In an earlier blog post, I wrote about which online resources (classes, videos, community forums, blog posts) I relied on in my art education.
In this blog post, I’d like to cover some of the books I’ve been reading lately.
Note: I’m purposefully not linking to Amazon, AbeBooks, or other booksellers here, mostly because there will always be people who fall on one side or the other of a debate as to where to get books (AMAZON EVIL, LOCAL GOOD blah blah), and all of that is super distracting to the topic at hand, which is “what books on art did I enjoy reading?”
Personally, I don’t care where you buy your books, as long as you get them.
(Addendum to previous note: I prefer locally owned bookstores. If that’s your cup of tea, acquire these books there. If not, order on Amazon. See? I don’t care.)
The Visual Arts: A History
First off, I have to mention this wonderful (and super-long and heavy!!!!) exhaustive reference book – The Visual Arts: A History. It’s designed as a college textbook for art history majors and it skimps not a bit on historical periods, world regions, art styles (painting, sculpture, architecture, you name it), major movements, and the historical contexts behind all that art-makin’.
I first came across this book on the syllabus for MIT’s OpenCourseWare class on Art History. I didn’t have time to take the course, but I wanted the book. I found a copy via a second-hand bookseller. When I received it I was recovering from surgery to my L5 vertebrae and couldn’t lift more that 10 lbs. Luckily this sucker came in at 7 lbs.
The one I have is the 7th edition, which came out in 2005. I don’t know if there is a more recent edition, but from the looks of it, the different editions differ mostly in their coverage of the most contemporary stuff.
Furthermore: there are editions that come in two volumes, which might be easier to cart around. Your choice.
That being said, the 7th edition crosses the finish line at 950+ pages, with 1400+ illustrations. It’s my go to reference for sure. Sometime I just crack it open and gawk at the masters.
Understanding Comics
When Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics first came out in the early 1990s, I was a grad student in medieval literature with a long personal acquaintance and love for all things comic-book related.
In my mind, there were a lot of parallels between the narrative strategies employed by Arthurian romance writers (themselves taking a page from the storytelling strategies seen in stained glass art in cathedrals) and post-WW2 comic books.
To say that I devoured that book in one sitting, even though I had giant piles of overdue classroom reading and research to complete, would be an understatement.
At some point, I loaned out my copy (I used to do this a lot when I was a naive young man; alas, no more) and it never made it back into my possession, so I repurchased it about six months ago.
And what a joyful reunion it was. Again, I devoured it in one sitting, and then went back over different sections carefully and slowly, taking copious notes as I went. Scott’s ability to communicate about the visual arts, and narrative storytelling via art in particular, is amazing.
There’s an art pyramid near the end of the book that is especially insightful:
There, in one graphic, he basically explained the entire continuum of art from representational to abstract and beyond. Wonderful stuff!
Painting Abstracts
As far as workbooks on creating art (and abstract art in particular), Rolina van Viet’s Painting Abstracts is the best I’ve encountered so far.
What makes it so good?
Well, she structures her book into a series of lessons, each lesson focusing on some aspect of art-making: line, shape, color, perspective, and so on.
In some lessons, you’re encouraged to go wild with organic shapes. In others, you are constrained to geometric patterns. Sometimes, you get to use lots of colors (hooray as I love color!) and sometimes you only get to use two colors at most (discipline make boy sad but discipline good).
You can do the exercises in pretty much any order you want, which is good, because I’m not really one for rules and following instructions. Of course, if you’re a checklist kind of person (nothing wrong with that), doing the exercises in her prescribed order will still garner huge benefits.
Another thing that’s nice is she doesn’t particularly care how you work out the exercises. You wanna paint with acrylics on canvas? Or work digitally? She doesn’t care! I like it.
Making it in the Art World
Brainard’s Making it in the Art World is wonderful. Plain and simple.
It focuses on how to make money as an artist, and it was written in 2021. It specifically calls out strategies that artists working RIGHT NOW, in the post-pandemic era, can employ to build a brand, market their stuff, and actually make cold hard cash money for the stuff they produce with their hands and wits.
Warning: read this book with a notebook and pen by your side.
In the first two or three chapters alone, I took copious notes based on his ideas and suggestions – enough that I had to completely revisit my go-to-market strategy. It’s chock full of ideas, approaches, and tactics.
Bottom line: you’ll benefit greatly from this read.
