Layout, Color, Design

Family Trees

Family Trees: A Manual for their Design, Layout & Display by Marie Lynskey. Help for designing highly decorative, illustrated pieces of art as well as simple, functional family trees. A good variety of designs (left-to-right, circular, tree shaped, boxed frameworks) are included. Highly recommended by Tamara Stoneburner. 102 pp., 11” x 8.25” hb.

Family Trees (FAMILY)

The Art of Color Calligraphy

The Art of Color Calligraphy by Mary Noble and Adrian Waddington. The technique sections make up the body of this book and include alphabets (single color lettering, blending within letters, creating multicolored letters using homemade pens, variation in a line, changing colors row by row), backgrounds (watercolor washes, paper prints, applying backgrounds after lettering, stenciling, crosshatching...), combined methods (masking fluid, letters forming a background, washing off letters, different colors within each letter), borders & images. A 12 page gilding section clearly demonstrates application of shell gold and gold leaf with traditional gesso and PVA. In the concluding gallery, you'll find work from Jenny Hunter Groat, Rose Folsom, Rosie Kelly, Suzanne Moore, Barbara Bruene and Valerie Weilmuenster. A very helpful volume for continuing beginners and beyond. 9"x9", 176pp, full color, Pb.

The Art of Color Calligraphy (ARTCLR)

Artist's Photo Reference: Flowers

By Gary Greene. This is it for every flower painter who has ever wasted hours searching through books & magazines for good reference photos only to be disappointed that the photos you do find are out of focus, poorly lit or lack important detail. Here you’ll find 500+ reference photos of flowers, all taken with the special needs of the artist in mind by an artist/photographer. Forty nine flowers, from amaryllis to zinnia are each shown in a large primary photo, along with side view and close-ups of petals, leaves and buds. A stunning, well-lit, razor-sharp, color-saturated volume that will brighten a winter day as well as provide accurate reference for your illustrations. 8.5" x 11.25", 144 pp, hb.

Artist's Photo Reference: Flowers (ARPHRE)

Layout and Design for Calligraphers

By Alan Furber. One of the best books to which a calligrapher can turn for layout and design advice related to calligraphy. A highly visual work, and every point is demonstrated by telling examples, many of them showing how to improve inadequate or barely acceptable layouts. Every aspect of design is covered—balance, headings, borders, types of format, treating massed texts. A distillation of hundreds of teaching hours. Paperback.

Layout and Design for Calligraphers (LAYOUT)

Graphic Design Cookbook

Mix and Match Recipes for Faster, Better Layouts by Leonard Koren & R. Wippo Meckler. Over a thousand line drawings illustrating different design devices, type treatments and spatial solutions organized by graphic component such as text systems, space structuring and pictorial considerations. Since 8 – 15 examples are shown per page it’s easy to browse this cookbook for a “recipe” that might work. I found it easy to imagine shopping for ideas for layouts for calligraphic jobs and computer layout work. A time saver culled from thousands of sources to help the designer get down to “cooking” faster. 6" x 8", 142 pp, pb.

Graphic Design Cookbook (COOKBK)

The Non-Designer's Design Book

By Robin Williams. For all the people who need to design pages, but who have no background or training in design. Basic principles are clearly explained and it is full of practical design exercises and examples. 144 pp, pb.

The Non-Designer's Design Book (NONDES)

View from a Sketchbook

View From a Sketchbook: Nature Through the Eyes of Marjolein Bastin by Marjolein Bastin with Tovah Martin. Known for her illustrations for Hallmark, painter, lettering artist and naturalist Marjolein Bastin is a personal favorite for her clean lettering filled with watercolor and lovingly rendered flowers and animals. Enjoy her beautiful work with commentary about Marjolein and her affinity for the natural world. 7.5" x 9.25", 160 pp, full color.

View from a Sketchbook (SKETCH)