Thank you to all of you that had written back to me with all your answers to the questions that I had asked in last week's newsletter about zoom classes. I have been going through all of them to figure out what I will be doing for the online classes in the new year.

Holbein has sent me some colored pencils that I will be experimenting with and will tell you all about them in a future newsletter.

Yes to Class at The Studio in McHenry Dec 5th From 9am to 11:30

Email me at Beckerart@gmail.com for any info you may need about my classes or workshops.

As I was organizing my home studio this last week I started going through a bunch of the art books that I have collected through the years and it dawned on me that I have never mentioned the books that I feel got me through art school. Below are the books that I would use and were recommended to the students at the American Academy of Art. Many of these books I used to such an extent that I almost wore a lot of them out.

1. Andrew Loomis, Creative Illustration... this book was what the whole teaching curriculum was built on at the American Academy of Art. Everyone wanted a copy of this book but it was out of print at that time so everyone art the school was always on the lookout for a copy. Those days it would run you close to 100dollars. now they made a reprint and you can get it for 30.

2. John H. Vanderpoel, The Human Figure... this book everyone had a paperback cover of and we would copy every single drawing in the book.

3. John F Carlson, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting... this was a book that the painting teachers all recommended for learning to paint landscapes.

4. John Pike, John Pike paints watercolors and Watercolor these 2 books got the most wear because I would constantly copy Pike's work to try and see how he painted them.

5. Don Andrews, Interpreting the Figure in Watercolor when it came to painting the figure in watercolor this book was the best!

6. Burt Silverman, Breaking the Rules of Watercolor then there was this book that also showed how to paint figures and it broke the rules which I thought was really great.
7. Linda Kemp, Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines Linda's book was a great book for negative painting, and later I had the pleasure of meeting Linda who is an amazing artist that I learned so much from.

8. John Singer Sargent. Any watercolor book you can find of Sargents will be a great book to look at.

9. Wyeth's, I have probably every book that all the Wyeth's put out. They are all great to look at and many to read.

 

When it comes to an art book compared to looking at the images and reading them on the computer or tablet I feel it just is so much nicer to sit in a chair relaxing and looking and reading a simple bound book. 
Books are a great gift for an artist and if people ask you what you want for a gift, give them specific books!