(Part 2) Best art history & criticism books according to redditors
We found 2,831 Reddit comments discussing the best art history & criticism books. We ranked the 1,241 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
EDIT: If we only had one book to choose, I'd go with "The Art of Shen Ku." This book has pretty much everything humanity would need to survive :)
Unpopular opinions time:
Mangaka work an average of ~100 hours a week. Let's say that 1 chapter takes 1 week. From his wiki, Togashi has created at least 580 chapters of manga. That's 58,000 hours of work.
The man is 48 years old so, in order to match that equivalent by an average full-time job (40 hours/week), he would have had to work 40 hours/week since he was 21 with no vacations/breaks/whatever. That's not even including several of his works, illustration training, supplementary work, etc.
Not to mention that he's the primary wage-earner for his wife and two kids (you think raising a kid is expensive in the West? What about in the 6th most expensive country to live?)
But here's the real rub:
Foreign fandom has little to no benefit for Togashi
Mangaka get paid per page by the publishers and then look to make a large portion of their money on merchandising and tankoubon sales. Mail-in (or email-in) reviews and, more importantly, sales of those products are where mangaka benefit from fans. When was the last time you bought a Japanese tankoubon of HxH? A YYH reprint will get him way more cash way faster than putting out HxH chapters ASAP (which I'm sure he's doing anyway).
Most Western fans are probably reading illegally published HxH on a foreign media site and haven't touched a tankoubon in years, let alone gone out of their way to buy a new one from Japan (resells don't benefit the artist). Most of them have no idea how much time and effort Togashi puts into his work because they don't even know what goes into making a comic.
I dare anyone who complains to draw a single manga chapter and try to make it as good as a chapter of HxH. It's really hard.
This is a problem with the new media generation: they sit here and enjoy a product for free and then get uppity when they don't get their weekly fix. It's a one-sided relationship where the fans who give nothing to the creator enjoy the greatest reward. If you're going to reap the benefits of someone else's labor at least have the dignity to do so with some modicum of self-awareness.
What's worse is that this is a trend not just for NJ on gay marriage but for the whole country on just about everything. There's a huge disconnect between what Americans actually want vs. what our government tells us we want, and that has to do with our politicians working for the wealthy donors who fund their campaigns rather than the not-so-wealthy people they were elected to represent. Christie is a perfect example of that.
is there a gallery of ALL of these? i remember seeing galleries of these through the first initial batch, then through the subsequent few months. is there a trade collecting them all? i'd buy that.
asked and answered.
https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Hip-Hop-Covers-Vol-1/dp/1302902334
cheaper here: https://www.dcbservice.com/product/mar160927/marvel-hip-hop-covers-hc-vol-01
though there have been still more since.
I am an artist that has studied narrative a decent amount and I also tutor art, narrative, math and english. I love talking about this stuff! I was not 100% sure this has been added yet, but the Hero's Journey is a great place to start understanding narrative when you are new to story telling. It's pretty much a drag and drop scenario template, and is referenced in every story boarding class I've ever taken. It's basically story telling 101. Yes it is insanely overdone, BUT it is overdone because it flippin' works if you do it right. Star Wars(The original three) is a perfect example of the Hero's Journey.
Here are some resources on the Hero's Journey, Sometimes called the Hero's Tale, and classically known as the Monomyth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm
This book was probably my favorite book on storytelling. It goes beyond just the Hero's journey and really explains narrative told without using words, visual media is different then just writing a story.
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Storytelling-Visual-Narrative-Instructional/dp/039333127X
Lastly, I'll just add a few comments about what I've learned after studying it all. I am pretty passionate about this stuff and have been since I was a kid!
"There are the things that happen in a story, and then there is why they happen." This is a statement my first story boarding teacher said and its stuck with me for years. Understand the difference. Recognize character motivation vs surface level events.
The exact story my teacher made up was: With his fathers permission, a 10 year old boy goes to the corner store to buy milk for the first time.
Going to buy the milk is what happens in the story, but this story is really about a boy hitting a milestone and coming of age. Its the first time his family has trusted and depended on him alone to do something. The fact that it is getting milk is nearly irrelevant without the meaning behind it grabbing the audience. Be willing to change the surface details in order to tell a better story. Go with the meaning over surface every dang time.
Start simple then expand. If the audience understands why your characters are doing the things they do, then they can support it. If people don't know why the villian is being so evil, or why the good guy or gal is even pursuing a resolution of the story then the audience will typically be indifferent.
Much like what cleavetv said he does, "Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?" It's not a bad way to start a story. Your story ultimately should be able to broken down into a sentence and this gives you guidance and clarity. A one sentence breakdown delivers a clear message and avoids convolution. Its the thesis statement of your story. If you start writing something off track or get lost in the process, just stop and go directly back to that first sentence!!!! It is your guiding light. If it is strong then your story will be strong.
One last thing about starting simple. Starting simple provides a foundation, then you can make your story more complex as you go. I know writers and directors that are obsessed with telling a complex story. "I WANT TO WRITE THE MATRIX! OR INCEPTION! OR SOMETHING WAY CRAZIER THAT WILL BLOW PEOPLES MINDS!" So they start by trying to do some crazy thing or gimmick and get completely lost and convolution sets in (btw The Matrix basically follows the Hero's Journey exactly.)
Study your favorite stories. Think long and hard about why you love the stories you do. Use them as reference. Tell a story you want tell. It makes it way easier to do so, because good stories take a long time to write typically.
Finally, I'll frame this in a way game devs will be interested! So you got this awesome game mechanic, but you want to tell a story, and its seems impossible to blend the two. The key is thinking about your mechanic and how it functions and then linking it back to the real world. Does it have characters? If it does then sending a character on a mission to find something is the classic way to do this, obviously. Mario, Megan Man, Zelda, etc., in the early days stuck with that formula and it works. But if you have a mechanic like tetris then the story becomes much harder to write. Why do we have to move these tetris shapes around? Maybe you're an astronaut that has to maintain the balance in a ship manually moving these shapes to keep your engines from exploding. Or its an ancient tribal ritual every tribesman must endure in order to become a full fledged adult member of the tribe. Once the meaning is derived you can flush out the GUI and cut scenes and music from there!
TLDR Learn about the Hero's Journey, Think about character motivation and the narrative having a deep meaning, think about how your game mechanic relates to the real world and functions in order to frame a story around it.
EDIT 1: After taking 5 minutes to reflect, I wanted to acknowledge that not every game needs a story. Tetris works great without one. If you feel your mechanic lends itself to narrative then go for it, it can be a lot fun writing a story and creating your own world. But if its just not working, don't be afraid to go without one.
It's a good thing you're not cutting anymore...
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Hey, I didn't even go to prom junior year and didn't have a date senior year. To be trite, it gets better. I'm guessing you're not even 18 yet, but people do get less shallow/more mature over time. A lot of the shorter dudes I know (myself included, at 5'5" - and my dad is 5' flat) ended up doing just fine. Here are some things you can do:
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It's absolutely unfair and absolutely sucks. Unlike weight, you have essentially zero control over it. You *will* have to work harder than someone taller. To the extent that it forces you to work on yourself, though, it's also a good thing.
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Peter Dinklage is 4'4" and married to a total babe. It's not by any means hopeless.
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For reference:
https://www.youtube.com/user/charismaoncommand
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe0TLA0EsQbE-MjuHXevj2A
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Shen-Ku-Intergalactic-Universe/dp/0399527257
I haven't had a chance to look at it myself, but The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time was released a number of years ago. It sounds like it might be the sort of thing you are looking for.
I agree though that it would be nice to have more books to build on the lore.
I have some experience with webcomics. I write and draw Miamaska, which has been going on for 2+years, and I'm about to start my second comic next month.
General advice for web comickers!
(or: How I learned things the hard way and eventually stumbled into a good system)
Regarding dialogue and pacing... what I tend to do is thumbnail an entire scene (3-15 pages for me) first and read through it a few times. I'll leave mini-cliffhangers at the end of each page (like a question, or a realization, or a character entering the scene). During this little review process, I'll also make sure the view for the reader doesn't violate the 180 rule too much, that it's obvious which bubble should be read next, and where the reader is going to look first.
I don't have any experience in the print form of comics yet. So no advice there. Just make sure your comics are in print resolution as well (300+ DPI), or you'll be sorry later.
Resource time
I didn't have many resources starting out, but I'm gonna recommend these for you and anyone else interested:
PaperWings Podcast -- podcast and blog on web comic-making (ongoing, good community, regular but sparse updates, good backlog). Has even more resources on its website.
Art and Story -- podcast on print +web comic-making and the comic industry (ended, but a great backlog).
Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics by cartoonist Scott McCloud, worth a read for any comicker. A little more geared towards print, but breaks down comic theory really nicely.
Comics and Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative, by Will Eisner.
Those books are pretty popular, so you can probably pick them up from the library or find them on the web somewhere.
Books which may interest, especially for beginners (The first three are highly recommended)
Magic in Ancient Egypt: Revised Edition
Eternal Egypt: Ancient Rituals for the Modern World
Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred
Following the Sun: A Practical Guide to Egyptian Religion, Revised Edition
Circle Of The Sun: Rites And Celebrations For Egyptian Pagans And Kemetics
The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Featuring Integrated Text and Full-Color Images (This book isn't much of a "for beginners"-- it's just a translated funeral text. Still a great read for Kemeticists, though.)
The Ancient Egyptian Prayerbook (Just a contemporary prayerbook which may interest)
This is my absolute favorite blacksmithing book. Highly recommended and very cheap.
There are two collections, both, as far as I know, currently out of print, of Tolkien's general artwork, and one specifically of the artwork from The Hobbit. They are, in order of publication:
Pictures by J.R.R Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien; there are two slightly different editions. Both sell for pretty premium prices.
J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator, edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull; available in both hardcover and paperback. I don't remember offhand if the two editions differ at all. The paperback is available pretty cheaply, and the hardcover can be got much cheaper than the above book; this also covers more of Tolkien's art than the first book did.
The Art of The Hobbit, edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull; currently in print.
In addition, there have been a number of catalogs of exhibits of Tolkien's paintings that have contained a number of his works, and some of the calendars contain his paintings and drawings as well.
Source: I'm staring at all of these while I type. :-)
Here's a basic video you can show anyone.
Here are books:
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America
The Open Veins of Latin America. Here it is for free.
Failed States
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
War is a Racket This one is from the most decorated Marines in US history.
Occupy Finance. This one is (indirectly) about dependency theory on a national scale. The people of the US have become victims of capital. They go into debt for their health, transportation, education, housing, and daily activities with credit cards. They then put their pensions at the whim of the stock market, as it is plundered by Wall Street. When capitalism can no longer expand geographically, it needs to plunder the lives of people to maintain itself. In this case, the first source of capital to exploit was the lives of the people of the US. Unlike Europe, the US populace was left defenseless in the wake of the attack because of a history of active repression of the left (like COINTELPRO).
The financialization of the US populace is discussed in this essay from the Monthly Review, Monopoly Finance Capital. Here is a book on the topic.
If I remember any more resources, I'll make sure to throw them your way.
Oh, I wanna try too:
>Are there different "branches" of Buddhism, sort of like in Christianity?
>Who was The Buddha?
> why is there prayer in Buddhism? How is Buddhist prayer different than, say, Christian and Islamic prayer?
>Do Buddhists go to temples on a certain day of the week like Christians? Is there a ritualistic process on what is done each day?
> If I call my local Buddhist temple or meditation center, would someone there be willing to talk to me over the phone and introduce me in real life to what Buddhism is?
> Basically, I would really appreciate it if you could explain to me what Buddhism means to you, what your daily Buddhist lifestyle is, and how it affects you.
Also, here are some books:
TADA!
The Strike at Shayol Ghul details Lews Therins attempt to shut the bore.
Speaking of the Strike at Shayol Ghul, there is The World of Robert Jordan's a Wheel of Time also known affectionetly as the Big White Book (BWB) or Big Book of Bad Art (BBBA). It delves into a lot about cultures, features write ups of each forsaken, pokes fun at the covers and includes the entire text of Strike.
There was a short story called New Spring included in Robert Silverberg's Legends, this was later expanded into the novella New Spring
The short story about Bao is not considered connanical and is included in the short story collection Unfettered
Eye of the world was re-released for a YA market in two parts with a new prologue Ravens
The Interview Database, just click a topic that looks intresting and prepare to lose a day or two
The Wheel of Time FAQ back in the mists of time (late 90's early aughts) this was the best resource for all things WoT related. It hasn't been significantly updated since about book 10 (i mean, yes there were updates, but nothing on the scale and detail that it used to get). Gives great insight into what the fandom was pulling its hair out about during the two years+ between books. Also, some of the info is evergreen like historical references etc.
There was a terrible video game that has almost zero to do with the series.
There was a d20 based D&D rule set released and a adventure that explained how Taim got to Rand in time to rescue himat Dumai's Wells. RJ later came out and said that this was completely made up by the authors of the module and had nothing to do with the series, which was a BIG clue about Taim's allegiance.
I feel like im missing something, but I can't put my finger on it, so I will leave you with a random fact that you should know
Tar Valon is a vagina
Even if this is supposed to be a part of something larger, it should have its own arc. You know what's supposed to happen as the author, so maybe to you, it seems like its fine. But you need to look and craft these things from the perspective of the audience.
I'll use, say, Cowboy Bebop as an example. It's almost entirely a series of self-contained episodes, save for a few episodes that touch on this relationship between Spike and Vicious. But, the self-contained episodes are often iterating and riffing on some of the same overall themes that these connected episodes are built on. Or, when they aren't, they're carried on pure entertainment value. They feel good. They're flat out fun to watch. Or they revel in the absurd, which ties into the show thematically and also rides pure entertainment value.
Fallout: New Vegas does this as well. Side-quests seem self-contained, more or less, but they build on your understanding of the world and they often build on this theme of nostalgia for the Old World, or Old World Blues, as the game eventually puts it. All of the companion character side-quests riff on this theme of clinging to the past or moving forward, the factions all follow in this theme (whether its the major factions modeling their selves after Old World powers or the Brotherhood of Steel finding that they don't belong in the world anymore, so they either need to adapt or cling to the past and die). All of these side quests are self-contained, thus having their own arc and feel satisfying to complete, but also they build on the overarching theme of the game and give the player something to think about once everything is said and done.
You can do this with your own work. You can figure out what it is that you want it to be about and make build on those themes, even just from the start. If you have ideas and themes you want to explore, you can explore them from the start in whatever way you want, and tie it all into something more grand later if you're telling an overall story, or just keep riffing on them in different self-contained scenarios. The main, best thing to keep in mind though is that if this is intended for an audience, you need to write it with the audience experience in mind. Your ideas could be incredible, but the audience would never know it if you've written it to be impenetrable to them, or just so boring that it's unlikely they'll continue to read to get to the good parts.
As an example, I love the show Eureka Seven. Somewhere towards the middle of its run, it has a small arc with a couple of characters named Ray and Charles that culminates in some of the best TV I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. But, I can almost never recommend this show to anyone. The first ~10 to 15ish episodes are a chore. The show sort of acts like you should know who all the characters are already, or doesn't give you a whole lot to work with in terms of giving you something to come back for. For this reason, it took me from when it aired back in 2005 all the way until 2014 to finally finish the show from front to back. There was a ton of good there, but it was so, so difficult to get to it through the start of the show.
So, Entertainment value. Have you read Fiona Staples' and Brian K Vaughan's Saga? The very first panel of the very first page oozes entertainment value, while also giving some great banter to help establish the characters and introduce us to the world. This is a strong opening, and even if there is some lull to the comic afterwards (which there may or may not be depending on your tastes), its given you a taste of what it is and a promise of what its capable of delivering. This is a really great thing to have. If you're aware of Homestuck, it's the GameFAQs FAQ that serves as the end of the comic's first Act that suddenly shows you how the comic will format itself: Lots of nonsensical goofing around until hitting an emotional climax that re-contextualizes the events you had just seen. This isn't at the start of the comic, but entertainment value carries the comic until that point, assuming you're into programming jokes and goofball shenanigans. But, this scene comes so comparatively late that it's likely you've already dropped the comic before getting to the "good part" if these jokes didn't carry the comic for you.
Actual Advice and Critique
Comics are hard, because, unless you have a writer or have an artist to partner with, you're doing both jobs, and the quality of the thing depends both on being well-written and well drawn (or at least some balance between the two that makes it palatable to read). I think that if you think in an actual episodic way, you could improve your writing a ton. With this comic, the arc would be "how did Lasereye become Lasereye?" It's potentially a pretty good premise, right? You'll establish a character and have plenty of chances to create entertaining scenarios because... It's your story! Lasereye became Lasereye in whatever way you decide he did. Go crazy, tell us a story! How did some young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid turn into some dude in a slum with one eye glowing brighter than ever and the other dim and jaded? Telling this in three pages would actually be a great exercise.
Your art is rough in that it looks like you could use learning some base fundamental things like human anatomy. Your palette and the food stand itself reminds me of Kill Six Billion Demons though, which is great. You've created a good atmosphere in panels 1, 2, and the last panel on the last page, despite the artwork itself being rough. That's great! You know how a thing should feel. That's a great thing to have down pat that will only continue to be a boon as your technical skill improves (and it will if you work at it!). I think that if you buckle down and grind through learning how to draw, you could make very great, visually appealing work.
There's a problem in page flow on Page 2. Here I've shown how your page directs the eye with red lines. The way the page is laid out, you end up reading the fifth panel before you read the fourth panel, which will cause a reader to have to double back to read things in order. You don't want that. You'll wanna keep an eye out for how your pages read in the future. Just give them a once-over and ask where the eye would naturally go following the lines on the page.
So, if you aren't currently, learning human anatomy would be a great place to start placing effort. If you have access, figure drawing classes and the such would be a great way to start working on that. It helps immensely to have others around who can help you if you aren't sure what you're doing at first. Books on comics in general would be a good place to go as well. Understanding Comics and Making Comics, both by by Scott McCloud, are good introductory texts. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner and Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist also by Will Eisner would be good as well.
For writing, Dan Harmon's Channel 101 guides will be great tutorials as he's one of the best working writers today in episodic TV. I'm aware this isn't directly comics, but the best writing advice is rarely going to come from a comics-focused book. Will Eisner will tell you how to use visuals to your advantage in telling a story, but the nitty-gritty of actually writing will have to come from somewhere else. The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell may help you understand structure further. This is what Dan Harmon is riffing on and working off of with his Story Circles, but adapted slightly for the sake of episodic television. Film Crit Hulk, an online movie critic/ the Incredible Hulk has a screenwriting book called Screenwriting 101. It's invaluable. I highly recommend it, even if it isn't directly about comic writing. You'll be able to adapt the advice as you work in your own medium.
I'm gonna disagree with a lot of people and tell you to not buy Understanding Comics. I mean, you can, I don't disagree with most of what he teaches, but I disagree with his results. Perhaps it's one of those 'good in theory, terrible in practice' things. The Sculptor, his latest (?) book uses his UC technique 100% and while it makes for an easy read, it's visually boring and the story is just one unbelievable trope after another, complete garbage.
I'm also not going to tell you to copy other comic artists, that's a very common mistake in comics. When you copy other comic artists you learn their mistakes, or shortcuts, or cheats. I still find after I've drawn a page I'll go back and see where I unintentionally swiped a pose or technique from John Buscema (How to make Comics the Marvel Way had a big influence on me as a teenager, which is who it was made for).
For figure drawing you want George Bridgeman. His figure drawing techniques are the foundation for pretty much every other great illustrator in the last 100 years.
Another good source is Burne Hogarth (Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Figure Drawing) his stuff is more action and hero based, but his lessons are sound. He founded what became the School of Visual Arts. These were my first art books when I was a teenager, and they still hold up.
For storytelling, I go for Will Eisner's Graphic Storytelling and the Visual Narrative, Sequential Art Principles and throw in Expressive Anatomy, because, why not?
David Chelsea's Perspective for Comic Artists is great, because it teaches you exactly how to do correct perspective, then in the last chapter he tells you how to cheat at all of it.
For classes, take a look at the horribly designed website for http://comicsworkbook.com/ it's run by a guy, Frank Santoro, who's actually not one of my favorite artists, but he knows his shit, for sure, and he's a helluva nice guy who loves comics 100%. I think his full online class is $500 and he runs it twice a year, I think. Also look in your area for a college or art store that might have figure drawing classes, they are invaluable.
Congratulations! Check out The Wheel of Time Companion, The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, and the canonical (and non-canonical) short stories! And if you haven't already, peruse http://www.encyclopaedia-wot.org/ - it has good chapter synopses and links between parts of the story.
get this book it's similar to a "mutus liber" (mute book) in that it tells the history of western esotericism in pictures but there is on average 1/4 page small print commentary on most pictures.
Art history gets close to the history of civilization from the weird perspective but if your not careful about your texts, the occult will be studiously left out. The renaissance was a blaze of occult Anamnesis that was quickly squelched via Protestant appropriation (Rosicrucians) and swept back under the magic rug of materialist history.
Also a fun exercise is learning to write/draw with your "wrong hand". Force yourself to write a few sentences everyday with the hand you do not write with. Eventually the script will get smaller and smaller until you have total control. May take a few weeks but it's quicker than you think. Need to do it everyday though.
What happens (IMO) is that you start rewiring your brain a bit.
Once your good at writing with your wrong hand, practice sketching with it as well.
I did a sketch of an eagle once with both hands at the same time and I did the right side with my right hand and the left with my left. It looked pretty good and you couldn't tell which was which. Sadly I let this practice go (I'm not an artist) but I can still write with my wrong hand.
Ah, De Rerum Natura! I have fond memories of reading that book back in college. One of our classics professors did a translation of the work.
There's actually a book by Stephen Greenblatt written about "On the Nature of the Universe" and its rediscovery during the Renaissance.
Edit: Found it! And it actually won a Pulitzer Prize! http://www.amazon.com/The-Swerve-World-Became-Modern/dp/0393343405
These scrolls are a really big deal. IIRC, only the outer layer was carbonized, which meant that some of the writing is preserved in the interior layers. Some fragments from finds like this were what brought the ancient work "De Rerum Natura" (On the Nature of Things) to the attention of early scholars.
According to Greenblatt in The Swerve, the rediscovery of this work is what kicked off much of the secular/scientific turn in European history.
I read the Swerve a while back and I'm currently reading a translation of De Rerum Natura when I'm on the shitter, and it's utterly fascinating. It's an epic poem that basically lays out the vision of a secular/scientific view of the universe. It's one of those works (like the dome of the Pantheon, etc.) which makes clear how much was lost in the fall of the Roman Empire.
Well you have a few options, if you are starting out fairly new to the bigger world of Tolkien then go for the wonderful books 'The Art of the Hobbit' and 'The Art of the Lord of the Rings' both edited and introduced by Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull. If you are not aware of them they are a very dedicate pair who have worked wonders to expand the world of Middle-earth. Followed by 'Artist and Illustrator' again from Hammond & Scull. You should find those immensely informative and maybe quite a revelation that Tolkien was a superb illustrator.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Lord-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544636341
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0547928254/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TCC0X4650YGR6KYX2CX4
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0618083618/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498172899&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=artist+and+illustrator
The links are all to Amazon US but you will if you shop around on marketplace or eBay find them cheaper.
The Hobbit and Rings books are both slipcased and are superbly put together.
Also Known as Pack Hardening, Blister Steel, Shear Steel
From what I understand from reading old texts, traditionally, case hardening was a technique were a blacksmith would infuse a piece of wrought iron, which is low in carbon, with additional carbon in the outer layers of the metal. This would allow the smith to harden those layers infused with carbon, while the core of the metal remained ductile. This was typically done by packing the wrought iron in a mixture of ground bone and charcoal (or some other strange recipe) in a tightly sealed box. This box was then heated until the metal was near welding temperature, at which point the outer layers would be near melting, and the added carbon would be able to mix in. One this process was completed, the smith could then reheat and quench the metal, hardening the layers with increased carbon content. This process formed what has been called blister steel or shear steel. It was used mainly before the the ability to produce steel, when wrought iron was still too soft for the application.
In later times, a piece of steel might be case hardened by a process of carefully heating the outer layers of a thicker piece of steel and quenching it. This again leaves the inner portion ductile, reducing the brittleness of the steel. The carbon content of the steel was not affected by this process.
Edit: Sources: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/11996-case-hardening/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case-hardening
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Blacksmithing-Alex-W-Bealer/dp/0785803955 (the modern blacksmith's bible)
Hardening and Tempering 4th edition Machinists reference book
Your best resource is the resident blacksmith. But here are the books I've taught myself with:
* The Backyard Blacksmith by Lorelei Sims
I am incredibly jealous of your opportunity, that living history stuff always seems like a blast.
Here you go, ladies.
Pegging. Thoughts?
How old were you when you lost your virginity?
If you could change it, would you make it earlier or later?
Do you like using toys in the bedroom?
What is your go to song for when you are
When was the last time you laughed a lovely laugh full of mirth?
What is your favourite colour and what does it signify?
), by Victoria Finlay. It is well worth your time.
And the SUNDAY SPECIAL for this week:
Your favourite on screen villains/ vamps of all time...
You might appreciate Umberto Eco's book On Ugliness, and how it was historically associated with moral impurity/degeneracy. People who were visibly afflicted with an illness were often perceived as suffering from divine judgement for their wrong acts.
The most recent translations aren't going to be free and available online. I'd suggest going to your library or ordering a copy via Amazon. This is an excellent version, but there are less expensive, earlier editions available as well.
I think the same thing on Amazon is cheaper ($17.18.)
I agree with what /u/abhayakara said on this. I think you've misunderstood the nature of the 8FP as moralistic. It's actually incredibly practical and commonsense-based (and completely secular, if you so choose). Also, I want to reiterate the point that Buddha did not teach literal rebirth. I highly recommend Bikkhu Bodhi's pithy book (which you could read in a day) ... https://www.amazon.com/Noble-Eightfold-Path-Way-Suffering/dp/192870607X
Ha, I knew it.
So, yes, we all face this issue in the creative space.
And honestly, it is a curse, it is probably the most damning thing that happens to our ability to work.
This book is all about that https://www.amazon.com/Art-Fear-Observations-Rewards-Artmaking/dp/0961454733
Interesting read if you want to read, but my main point with sharing the book is to let you know how common this issue is.
Now, the solution is, you suck, you need to accept that you suck, and you need to stop caring that you suck.
What you need to focus on is your love for music, your love for sound. That feeling you get when you press the keys using a synth with a cool sound or listen to a cool beat.
The problem really starts there, because while you produce, your love for music will so easily get trumped by the music that you love.
Do not do this, do not compare yourself to others like that.
They are different humans, with different experiences, and different lives, different brains. You will never be like them.
You are your own person, your own brain, your own experiences, and this is where your beauty lies.
People often tell you, when you want to pick up a girl just be yourself.
Well it's the same is with making music, just be yourself.
If what comes out of your head is beep boop beep, then make beep boop beep, do not feel shame for your simplicity, focus on the love of the sounds you choose, focus on the ideas that pop into your head and express them, no matter how primitive they sound to you.
Another link about this exact topic, little more esoteric.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHW1I8T0caI
Trust in your own ability to get better, do not compare yourself to others all the time, again, they are different people.
Don't buy a shirt because it looks cool on some dude, buy a shirt because you like it and it fits you.
In short, you are trying to climb a ladder starting at the top.
It's a very common feeling for all, we all have to go through this, the solution is to accept your suckage and try to improve yourself not by trying to be someone else, but to be a better you.
If that pulls you away from the music you love, let it pull you away.
If you find yourself making classical music or pop songs or punk or whatever instead of techno, let it pull you away. You need to set yourself free creatively, you need to relearn the joy of play.
To box yourself in with a genre or worse, music that you like, is extremely damning, especially if you are not well conscious of your own creativity etc.
Grab your instruments, play around, have fun. Drop some notes, drop some beats, just make music and play. If something does not feel right to you, tweak it until it does, but stay within yourself, trust your own gut, your own inspiration, stop the automatic response to start looking at other work to try and find their solutions.
Do look at other people work to study as you please, you can learn a lot, just do not do that while you are producing your own song.
Don't do so when you are trying to put yourself into your creative/expressive mindset.
Anyways, hope it helps, feel free to hit me up if you feel crappy about stuff. I have suffered this exact issue for years and years, it took me like 10 years to finally start to grasp the issue.
EDIT
more ranting
In more practical terms, I suggest you try to find your creative playful mindset.
If you are bored with a track and not inspired, fuck it, let it die, trying to finish so you can share it, will quickly kill your creative mindset, you need solid awareness of this conscious switch to be able to deal with it.
Do not try and make music like others, make the music that you hear in your head, even if it's just beep boop beep human music, hmm, I like it. You will get better and more expressive as you dig deeper, trust that.
Do not make drum patterns the way they are supposed to be, make drum patterns that sound good to you.
Use your hands and feet as much as you can, record things live using your midi keyboard, tweak after, it does not matter if you can't play piano, the point is to express yourself, using your body to do so is a much shorter road for your mind to fall into that mindset.
If you dance, then dance, do you know this moment while you are dancing and forgot to care you look stupid? That moment when you are just having pure fun and are feeling one with the music, flowing like some ninja or whatever? This is it, this is what you want to dig for.
Dance on your midi keyboard and record it, and tweak it after, with your dance recent midi keyboard dance still fresh in your memory.
Music is language, try and think of it like that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKyySG6qp8
Listen to you beep boop beep, reply to it, maybe another boop? beep boop beep boop boop boop BAM! Whatever, have fun with it.
For me techno sounds like "yeh, yeh, let go, woohoo,, watch out, wait, wait watch out,, here we GO! yeh yeh yeh" It's primitive, stupidly retarded in a way, and gloriously fantastic.
Classical music is often like "can you hear it? can you? omg it is beatiful... no... no wait!.. it is happening again.. my love where have you gone?.. now I am here alone again.. waiting for you .. alone alone.. forever alone.. .. alone... NO NO NO I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS.. FIGHT.. I will FIGHT!!!.. glory glory!! fight for glory!!"
It is more an emotional rollercoaster ride, which people find is more complex I suppose, fair enough.
EDIT
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Spirit-Robert-Henri/dp/0465002633/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0465002633&pd_rd_r=893TKNMA88H6YMF627F7&pd_rd_w=TcJuv&pd_rd_wg=temwA&psc=1&refRID=893TKNMA88H6YMF627F7
This book I also recommend, it's about painting, but the same ideas apply to pretty much any creative endevour
Thought I'd provide some Amazon links to these fine suggestions, along with a few of my own.
J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0008214549/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Jc.DCb1A3J8V6
​
Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/000755690X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Qe.DCbHG7HWXM
​
Art of the Lord of the Rings US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544636341/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_3f.DCbB8Y2ZNZ
​
Art of the Hobbit US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0547928254/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ng.DCbCX2CT65
​
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1851244859/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Vg.DCbSEH99RE
​
Rateliff's History of the Hobbit US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CF6AZWK/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Dj.DCbGWY7970
​
Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-Earth US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618126996/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Kk.DCbC2XF6NT
​
Letters of JRR Tolkien US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618056998/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ml.DCbREBRZH4
​
Carpenter's Tolkien: A Biography US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618057021/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_xm.DCbY976PAE
People interested in this fascinating topic will no doubt encounter Graham Hancock. Check out his book Magicians of the Gods for some crazy theories about human history.
> Marvel is for the culture
Marvel is for the money. This was a good idea that they immediately ran into the ground as soon as a new audience started buying comics.
I don't know if any of the writers or artists involved even know anything about any of the albums on which the new covers are based, it seems like someone's just picking them at random, slapping a new cover on the front and then overcharging for what is otherwise recycled content.
By the way, my "local" comic shop is a half hour away and they immediately mark each book up to more than two times the cover price for every single issue. Check prices if you want one of these, they might be cheaper online (shipping included.)
I stopped buying these after buying 20-30 or so. I'll wait for the hardcover collections from now on, they're cheaper and the comics are all reprints anyway.
Art of Path of Exile https://www.amazon.com/dp/1524102644/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_2EDaAb4360QAR
The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies
I think you should lean on the fundamentals of Buddhist practice:
It sounds like you are setting up a sin/sinner system around masturbation and pornography and are looking to be saved. You are not bad or a sinner. Drop this mode of thinking. Plenty of people don't masturbate or consume porn and are not enlightened in the classical Buddhist sense. It's not the point of the path. (Perhaps a byproduct but there are many of those.)
It's most helpful when looking thoughts and behaviors to consider what is skillful and what is unskillful. Skillful behaviors promote wholesome mind states. Unskillful behaviors spring from greed/hatred/delusion and generally lead to unwholesome mind states. So you need to work on cultivating the good and avoiding the unwholesome.
Something I've found helpful when about to do something unskillful is to reflect:
>This leads to my own affliction or to the affliction of others or to the affliction of both.
>
>It obstructs discernment, promotes vexation, & does not lead to Unbinding.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.019.than.html
Obligatory Ira Glass quote if you haven't seen it
I'm gonna keep this as short as possible, but I know your struggle. In all likelihood if you're like me you have this spark or inspiration inside of you. But it's like being an infant that can't talk. It's frustrating because you want to create this vision of a beautiful piece of work that's in your head, but you feel like you don't how to proceed. You have to keep that spark alive, but also realize you may not have the skills or experience to actualize it. That's completely ok.
My biggest piece of advice is to let go of perfection. Look to your favorite artists for inspiration, but try to not to compare. What you hear from them is hours and hours of experience and it's unfair to compare yourself to that. I've been down that road, it leads to nothing but anxiety and procrastination. Instead here's what you should focus on. Just finish everything you start. No matter how shitty or imperfect. Let go of the idea of writing something good and just practice creating.
Also here's a book that you might like Also this one is pretty good too Though I'd recommend the mastering creative anxiety book first, it gives little lessons in the form of short stories and is more light hearted. Art and Fear gets a bit heavy at some points.
A little art appresciation? "Ways of Seeing" by John Berger. 20th Century art music: "The Rest is Noise" by Alex Ross.
Greek.
Epicureanism is the first modern way of thinking about the world. It's worth a lot of further study. He had an enormous influence on the development of the modern world.
If you want to read more, The Swerve by Greenblatt is a good if somewhat hyperbolic introduction.
This Book
Possibly The Art of Shen Ku: The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe? It's a book that has tons of illustrated guides spanning a wide variety of subjects. Here's the Amazon description:
What is Shen Ku? Roughly translated: "Pure Traveler" or "Phantom Passenger." What exactly is the "art of...?" Mastering the skill and knowledge of practically everything anyone comes across while on Earth, including:
And this is only the beginning.
conceptart.org has some good stuff, they make DVDs too. You could probably pirate them, were you a person of low moral fiber.
There are some good books out there too, which you can probably get from the local library. You might need to use interlibrary loan though, my local libraries have a poor selection of art books, but there isn't anything they haven't been able to find at another library.
Color in Contemporary Painting
The Art of Color
Mastering Composition
Abstraction in Art and Nature
The Art Spirit
Some people don't care about theory, but personally I find it inspiring. Art in Theory 1900-1990 is a good collection of writings by artists, critics, and the like. If you're weak on art history you might want to study some of that first, History of Modern Art is pretty good.
How about some books? Depending on what she already has you could get her a nice edition of The Lord of the Rings or a companion books like The Atlas of Middle-earth or The Art of The Hobbit.
Something like The Art of the Lord of the Rings and/or The Art of The Hobbit might be good. Those are fairly large (though thin).
They also make a faux leather "Pocket" The Hobbit and LotR set.
Political works by Chomsky:
The Responsibility of Intellectuals (1967),
At War With Asia: Essays on Indochina (1969),
Government in the Future (1970),
The Fateful Triangle (1983, 2015),
The Chomsky Reader (1987, 2010),
Manufacturing Consent (1988, 2002),
Year 501: The Conquest Continues (1992, 2015),
Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky (2002),
Hegemony or Survival (2003),
Failed States (2006).
Works on Chomsky:
Noam Chomsky: A personal bibliography, 1951-1986 (1986),
Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent (1998),
Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals ( 1999, 2002, 2016),
The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky (2005, 2017),
The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky (2000, 2002, 2004),
The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower (2007), Noam Chomsky (2015)
Also this, this, this and this.
The first one I read was Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, which was a great introduction. It's short and very easy to get into. You can read it in an afternoon. It's actually from a speech he gave, so you can probably find the audio online for free and listen to it instead if you prefer.
But his best book, in my opinion, is Understanding Power. It's more of a collection of essays, speeches and interviews, but it really shaped my understanding of the world better than any other book I have read. I can't recommend this book enough.
If you're more interested in libertarian socialism, in addition to Understanding Power, read Chomsky on Anarchism. He presents the theories in very clear language, instead of being overly theoretical.
If you're more interested in his writings on US foreign policy, also read either Failed States or Hegemony or Survival.
Enjoy!
This pretty much covers it.
(Actually a really great coffee table book.)
If you still wanna support your shop you can pick up a copy of this when it drops. That's what I'm gonna do.
There you go!
I don't have a "go read this book/article and learn everything you need to know" answer ready to go. But, I would bet that this book is an incredible resource on the topic. Bhikkhu Bodhi is known as not only a deeply practiced monk in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism but also an exceptionally well educated scholar of Buddhism.
Not to be mean, but that's the Nickleback of esotericism. I think you'd find most of the illustrations in the $16 book Alchemy and Mysticism to have much deeper, and more multi-layered, meanings. Thumb through, find a few that resonate with you now, find larger versions on the internet, print and frame them.
This system also has the advantage that as you improve in your esoteric knowledge, you can keep upgrading.
I recommend buying her Making Comics by Scott McCloud as well as Understanding Comics as these two books are an extremely valuable asset for anyone who wants to pursue making comics. He does not go into the national Japanese comics drawing style, but he does go into detail about the story-telling techniques used by Japanese artists, which is much more important (IMO) than Big Eyes Small Mouth. Making Comics also will teach her some very important lessons about character building and world creation that she should learn as early as possible so as to not have to break any negative habits.
However, if she's not interested in the full process of making comics, and just wants to draw, and you're dead set on buying her a Manga Drawing book, make sure it's by a Japanese artist, I recommend this one. These artists have grown up surrounded by this style instead of discovering it later in life like an American would, and therefore adding American influence to the style, further diluting what the Japanese have worked hundreds of years to create. Also, if you are going to buy her a Manga drawing book, please also buy her a figure drawing book to help her set herself apart from all the lookalikes online. This is also very important if she wishes to attend art school or major in art, as every single professor will tell her to "Stop drawing that anime stuff, and focus on observational drawing."
EDIT: Formatting.
I think a lot of people will disagree with me, but the classic How to Draw Manga series is great for getting started on drawing full body characters even if you don't want to draw in the manga style.
Another big book that people bring up on a regular basis is Dodson's Keys to Drawing. I have it, but I can honestly no longer remember how much of a direct effect it had on me. I do know that my community art instructor referenced it heavily during my first year of classes. So the ideas it presents may actually have been a bigger part of my development than I remember.
My biggest advice though would be to try a little bit of everything: watch drawing youtube videos, read articles on drawing. Follow your favorite artists on social media. Google drawing tutorials.
Do studies of other people's work (draw from their drawings). The important thing is to never post these studies as your own work (for obvious ethical reasons). Dodson's book does talk about how to do this and what to expect to come out of it.
Finally, I highly highly recommend exploring the drawing and art sections of your local library if available. A lot of drawing books are good for one read through and then they don't even have much benefit as references. If you are going to buy, buy as many of the books used as possible. These things are super expensive and many of them are mandatory purchases for art students, who then resell them when the class is over. So there are a lot of them on the used market.
Yes. FWIW, it's a reasonably common thing for creators to feel. A couple book recommendations:
This is super common.
I'm going to paste an extract from a book called Art and Fear:
> The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -- albeit a perfect one -- to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes -- the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
TL;DR: Just fucking write.
I encountered it in Ways of Seeing, but I don't think they originated it.
Both standard texts, but quite academic. Not exactly books for the flickr crowd.
Seconded, with the addition of John Berger - Ways of Seeing
The BBC show 'Ways of Seeing' which the book is based on is available streaming on Netflix and is worth the watch in my opinion.
Ways of Seeing
https://www.amazon.com/Ways-Seeing-Based-Television-Penguin/dp/0140135154
It was based on a TV series from BBC
Since you don't say whether you want to learn how to operate a camera or the field of photography in general and what interests you in photography in particular this is quite a stab in the dark but here are a few suggestions of books I keep coming back to or hold important.
This assumes that you have a basic understanding on how to operate a camera. If you don't, read your camera manual or something like Adam's The Camera and .
Technical advice
Theory/Motivational advice
https://www.amazon.com/World-Robert-Jordans-Wheel-Time/dp/0312869363
Dubbed the "Big White Book of Bad Art" because, well, it's a big white book with a lot of bad art in it.
Obviously, reading the entire series several times isn't a practical idea. And, there's far too much breadth and depth to the world to give you a useful crash course in a reddit comment or two. So, here are a few suggestions:
Some other resources for you to consider:
Hope this helps!
An artist gave me a list of books to read at a convention after I showed him my work.
Figure drawing for all its worth
Perspective! For Comic Book Artists
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
The Classic How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way
Last year I read Stephen Greenblatt's [The Swerve: How the World Became Modern] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393343405). It concerns itself with the effect that the book "On The Nature of Things" by the Roman philosopher Lucretius has on renaissance thinkers. He argues that many pre-modern, secular, and scientific ideas are reflected in Lucretius' thinking and that the dissemination of the book was a key event in flowering of the Italian Renaissance. I think it'll answer a lot of your questions/ serve as an entry point.
I burned my guru hat a long time ago. :) There are many more deserving people around here. I'm just loud af.
I do really hope you find something useful in there. Here's one more that might directly appeal to you.
Edit: Okay, I've broken one of my own rules of acknowledgment. Thanks for the prasie. :)
I believe you should look at Art & Fear or The Art Spirit
I have more advice but I am currently at work. For the time being I would like to once again recommend Robert Henri's "The Art Spirit". It's not specifically aimed toward any type of art but it's an awesome source of inspiration for the budding artist! I will jump back in with specific drawing advice this evening. :)
I'm a blacksmith and I'm going to restate what biggguy said. Your best bet of finding one of us is at a living history museum (such as the Mystic Seaport Museum, where I apprenticed) or at a renaissance festival or something similar. We're really eager to explain our trade to anyone who's interested, so questions will be received quite well. And depending on where you go, the smith may let you do something really basic like make a hook.
Doing it at night is conceivable, but I will prepare you for something kinda sad. It can be expensive to get into. Lessons are particularly pricey. And getting your hands on an anvil, tongs, hammers, vise, chisels, etc., and most importantly a forge and fuel, can be quite costly depending on how you go about it. That being said I purchased my own smithing equipment a year ago and can say that it is a very rewarding hobby, and an art to itself. You learn so much about the modern and the ancient world in the act of smithing. Also, The Art of Blacksmithing is, in my opinion, a necessity.
I hope I helped you a bit. If you have any questions, just ask.
Off the top of my head? Two reasons:
edit: Corrected the link code.
This is amazing. I would love to try to convince him he must be color blind or something, while insisting that black people are literally black, and white people are literally white, and he must be seeing something different. A spin-off of the classic mildly-stoned-deep-thought, “how do we know that what I call ‘red’ and what you call ‘red’ actually look the same? We only know what ‘red’ is because we’re taught certain things are ‘red’, like fire trucks and apples. Maybe color is a social construct!”
Which reminds me of a Radiolab podcast about color I heard a few months back, and the mystery of Homer’s “wine-dark sea”- supposedly there’s no mention of color blue in neither the Iliad or the Odyssey . Plus, is the sky really blue?
Now seems like a good time for me to finally read a book about the history of color that’s been on my Kindle for months. That Top Mind who just has apparently just discovered color has inspired me!
I have Color: A Natural History of the Palette which I find really interesting, it discusses color theory and the history behind it.
I had actually just finished 'The Bell Jar'. It was very interesting and sad. I have conflicted opinions on it.
Just started reading On Ugliness, the complementary book to History Of Beauty. Since I have an attraction to grotesque, I love it. Usually there isn't an actual discussion on ugliness, only as contraditction to beauty, so it's incredibly interesting, imo.
Edit: Oh! also fanfiction.
Yep, here we are: this is the entrance to the rabbit hole. I really don't want to start the never ending debate about what is ugly and what is beautiful, and how my ugly is your beautiful and vice-versa.
I'll just attempt to explain what I said by asserting that I find this beautiful (just as its curator intended, I would suspect).
What I mean by "ugly" is that which is valueless on any (or almost any) sane scale (of course, I have just invited you to call me out on the "sane" bit). That which is no way admirable, if you will.That which is forced, uninspired and uninspiring, lukewarm. That which screams "I should not have been created". That which does not belong.
I'm sure I've failed in my explaining, but it's OK. I've gotten used to it.
I dont understand the questions but i recommend this to the sub.
Ishmael (and the rest of the series) by Daniel Quinn opened my eyes in my senior year of high school.
It's about a Gorilla, who has lived beside man for a number of decades and teaches a pupil through stories and analogies about how we are already at the cusp of civilization collapse. It's about a lot more than just that, namely the relationship of humans, animals, the planet, and how humans have a unique, egotistical view of themselves where we deemed ourselves rulers of the planet.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins is an eye opener as well.
Other great reads:
Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock.
Necronomicon
UFO's by Leslie Keen
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
I also really enjoyed the Myst series by Rand & Robin Miller (the books the game is based on). It's about worlds within worlds and an ancient race of authors creating worlds through magical ink and books (sci-fi/fantasy).
And if you like this, then definitely read Graham Hancock's new book, Magicians of the Gods. Mind = Blown
http://www.amazon.com/Magicians-Gods-Forgotten-Wisdom-Civilization/dp/1250045924
Found them.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1302902334/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_ZuG9AbHQMBWSN
https://www.amazon.com/dp/130290843X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_xvG9Ab0C13HN9
Amazon. I preordered back in August.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Path-Exile-Various-Artists/dp/1524102644
£23 in the UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1524102644/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510415498&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=art+of+exile
25€ in Germany
https://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/1524102644/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1510415583&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=art+of+exile&dpPl=1&dpID=51GxXbuNUbL&ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Ancient-Thought-Comparative-Philosophies/dp/1581152035
Highly recommended!
Absolutely.
For those interested in the inter-connections between early Greek and Indian philosophy, I can highly recommend Thomas McEvilley's The Shape of Ancient Thought
Nice job! And thanks for sharing.
Is this the book you're reading? Is it good for a modern audience? https://www.amazon.com/Noble-Eightfold-Path-Way-Suffering/dp/192870607X/
As above, so below.
Try this Alchemy-Mysticism-Hermetic-Museum
Amazon is a good start. This book is Mircea Eliade could be a title and if you like visuals, buy Alchemy & Mysticism, 576 pages with color images and some explanation. From there on, try to see what it is that interests you.
I read a great book called Art & Fear.
There's a section where they talk about the teacher of a pottery class. At the beginning of the semester he divides the class in two. Half of the students will be graded on the quality of their work. The other half will be graded on the quantity of their work. I think he actually graded that second group's work by weight.
The crazy thing is, the students who were judged by the sheer volume of the work they produced also happened to produce the highest quality work.
I always thought that was an enlightening story. Great book by the way; short and sweet. Here it is on Amazon.
If you liked this, you might like Ways Of Seeing by Berger, a classic art criticism text:
http://www.amazon.com/Ways-Seeing-Based-Television-Series/dp/0140135154/
Pretty eye opening to people like me who had never been exposed to the thought processes that go into making art and the formation of different movements in art.
John Berger's Ways of Seeing (absolutely brilliant)
Ron Carlson Writes a Story
Critical Theory Today
Wilhelm Reich-The Mass Psychology of Fascism
Amy Bloom-Normal
Tom Stoppard-Arcadia
Sara Marcus-Girls to the Front
I missed the whole two souls thing on my first read through as well. Slayer was a very confusing character.
As for a “history” there is the Wheel of Time Companion book which has a loooot of really cool info. It’s basically an encyclopedia but it has stuff like all the old tongue words translated and it mentions the power levels of every Aes Sedai.
There’s also the World of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time which might be closer to what you’re looking for. It doesn’t include as much info, and it came out before the series was finished I think. But it gives a really good overview of Randland and the past. It breaks down the different nations, factions, age of legends, etc. i highly recommend both if you love WoT (though the artwork in the latter book is... questionable. I do like some of it, but some is horrendous imo).
Edit: I have both btw so feel free to ask any questions or if you want a little sneak peak I can pm you some pics of them.
To be fair, Twixt is correct on Hawkwing. The information about Hawkwing's history, the Consolidation (capital C because it is an event in WoT history), his treatment of commoners, and his interaction with Aes Sedai exists in The Big White Book.
In this case, the speculation is fueled by facts and it is not that difficult to extrapolate what Hawkwing might have said to Tuon. The Seanchan have run the empire near the direct opposite direction a younger Hawkwing and also the bound Hero did/would. Some if not all of the harshness with which the older Hawkwing ran the empire and thus the empire that would have sent the colonizers who would become Seanchan, like the hatred of Aes Sedai, is attributed too Ishamael/Ba'alzamon's manipulation posing as Jalwin Moerad. An action Ishamael takes credit for the first time Rand is summoned to Tel'aran'rhiod.
> The continent we refer to as Randland is called "Westland" by RJ
"The Westlands," actually. It says so explicitly in the encyclopedia.
> The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time
Sorry, should have linked it for you. The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time . Published in 1997, has a lot of nice background material on the age of legends, Seanchan, etc. Also known as The Big White Book of Bad Art.
Your skills to 'show, not tell' will become more essential. As the previous comment said, you are going to lose most of the 1st person POV prose accommodates (and even if some of it is retained....compare something like Fight Club the novel, to Fight Club the movie or Fight Club 2 the graphic novel....still considerable differences once visuals come into play.). Even dialogue can be a bit of a sticking point - it depends on the genre you're writing for as how much room you have before audiences start to get bored.
If you're writing for film/animation - consider learning about basic camera movements and shot framing (ie ECU, CU, WS, rules like the 180 degree rule). Watch videos on film analysis, one of my favorites is the Every Frame a Painting channel on YT, but there are other series/videos out there that aren't completely boring (and some that go very extensively into worldwide film history, such as A Story of Film: An Odyssey which is streaming on Hulu at the moment, used to be on Netflix)
Animation is a little trickier as a lot of writing is actually done in the storyboard phase (so is more art oriented), but a classic there is Disney's The Illusion of Life book as a starting point even for non-artists.
If you're writing for graphic novels: My favorite beginner reference is the DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, with Will Eisner being another classic author on the genre. Brian Michael Bendis did a book that's pretty good too.
Likewise, stage plays, radio plays, have their own sets of tips and industry tricks, but I'm not as knowledgeable on those topics to offer suggestions. Good luck and have fun!
There's a ton of advice I could give you - and I'll try to throw a bunch of it at you - but keep in mind I've barely begun this process myself. This is what I can tell you based on what I've observed, take it as you will.
My first piece of advice is to do the thing you said you never do. Put them down to paper. These little scenes and random thoughts you have swimming through your head are exactly where "we all find ideas to start from." It could be a simple scene in the middle of a larger story, it could be the very last words you want to someone to hear. Regardless of what it is, put it down on paper. I always carry a small moleskin notebook with me and have gotten into the habit of just jotting down something whenever it goes through my head. When you're used to just thinking of things, it's a little jarring at first to stop and write it down, but believe me - it will be worth it. This is the fountain of ideas you're looking for.
Arguably the most important thing I can tell you, is to write. Don't worry about whether it's formatted right, if you've structured your characters enough, or if you've done a good outline. Write. Whenever, wherever, as much as you can. You're only going to get better at writing by writing.
That being said, worry about format, structure, and outlines. And what I mean by that, is look back on the work you did, figure out where you could have done better and the next time try to do that. The first thing I ever wrote, I did without thinking about my characters, what they really meant, their back story, the environment they lived in, and said to hell with an outline. After it was finished, I knew for my next project that this had to change.
Consume the media you want to create. Not only should you actively read comics, you should try to consume anything that gives you insight to the business and how other people work. This is a list of books I bought and think have been extremely helpful. They give insight into the importance of creating characters, environments, etc before you even begin a script. I've listed them in the order I personally liked from best to still pretty damn good
The last one is great because you get to see the various script styles of in-the-business writers. For comics, I also actively listen to these podcasts:
In addition to all that, I follow /r/writing and try to stay active on this subreddit. We've done a few writing prompts, which I think are great ways to get you writing - though I wish more people would take part.
JoshLees has compiled a larger list of resources, definitely take a look at that. The above listed things are what I consume personally.
That's all I have for now, and the community can feel free to correct me or add to it, but other than that good luck!
On my summer reading list, I have:
I'm currently half way through The Conquest of the Incas. If anyone has interest in the Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica, I highly recommend it. It's a very vivid account of the political games Pizarro and his generals played to take over the Inca empire and solidify their grip in the New World.
Was search for the Yanis capitalism/democracy post & returned here instead. Reading the article, i couldn't get past this near the opening:
>Karl Marx, a 29-year-old philosopher with a taste for epicurean hedonism and Hegelian rationality
Which led down a few rabbit holes... His dissertation was on Epicureanism, which isn't mere foodie-ism, and there were some interesting bits on hedonism in the mix. Quite a clever quip from Yanis...
edit to add a few leads:
http://epicurus.today/epicureanism-after-epicurus-the-influence-of-epicurus-on-western-thought/
(notes "Marx wrote his doctoral thesis on Epicurus. Marx saw Epicurus as a kindred rebel spirit. Thus Epicurus sought to overthrow the philosophy of Aristotle, just as the post-Hegelians — including the young Marx–rose up against Hegel." -- so maybe Yanis wasn't quite on point about Marx being rationally Hegelian? hm.)
This book looks super interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Swerve-How-World-Became-Modern/dp/0393343405
Also, this argues against the hedonism label:
https://np.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/1uvl9n/does_marxist_thought_promote_hedonism_does_it/cem7w8w/?context=3
I would recommend Franco Moretti and Stephen Greenblatt. They're both controversial authors, but even people who disagree with their arguments tend to agree that they're enjoyable to read. They're also more accessible than your average critical text.
Moretti writes a lot about using statistical analysis to make critical arguments. He's the more enjoyable of the two, but also the more controversial. Here's one of his most famous essays, Style, Inc. Reflections on Seven Thousand Titles (British Novels, 1740–1850)
For as much hate as Greenblatt has gotten over the years, he's actually (in my opinion) a fairly safe, established, non-combative critic. He's primarily held responsible for New Historicism, a school of critical theory that places a ton of importance on the culture and society that the writer wrote in. Some folks don't like it because they think it distracts from what's actually on the page - what the writer wrote, not what might have been in the back of his head as he was writing. Other people think he sometimes uses New Historicism to make weak arguments - to base his reading of an important passage on what some random guy in 1596 said about fashion or politics.
I haven't read it, but apparently Greenblatt's The Swerve: How the World Became Modern won a Pulitzer and a National Book Award.
Edit: I should say that neither of these authors are writing surveys (although Greenblatt edits the Norton anthologies of Shakespeare and of English literature). But for me, I find a well-written book about a limited time period stays with me longer than a broad survey text.
Different strokes for different folks. Depending on their learning style, some love Loomis but hate Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain or say Keys to Drawing didn’t help them a bit. Truth is, most artists eventually read them all and use portions from each of them.
My personal reading focused more on the philosophy of art. I wanted to learn the traits and mentality of a successful artist and why they do what they do.
Books by Steven Pressfield:
The War of Art,
Do the Work,
Turning Pro.
I also re-read The Art Spirit by Robert Henri.
Excellent! If you decide to delve more and deeper, check out The Art Spirit http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Spirit-Robert-Henri/dp/0465002633
I also recommend checking out bigwords.com. It will save you a ton on books.
The Art Spirit by Robert Henri. Amazingly articulate for an artist.
Letters to a Young Poet was ineffably helpful in learning to hold loneliness/solitude as something valuable. One of the most insightful books I have read. And it is extremely short.
Art and Fear
The Art Spirit
The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Hatred of Music
The Art of The Lord of the Rings
The Art of The Hobbit
The Hobbit illustrated by Jemima Catlin
Lord of the Rings illustrated by Alan Lee
The Hobbit illustrated by Alan Lee
The Silmarillion illustrated by Ted Nasmith
Folio Society also has editions with illustrations.
Edit to add:
Beren and Luthien illustrated by Alan Lee
Bilbo's Last Song illustrated by Pauline Baynes
Anvilfire.com
Iforgeiron.com
hammertyme.com
reddit.com/r/blacksmith
/r/blacksmithing
/r/bladesmith
/r/metalworking
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Blacksmithing-Alex-Bealer/dp/0785803955
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966
http://www.anvilfire.com/bookrev/
Those are just a few to get you started.
ALSO. Start learning metallurgy as soon as possible.
Links? Also disprove that he is one of Israel's largest critics, because by all accounts he is. Almost every book and report he has written in the past 20 years mentions Israels horrid crimes. He goes out of his way to slap Israel every chance he gets!
Here is just a tiny sampling:
http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/Photo-Galleries/Lists/Banned-by-Israel-Noam-Chomsky-and-who-else
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/noam-chomsky-israels-actions-in-gaza-are-much-worse-than-apartheid/
http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-real-reason-israel-mows-lawn-gaza
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/22/in_un_speech_noam_chomsky_blasts
http://www.amazon.com/Failed-States-Assault-Democracy-American/dp/0805082840
http://chomsky.globl.org/#
Boy your BS falls apart really fast when confronted with reality doesn't it?
Also Zionists may be ahead of the game, but not by as much as they like to think (or you are led to believe).
I bought this book for my painting teacher and he enjoyed it. All about the history of different pigments. Color: A Natural History of the Palette
If you want more fun aesthetics of ugliness reading and think you'd be interested in a super visual take with a heavy focus on classical painting, check out On Ugliness by Umberto Eco
Along these lines, Umberto Eco's On Ugliness is fantastic.
There is also the companion History of Beauty
Have your read Eco's History of Beauty?
Or his On Ugliness?
>Consider this: For all of the 4000 or so years of recorded history, humans were living in tiny little collectives. There were (for the most part) no roads, no grand cities, no light bulbs, no water systems, very little in the way of governments or hierarchies, etc.
Might want to check out Gobekli Tepi ;) It dates back at least 10,000 years. Our history is probably a lot more interesting than we give credit.
Check out this book, it's a page turner!
http://www.amazon.com/Magicians-Gods-Forgotten-Wisdom-Civilization/dp/1250045924/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450451934&sr=8-1&keywords=magicians+of+the+gods
Book on the subject Magicians of the Gods https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045924/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_x2Loyb5676JB1
Dope post! This made me interested in picking up the Marvel Hip Hop Covers, Vol. 1 book, too.
Here's the Amazon link for it.
https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Hip-Hop-Covers-Vol-1/dp/1302902334
You planning going entering Duat a little early? Here ya go
here bro
Budge's work was decent for its time, but knowledge of ancient Egyptian vocabulary and grammar has advanced considerably since the 1800s. In particular, Polotsky's discoveries in the mid-20th century dramatically changed how scholars analyze the Egyptian verbal system. It's extremely irritating to see Budge's works still in publication since all of them have long since been replaced by more up to date works.
An additional problem is that Budge uses his own peculiar version of vocalization for transliterations rather than the standard system used by Egyptologists today, which makes it very difficult for a non-Egyptologist to look up words from his translation in an Egyptian dictionary like Faulkner's or the TLA.
As an example, see page 130 of Budge's translation. Budge translates an adjectival sentence as follows:
>neferiu uben-k em xut se-het'-k taiu em satu-k
>"Doubly beautiful [is] thy rising in the horizon, thou shinest upon the two lands with thy beams."
Here Budge has misinterpreted the adjective nfrwy. It's true that -wy is commonly the dual form (hence Budge's "doubly"), but that is used only for dual nouns, typically body parts such as legs and eyes, and adjectives referring to dual nouns. It makes no sense as a dual in this adjectival sentence. Rather, it is the exclamatory ending -wy used for predicate adjectives ("how XXX is Y!"). Budge also rather awkwardly begins a new independent clause with "thou shinest" when it fact it should be linked to the previous clause; Egyptian independent clauses typically require the use of an introductory particle, which is not present here.
Egyptologists today would translate the sentence as follows:
>nfrwy wbn=k m Axt sHD=k tAwy m stwt=k
>"How beautiful is your shining in the horizon while you brighten the Two Lands with your rays (lit. 'shootings')!"
The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day translated by Faulkner and Goelet is a much more recent and reliable translation of the Papyrus of Ani, the version on which Budge's translation is based.
Hey there!
Well, I own a copy of the earlier edition of this book. You're in luck, this new edition is very recent. It's paperback, however, and I'm not entirely sure if there's a hardcover version. It's the Faulkner translation. I'm sure there are more recent translations, but Faulkner's, as you probably know since you named him in your title, is very respected. The plates are stunning, and for that alone it's worth it. Some pages are even fold-in in order to not compromise the scenes. The book is rather tall, so you can see detail, and the translations are under the pertinent plates.
I did set the bar quite high when looking for a Book of Coming Forth by Day and this version is one I quite like. I'm yet to hear negative feedback about it, although I'd appreciate it. The only downside for me so far is that it's paperback.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Path-Exile-Various-Artists/dp/1524102644
I have been meaning to read this book after I read a NYT article on the author but haven't got around to it yet (it addresses the commonality of Indian and Greek philosophy):
The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies
A video that might get you interested:
Thomas McEvilley on 'The Shape of Ancient Thought'
About the author:
Thomas McEvilley
NYT article
Edit: Also, check out this blog by Bibhu Dev Misra for very insightful/interesting articles:
Myths, Symbols and Mysteries
In addition to yumchoumein's books, Thomas McEvilley's The Shape of Ancient Thought addresses at least your related question. Obviously, information about Eastern influences on Presocratic thought is less abundant than Eastern influences on post-Socratic thought (not that information on the latter is abundant). If the latter interests you, though, see the Gymnosophists and the following tidbit from this entry on Cynic influences:
>Perhaps of importance were tales of Indian philosophers, known to later Greeks as the Gymnosophists, who had adopted a strict asceticism together with a disrespect for established laws and customs.
This article - The Yogi who met Socrates - was one article that I read on this that seemed to capture it.
The Wikipedia entry on Greco-Buddhism seems to cover everything mentioned above, which I didn't realise until I had typed it, so it's staying...
I wrote a recent undergraduate essay on Heraclitus in which I discussed the similarity between his thought and the thought of the mystics, both Eastern and Western. Read Heraclitus's fragments amid a few Zen lineage texts and you'll be convinced of the universal character of the mystical experience, but I don't suspect Buddhism of having influenced Heraclitus.
Talk about a good deal: the kindle edition is only 3 bucks! And you don't have to have a kindle to read it; they got PC and mobile apps.
You can get this in book form ( 144 pages ) on Amazon
"What Makes You Not a Buddhist" by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse is a great intro to Buddhist ideas. It can be read for free on scribd without logging in. If you like it, consider buying it to support the author.
Another common suggestion is Way to the End of Suffering by Bikkhu Bodhi.
Honestly, one of the best places to start is:
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Mysticism-Alexander-Roob/dp/3836549360/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1537747469&sr=8-8&keywords=alchemy
He references most everyone you need to know, and you can follow up. Plus he's really focusing on an important part of the Alchemical tradition and it's transmission: the visuals. Where the guys creating these visuals alchemists? Maybe not in all cases, though it would be hard to do any of them with no understanding, but in many cases- definitely.
This is one of the main sources of Alchemical tradition, and you'll see very little that indicates that you are trying to turn lead into gold, but a lot conveying that you are taking metaphorical lead and turning it into gold. Spiritual lead into gold. Human lead into gold.
I got Alchemy & Mysticism by Alexander Roob! Have yet to read it, but beautiful pictures!
Thanks for posting that! I recognize a lot of those illustrations from this book called "Alchemy & Mysticism" by Alexander Roob. Have you ever seen that one? It's a really amazing collection of artworks. I wish it were a little larger, but it's a great resources nonetheless, and it was really affordable. The hardcover sells on amazon for less than $20. Well worth a purchase if you into such things!
*edit - here is the link:
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Mysticism-Alexander-Roob/dp/3836549360/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526840172&sr=1-1&keywords=alchemy+and+mysticism+alexander+roob&dpID=5168YyiXUkL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
That is so cool! Thanks for linking it. I've put it on my wishlist to possibly buy later. Right now I'm looking through this and I have this on the way, so I'll wait on that Seaborg book.
Yup. Get the hours in.
Crucially, spend some time drawing from life models.
I would study stills from music videos.
I would carefully study and loosely copy panels from western comics and manga - to see what the artist was thinking.
I'd grind through Brandon Grahams's essays on the process and business of comics.
https://ifanboy.com/articles/items/what-do-brandon-grahams-prophet-scripts-look-like-like-nothing-else-really/
Also, I would grind through the notes at "Vilppu awn":
https://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.5/3.5pages/3.5villpu.html
which are collated in a book and even better $30/month videos:
http://www.newmastersacademy.org/painting-instruction/
(There's also stuff on perspective, composition, anatomy, and so on there.)
Jetpens.com (and maybe dickblick) has got the pens and so on.
Avoid the how-to-draw manga books by westerners. They suck ass.
This book (in translation) is brilliant: How to Draw Manga Volume 1 : Compiling Characters
https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Compiling-Characters/dp/4889960422
Although you want to use the mangastudio software or some such to put down tone.
In your writing, avoid cliche, overused tropes, and metahumor. Your town should have a creative writing group. Try joining it.
I'm not sure if this is the style you want.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Compiling-Characters/dp/4889960422
The whole series have this same style.
hope i helped
i don't recall any book that cover exaggerated anatomy....i don't read too much book sorry..... one that was fun to read was https://www.amazon.com/dp/4889960422/ref=sr_1_31?__mk_pt_BR=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=how+draw+manga&qid=1572536562&s=books&sr=1-31 but that actually cover more how to draw manga than anatomy....
in the beginning is hard to grasp the shape correctly, try not focus model in orthographic planes...is better use more the perspective plane to get the volume more correclty... other good tip is use the silhouette mode to see the true shape of object ... sometimes the sulpture look good but something look odd because the base shape is odd..... and more detail you put in it makes hard to see .... if that make any sence.... lol
I've heard of this book, has it helped you a lot? I have Art and Fear Same idea. Actually never finished that one. Can't even finish my books haha.
I just got done reading The Art of Fear for the umpteenth time and every single time it gives me a reason to continue doing what I am doing and to never compare yourself with those around you and realize that every other artist out there has the same anxieties that I do in creating content. It is a wonderful book and I immediately recommend it for artists of all levels.
I think every artist has those days. Some more than others, but all of us struggle with doubt. It's part of the process. It weeds out a lot of bad shit. Embrace it or let it win. You have two solutions I'm aware of.
One, walk away. Maybe you need a breather. Read something. Watch something. Do something. Recharge your batteries. Sometimes a block is your brain's way of saying it's got nothing to give anymore. When a campfire goes out you don't curse at it expecting it to flare up. You feed it more wood.
Two, keep pushing. Start writing fast. I mean really fast. Don't stop for air. Stop reading what you wrote. Stop it. Set a timer if you have to and don't let yourself stop typing. It's exciting. You need to be excited.
> I'll spend hours rewriting a phrase or a scene
Stop that. You're making it worse. Just thinking about that. No.
If you want to be reassured that you're not alone in feeling this way, read a book called Art & Fear. If you want to save yourself time and money, just know that someone wrote a book called Art & Fear.
Ways of Seeing is so, so good. There's a book, too - well worth it.
You don't always get more fun out of illustrations. Sometimes you wish the illustrations never existed at all.
Sup LazyJ507. It looks like nobody's really given you any tips yet, so I'll try, and see if this helps at all.
Work on drawing.
By that I mean draw from life. Often. Get a sketchbook and go out and draw a whole lot. Draw your family, your friends, your classmates, etc. Studying anatomy helps a lot! The real meat for drawing figures is in learning what things are SUPPOSED to look like. Try to find some life drawing classes.
Read a lot.
And by this I mean reading lots of comics. Read lots of comics and read lots of books about comics. See what you like and try to emulate--NOT COPY-- things that you think are awesome. I recommend checking out Scott McCloud's Making Comics and Understanding Comics. Also, check out Will Eisner's books: Comics And Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Expressive Anatomy have helped me tons. It's awesome seeing professionals in the comics world give you tips and visuals that help you learn. Also, read novels, watch cartoons, watch movies, play video games. Find the aspects that you like about each and see how you can connect that to making comics. Comics are a pretty limitless medium.
As for this comic specifically, work on size, spacing, lettering, panel layouts, and black-and-white balance. And maybe comedic timing, but that's more in the writing area.
I can't really think of any more tips, but if you're wondering about anything else, go ahead and ask.
(i'm a sequential arts student a bluh bluh bluh)
We have a running experiment in the world today on the subject of Bible vs. no Bible.
Some parts of the world operate without it, other parts with it.
I'm not a historian, and am curious as to what one would say on the subject.
Going on what little I know of history, here's what it looks like to me:
Europe and the Middle East have had the "benefit" of the Bible for at least 2,000 years. These areas have had varying degrees of civilization in that time. As I understand it, officially sanctioned slavery existed in Europe until the conspicuous slave-taking and trafficking that the Vikings practiced made it a crime, in the case of Christian slaves. It is still practiced in parts of the Islamic world. Serfdom continued until the Middle Ages, and marriage-slavery of women continued until a century ago in Europe and is still practiced in parts of the Islamic world. Genocide or attempted genocide happened whenever it was religiously or politically called for, such as wiping out various kinds of heretics in the first millennium, and entire swathes of red-headed women (interestingly, red hair is apparently a marker for Neanderthal blood) around the Middle Ages, and much of the population of the so-called New World in the more recent past. Abortion was universally practiced whenever people had access to the technology, for obvious reasons, until the most recent American religious revival came along. As for the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of moral precepts basically calling for love and humility, it has occasionally inspired people (Dietrich Bonnhoefer for example) and groups of people (the Hutterites for example) to be more loving, at least to each other, and to be more humble, at least as regards some areas of personality. I think it is these teachings that Christians must mean when they say that things are better because of the Bible?
The rest of the world had not heard of the Bible until about 1500, I'm pretty sure. These areas also have had varying levels of civilization. Slavery seems to have been pretty common, but it has had more benign forms than found in Christendom/the Islamic world as well as more miserable forms. Buddhism is explicitly anti-slavery, and "the Chinese Emperor Wang Mang, a Buddhist, may have been history’s first powerful abolitionist—he outlawed the slave trade in 9 A.D." (https://www.freetheslaves.net/take-action/faith-in-action-ending-slavery/) I think you have to look at each area and tribe to find out about slavery, it's not a monolithic thing. In the same way, women had varying levels of freedom, from near-equality to levels approaching the (Bible-based) Saudi-Arabian level of oppression. Abortions were universally practiced whenever people had access to the technology, for obvious reasons. Values such as loving everyone also seem to be pretty variable, though I think calling it a primary virtue may actually be limited to Christianity until recently (is this true?). Humility, of course, is a value that any hierarchical culture demands of non-aristocrats.
What seems pretty clear to me is that until the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the lot of most Christians was dreadful, especially of women but also of men. It took humanism to make things tolerable for the majority of people. See https://www.amazon.com/Swerve-How-World-Became-Modern/dp/0393343405/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PVWLX0X7TJ2C&keywords=the+swerve+how+the+world+became+modern&qid=1566105291&s=gateway&sprefix=the+swerve+how+the+w%2Caps%2C231&sr=8-1
Today we outlaw slavery (though it is still present everywhere, especially enslavement of women, see https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/data/maps/#prevalence for example), we mandate certain but not all rights for women, and most of us agree at least in principle that compassion is a good idea but humility should be contingent. Wherever birth control is available, the abortion rate is relatively low. These are Enlightenment values, not Biblical ones.
I'd be interested to hear from somebody who actually knows the subject.
This is a one hour lecture by an award winning, Harvard professor on an Epicurean, Lucretius: Stephen Greenblatt on Lucretius and his intolerable ideas. I've watched it twice and will read his book, The Swerve.
I think "The Swerve" by Greenblatt is one of the most popular books on Epicureanism, though there are plenty:
https://www.amazon.com/Swerve-How-World-Became-Modern/dp/0393343405
I'd also recommend reading some Epicurus if you are interested. Not many texts out of his large collection have survived, but there are a few, and they are very illuminating, especially on the ethical side of his philosophy, which Lucretius does not tend to discuss at great length:
http://www.epicurus.net/
I'd especially recommend the Letter to Menoeceus.
Or perhaps you simply weren't taught about all the times Christians have done it.
If you're interested in learning more about the Christian Church's early culture wars, you should check out The Swerve
The book is The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. The writer kind of exaggerates the significance of both Poggio and Lucretius but it is really engaging and gives you a good idea of the precariously fine line many humanists walked in adhering to the Church and pursuing intellectual advancement.
Link to the source book.
I would buy land and books.
With the land, I would set up ecovillages, and I would (also) set aside vast areas where the plants and animals would be able to rejuvenate uninhibited.
I would find like-minded people, and I would ultimately try to integrate them into the enviornment with the wolves and the buffalo and the other animals. Humans can, and have been, ecologically sustainable organisms in natural environments. Not all agriculture is bad. Many Native American groups practiced agriculture in harmony with the rest of the environment.
I am also not against technology. A bow and arrow is technology, any tool that people use is technology. I am, however, against plastics and other harmful chemicals.
I would also build an army with the people who come to live on my land. There is no shortage of people - homeless people, high-school and college dropouts, homeless children, the unemployed, environmentalists, and lots of people I talk to IRL would be down for this idea.
I would learn assorted martial arts, I would teach them to others, and I would have the others teach them to more people, and we would spend a lot of time on it. This would be both for the health benefits and the self-defense benefits. It would be an army of ninjas, who also grow their own food and are self-sustaining. This will be great in case of societal failure or economic collapse. I would also teach/learn as many natural survival skills as I can. The goal of the army would be to establish peace and not wars, and to help people achieve independence (from money, oil, and industry) while also keeping a healthy relationship with the environment and the other animals.
We would also care for our children. We would raise them to be physically healthy and open-minded. We would not overshelter them, or put taboos on their sexuality, and we would make it the job of the entire community (especially the elders) to educate and take care of them. We will not over-shelter them or raise them to be weak. We will teach them how to socialize with each other in healthy ways, in an open, nurturing, loving environment. We'll also make it official policy that everything we do is done with the well-being of the next seven generations in mind.
There are also some books that I would want to buy and distribute. They include Circle of Life Traditional Teachings of Native American Elders, by James David Audlin, The Other Side of Eden, by Hugh Brody, The Conversations with God trilogy, by Neale Donald Walsch, The Art of Shen Ku, by Zeek, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, by Thom Hartmann, A Practical Guide to Setting Up Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, by Diana Leafe Christian, and I'm sure there's lots of other good ones. You should really conduct your own search, but I feel all the ones I've listed have valuable information and the power to change the ideas of large groups of people. Anything on Native American culture, history, and philosophy, or on organic gardening, or self-sustainability in general. I might even set up my own bookstore or library, now that I think about it, and make more money. I'm definitley not against making money, because everyone in our world believes in money and money is power in our society.
Oh cool, I read about this methodology in a book call Shen-ku. I wasn't sure if the advice there was sound or what. Are you quoting from a different resource?
Great Fantastic, thanks for pointing that out!
But what i'm thinking of is a publishable pdf with pictures, one that you could put on a torrent and spread all over the internet. A book similar to what I have in mind is "The Art of Shen Ku - By Zeek"
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Shen-Ku-Intergalactic-Universe/dp/0399527257
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Shen-Ku-Intergalactic-Universe/dp/0399527257
This will let you know when you act.
This will help you know you're on the right path, and
This is to help you along the way.
A person (including you) shouldn't judge your initial efforts and exercises in art any more than they would judge the worth of a mathematician on the practice problems in his old algebra textbook.
That being said, don't let your perceived lack of ability keep you from tackling projects you're interested in because you feel you need more practice first. Keep practicing but don't be afraid to say what you want for fear of technical ability.
Some books:
The Natural Way to Draw
The Art Spirit
Art and Fear
Can't believe this is not already posted, but don't see it.
There is actually a coffee table book of his art called The Art of the Hobbit:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Hobbit-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0547928254
Many (all?) of these images could be scans from the book.
If you want to find more of Tolkien's art Hammond and Scull also released The Art of the Hobbit with his illustrations for...the hobbit. And later this year they'll release The Art of the Lord of the Rings!
Great work! Cannot recommend "The Art of Blacksmithing" enough
Spike knives are great to practice knifemaking on. They will be decorative however since, as you pointed out, they do not contain enough carbon to heat treat or keep an edge. But do work with them; it's free steel and you can practice how to go about profiling a knife on them.
As far as hammers go, I have known accomplished smiths who are happy with the hammer they picked up at a flea market. I've also known those who have made their own, or those that have bought from Centaur Forge or from other smiths.
It seems everyone has their own idea of what works for them. Quality of steel, balance, and ergonomics are obviously the main priorities, but the rest is up to you.
At this stage, just use what's economical until you start refining your smithing style.
Pick up The Backyard Blacksmith and The $50 Knife Shop. If you've got time, I would also invest in The Art of Blacksmithing, mainly for it's ideas on projects and moving metal.
As for your forge questions, I'm not sure what the best answer is as I primarily work with coal and only occasionally work with gas. The gas forges I use are pretty big, so I don't have experience in your model. Maybe try to stick a RR spike in there, close the doors, and see how it does? You can make small knives for now until you figure out the direction you want to take. Hope this all helped, good luck!
just had a look you grind your knives, cool they look beautiful. However if you want to make a Proper knife (an its clear you have the eye to make one and the youth to spend 1-2 years getting your skill up to the very start of profesional sellable level ) learn how to pattern weld, you can build a small forge fairly cheaply from an old oil can, Get that skill an you will never be out of a job once your reputation spreads far enough. http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=24457 http://octavia.net/the-creation-of-a-pattern-welded-blade/
http://owenbush.co.uk/videos/ Good luck from an ex blacksmith, p.s : Oh an buy http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Blacksmithing-Alex-Bealer/dp/0785803955
https://www.amazon.com/Failed-States-Assault-Democracy-American/dp/0805082840
That is more or less the conclusion of his book 'Failed States'
not to pile on... but...
in painting classes you're wrestling with things like the "four step method" that the classical painters used where you're creating washes and layers that influence how the light travels through the layers of paint... (that layer of dark black you laid down weeks ago becomes that dark corner in the room, while you're painting a completely different black to work out these shadows and details in the foreground... the light literally travels through the washes and bounces off of different paint layers...)
or attempting cubist techniques where with a limited palate you're mixing paints into low viscosity solutions that lend to slapping the canvas on the ground so they don't run. Or "attempting" "en plein air" impressionism, out-in-the-fields getting sunstroke, just trying to render shapes in the bold, slap-on-a-slab-of-paint with a brush or palate knife... You gain a new respect for those people you see actually out there with an easel and a canvas, out on the shore painting this weird, little thing that doesn't look quite right.
Impressionism was something I thought was a joke until I tried it in a field with actual paint. Same with Rembrandt's four step method or even some of, maybe especially some of the modern abstract stuff. You could spend months just learning about mixing paints.
With photography, I had taken thousands of digital photos but doing real, actual darkroom photography--seeing how the slightest error in timing and exposure completely changes the nature of the piece... One can be half decent at digital photography and absolutely hopeless with film photography. Digital cameras are small computers with apertures. Film cameras are tiny darkrooms where for a fraction of a second you expose light to a piece of plastic coasted with a particular chemical composition. And just to get that picture exposed it's an hour of dark room where you might just blow that whole roll with a simple noob error in the processing. A hair or spec of dust on the negative can get blown into the size of a thumb. Scratch one $5 piece of photo paper time time to spend ten minutes with a little air hose trying to remove the piece of hair.
anyhow...
It's sort of Dunning Kruger thinking that mastering photoshop = mastering photography and / or shop.
Dunno. I love our digital tools. (I don't exactly miss getting gassed by terpenoid fumes and how much time lost cleaning up or just taking care of brushes. )
Or being afraid of paint. Literally afraid of the lead in flake white or the metals in cadmium red being absorbed through the skin...
But on the flipside there's also something beautiful just in the lore of the colors alone. Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan. Red from those little red bugs. Red ochre. Real deep red ochre is a color once squeezed onto a palate, one can fall in love with. The old, original cave paint.
Sidenote, great book: https://www.amazon.com/Color-Natural-History-Victoria-Finlay/dp/0812971426
I think this is maybe an argument over words and effort just as much as it's an old vs. new argument.
tl;dr. old, analogue art is hard / messy / expensive / complicated.
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812971426/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_luiBDbGVMT8JQ
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay is a worldwide travelogue of pigments and dyes. Fascinating and fun, definitely my favorite painter book so far.
http://www.amazon.com/On-Ugliness-Umberto-Eco/dp/0847837238
Great Ancient archeology books
[Fingerprints of the Gods](
https://www.amazon.com/Fingerprints-Gods-Graham-Hancock/dp/0517887290)
Magicians of the Gods
Both by Graham Hancock
If this interests you there is a surprising amount of scientific information outlined in this book that may indicate some truth the legends.
https://www.amazon.com/Magicians-Gods-International-Bestseller-Fingerprints/dp/1250045924
I'm currently reading Junkyard Planet which is pretty interesting to me, since I have worked in steelyards and scrapyards on a couple different occasions in my life.
I just finished up Magicians of the Gods which I found very interesting since I am a Physical Geography major, and took a few geoarchaeology courses in my undergrad degree.
The first volume is coming out in book form https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Hip-Hop-Covers-Vol-1/dp/1302902334/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
I... Amazon says 20 bucks.
https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Hip-Hop-Covers-Vol-1/dp/1302902334
I should have checked, had it at my store a while but keep forgetting to check the price. Anyway, it's really neat if you're into the covers!
Marvel: The Hip-Hop Covers Vol. 1
You've probably heard of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, known to the Egyptians as the Book of Going Forth by Day, said to have been written by Thoth, God of Wisdom, "from his own fingers". This is the most important surviving text on Egyptian Magic, a complete grimoire of spells, prayers, hymns and incantations used by the ancient priesthood to connect with the Divine and prepare the soul to travel the Neterworld.
The text itself has enormous historic and spiritual value, but it doesn't exactly explain how a modern magician is supposed to use it. To provide context: try the works of Normandi Ellis, who provides an initiated translation of the text in Awakening Osiris, an explanation of the mythical and magical context of the Egyptian gods (Neteru) in Imagining the World into Existence, and the magical initiatory system of the ancients in The Union of Isis and Thoth.
Thelemic Magick has a connection to Egyptian Magic via the transmission of the Book of the Law. This is the basis for much of the the magical system developed by Aleister Crowley in the A∴A∴ and OTO. Again, this holy book of Thelema is complex and does not provide a useful guide to the beginner on the practice of Thelemic Magick. A book like Maat Magick offers a nice practical system for working with the Egyptian Neteru in the spirit of Thelema.
I just pre-ordered a new book;
http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Book-Dead-Integrated-Full-Color/dp/1452144389/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421361562&sr=1-2&keywords=book+of+going+forth+by+day
It is a new version of the same book, which you could likely get at less cost. Has the whole papyrus published above the English. Pretty good. Fun to read, and fun to use if you are also learning M. E. grammar.
Edit: Searching for information on the "Book of Going/Coming Forth by Day" will get you better results.
The Art of Path of Exile maybe?
Link - https://www.amazon.com/Art-Path-Exile-Various-Artists/dp/1524102644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503008533&sr=8-1&keywords=path+of+exile+art+book
https://www.amazon.de/dp/1524102644/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=path+of+exile&qid=1571493401&sr=8-1
>Any literature would be great.
"The Shape of Ancient Thought" is a very detailed comparison between Indian and Greek philosophy starting with the first sources available. Some of McEvilley's arguments have more evidence than others.
https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Ancient-Thought-Comparative-Philosophies/dp/1581152035
It's not exactly what you asked, but you would probably really enjoy The Shape of Ancient Thought by Thomas McEvilley. "Spanning thirty years of intensive research, this book proves what many scholars could not explain: that today’s Western world must be considered the product of both Greek and Indian thought—Western and Eastern philosophies. Thomas McEvilley explores how trade, imperialism, and migration currents allowed cultural philosophies to intermingle freely throughout India, Egypt, Greece, and the ancient Near East."
https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Ancient-Thought-Comparative-Philosophies/dp/1581152035
Try Bhikkhu Bodhi's The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering, for a focused and in-depth look at the 8 fold path, 'the 4th thing' the Tathagata taught after awakening.
Here is the desktop version of your link
My fav on occult art though the ages:
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Mysticism-Alexander-Roob/dp/3836549360
Honestly the best way to draw great Manga styled artwork is to improve your skills overall; start from the drawing basics and build yourself up. When you have the basics down, then you can start to explore different art styles. That said, as for learning a particular style, one of the best ways is to just practice (and I mean PRACTICE, as much and often as possible) by copying what you like - make sure to pick your favorite pages from manga and figure why they work for you aesthetically.
A good series of books for learning a bit more about the process is the How To Draw Manga series, which have been around for a long time now and were authored by various Japanese Mangaka. One that was interesting was Volume 2; the volume was about traditional techniques with toning (among other things).
I bought a few 'How To Draw Manga" books (the Japanese translated ones, not the American or British ones with the same name) years back and 'Volume 1' ("building characters") had a whole section on "head angles" & "head shapes", the body, body types etc. All things figure & character related. If you want to save £££'s though you could do an image search for "Head angle reference", I found a lot of good ones this way a few days ago, along with ones for feet and torso's.
I found the exact book if you're interested, its dirt cheap now!:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Draw-Manga-Compiling-Characters/dp/4889960422
(Sorry to be slow to respond; I just got back from work.)
Thanks for your long, thoughtful comment.
My critique of the painting grows out of the long history of paintings like this and how they were used. There's a ton of writing on paintings like this -- just as there were a TON of paintings like this -- which were hung in men's bedrooms/private spaces. Such paintings might now seem pretty tame but at the time they were not. According to art historians, they were painted precisely to help with male desire. (See, for example, T. J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life, about painting in Paris in the 19th century; the book shows page after page of paintings just like the The Massage and discusses their "uses." Another commenter here mentioned John Berger's Ways of Seeing (book or video. Or watch Hannah Gadsby's amazing Nanette on Netflix.)
But even through they seem pretty tame now, such paintings still feed attitudes about women. And the attitude toward women this painting presents is all in-line (for me) with what we are seeing now in the Kavanaugh hearings, for example: The attitude toward women of this painting, like the apparent attitude of Kavanaugh and the other "Renate Alumni" guys, is that women exist for men. Women are supposed to be passive objects for male desire.
Compare this painting to Manet's Olympia, for example, which also shows a white woman and a subservient black woman. The white woman looks directly at viewers, meeting their eyes, making it hard to think of her as just an object to look at; in the painting we discuss here, by Debat-Ponsan, the white woman's face isn't even shown. Both paintings put women of color in secondary, passive positions.
One painting alone is not going to teach men to believe that women are passive objects. But it is precisely because there are THOUSANDS of paintings like this, shown over and over and in different places, that they can teach attitudes I think we don't want to have toward each other.
So I clearly disagree with you that this painting and the current male-dominated-political drama have nothing to do with each other. This painting, as part of a long tradition of representations of women in art and film, has a large part to play in how men learn to think women are their playthings.
The art of shen-ku, by Zeek. Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but a great survival resource.http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Shen-Ku-Intergalactic/dp/0399527257
These are just about my favorite art books.
The Art Spirit by Robert Henri
What Painting Is by James Elkins
A Giacometti Portrait by James Lord