfield and his students. This review includes more recent drawings by Brian Kennon, a former Disney artist who attended Stanchfield’s classes in the 1990s.

Continue reading “Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes” →
andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

Color and Light


Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
by James Gurney

James Gurney has a talent for explaining complicated topics in simple language. Each of 90 topics is explained on a 2-page spread, illustrated with the author’s plein air, portrait, and fantasy paintings—he is the creator of the Dinotopia series. Color harmony is a recurring theme.

“Viewers will see the subject, but feel the color and light.”

Continue reading “Color and Light” →
andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

Seeing It: Photography and Commentary


Seeing It: Photography and Commentary
by Mark Hopkins

As art professor Kit White has written, “Observation lies at the heart of the art process.” Learning to see is a fundamental skill taught in observational drawing classes. It’s also fundamental to fine art photography, as Mark Hopkins explains. The title Seeing It refers to being curious and looking beyond the obvious.

“Cameras do not see; that is the task of their owners. And seeing is what this book is about. In particular, it is about seeing opportunities to create worthy photographic images. It is meant to be inspirational, to show how one camera owner’s concentration on visual awareness has created a collection of photographs whose images others might have walked right past.”

“It is about seeing what you see. If by the end of the book you have a better appreciation of what I mean by that, then I will have fulfilled my goal.”

Continue reading “Seeing It: Photography and Commentary” →
andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Drawing: Memoir of an Artist


The Path of Totality: A Memoir/Manifesto
by David Schoffman

With a nod to Socrates, David Schoffman writes, “The unexamined life is not worth drawing.” The author bares his soul as he reflects on the meaning of life as an artist. The book includes approximately 50 illustrations.

Continue reading “The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Drawing: Memoir of an Artist” →
andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

Harley Brown’s Eternal Truths for Every Artist


Harley Brown’s Eternal Truths for Every Artist
by Harley Brown

Harley Brown is an artist and art instructor who works in pastel and oil paint. In this book he shares his advice on how to paint a variety of subjects with attention to designing an interesting composition with harmonious colors and the integration of light and shadow.

Continue reading “Harley Brown’s Eternal Truths for Every Artist” →
andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

Composition: Understanding Line, Notan, and Color


Composition: Understanding Line, Notan, and Color
by Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922)

Composition is “the ‘putting together’ of lines, masses and colors to make a harmony. Design, understood in its broad sense, is a better word, but popular usage has restricted it to decoration.”

In the visual arts, “there are three structural elements with which harmonies may be built up” – line, notan, and color.

Continue reading “Composition: Understanding Line, Notan, and Color” →
andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception


Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life
by Amy E. Herman

“Leonardo da Vinci attributed all of his scientific and artistic accomplishments to the same concept, which he called saper vedere—‘knowing how to see.’ We might also call his gift ‘visual intelligence.’”

Amy Herman, who has degrees in law and art history, teaches a course called the Art of Perception to police officers and FBI agents. The book is about how to assess, analyze, and articulate what we observe. To practice these skills, the author presents numerous works of art. She also discusses real-life crime and business cases.

Continue reading “Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception” →
andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

How I Paint


How I Paint: Secrets of a Sunday Painter
by Thomas S. Buechner (1926-2010)

Paintings by Thomas Buechner hang in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This book is primarily about technique, featuring dozens of the author’s still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and figures along with commentary about the process. “One purpose of this book is to make looking at pictures, at the surface of the original work, a source of insight and pleasure.”

Continue reading “How I Paint” →