Over the last three decades, the visual artist William Kentridge has garnered international acclaim for his work across media including drawing, film, sculpture, printmaking, and theater. Rendered in stark contrasts of black and white, his images reflect his native South Africa and, like endlessly suggestive shadows, point to something more elemental as well. Based on the 2012 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, Six Drawing Lessons is the most comprehensive collection available of Kentridge’s thoughts on art, art-making, and the studio. Art, Kentridge says, is its own form of knowledge. It does not simply supplement the real world, and it cannot be purely understood in the rational terms of traditional academic disciplines. The studio is the crucial location for the creation of meaning: the place where linear thinking is abandoned and the material processes of the eye, the hand, the charcoal and paper become themselves the guides of creativity. Drawing has the potential to educate us about the most complex issues of our time. This is the real meaning of “drawing lessons.” Incorporating elements of graphic design and ranging freely from discussions of Plato’s cave to the Enlightenment’s role in colonial oppression to the depiction of animals in art, Six Drawing Lessons is an illustration in print of its own thesis of how art creates knowledge. Foregrounding the very processes by which we see, Kentridge makes us more aware of the mechanisms—and deceptions—through which we construct meaning in the world.

DIVThrough 46 daily exercises which make up a complete 6-week course, you will keep your artistic skills sharp and your imaginations fertile by doing One Drawing A Day. Each spread in the book features a beautiful drawing by one of 8 professional illustrators, with a description and comments by the illustrator as well as a companion exercise. Each exercise includes suggestions for various mediums or mixed-media solutions, advice on how to approach and execute the drawing, as well as professional tips. The book also includes exercises designed to spark new ideas and increase creativity./div

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

If you've ever wanted to control your art so that you can paint anything—and paint it well—this is the book for you! The mediums are oil, watercolor, and contour drawing but this is a book about making good paintings, not learning a particular medium. The subject matter is broad, ranging from still lifes to figures and portraits, to landscapes. Again, the point is that if you can paint, you can paint anything! But you must never feel compelled to paint what is before you. You must feel free to paint not what you see, but what you want to see—the way you want it to look—and this book shows you how. Paint What You Want to Seeis a complete course in painting and "seeing." It even includes critiques of student work and problem paintings—you learn where the paintings went wrong and how they can be improved. There are also numerous assignments to practice at home, with examples of how to do them, and valuable lessons on the essentials of values, color, and composition. You will learn how to make a contour drawing, how to layer your washes until you get the right value, and how to use "local value" and color-values to make strong statements. You will also learn how to mix subtle colors such as greens, grays, flesh-tones, and darks; paint with analogous and complementary colors; paint light, shadows, and negative shapes; and see tubed paint in terms of value. Lessons on composition include directing the eye with edges; vignetting; placing darks and other colors; advice on handling patterns; integrating subject and background; subduing or emphasizing contours; and hints on loosening up your painting style. The book concludes with a review of famous artists' painting, with suggestions on applying their "lessons" to your own work. Painting What You Want to Seeis for artists of all levels of ability, particularly for intermediate and advanced students who already know how to paint and want to make better, more expressive paintings. The instructions are clear and simple, with numerous examples, excellent illustrations, informative captions, and many useful assignments to help you develop your own style. Except for sections on drawing and values, the entire book is in color. All in all, a most extraordinary book!

'I always keep a copy of Art & Fear on my bookshelf' JAMES CLEAR, author of the #1 best-seller Atomic Habits 'A book for anyone and everyone who wants to face their fears and get to work' DEBBIE MILLMAN, author and host of the podcast Design Matters 'A timeless cult classic ... I've stolen tons of inspiration from this book over the years and so will you' AUSTIN KLEON, NYTimes bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist 'The ultimate pep talk for artists. ... An invaluable guide for living a creative, collaborative life.' WENDY MACNAUGHTON, illustrator Art & Fear is about the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. Drawing on the authors' own experiences as two working artists, the book delves into the internal and external challenges to making art in the real world, and shows how they can be overcome every day. First published in 1994, Art & Fear quickly became an underground classic, and word-of-mouth has placed it among the best-selling books on artmaking and creativity. Written by artists for artists, it offers generous and wise insight into what it feels like to sit down at your easel or keyboard, in your studio or performance space, trying to do the work you need to do. Every artist, whether a beginner or a prizewinner, a student or a teacher, faces the same fears - and this book illuminates the way through them.

"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.

Annotation In this provocative book, Philip W. Jackson examines John Dewey's thinking about the arts and its implications for educational practices. Jackson discusses Dewey's aesthetic theory, considers the transformative power of the experience of art, and shows in specific instances how the application of Dewey's view of the arts would improve learning experiences.