The Creature Garden by Zanna Goldhawk, Harry Goldhawk

The Creature Garden by Zanna Goldhawk, Harry Goldhawk ISBN-13: 9781631064272 Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Rock Point Released: May 29, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
The Creature Garden is filled with drawing and design ideas for over fifty animals, trees, plants, and even creatures of myth and lore. Each chapter features a beautifully illustrated opener, step by step instructions for all the animals featured, and interesting facts and folklore on the creatures being featured. This gorgeous art book contains both beautiful stylized art technique and interesting information about natural history, regional folklore, and animals both real and imagined.


My Review:
The Creature Garden is a step-by-step guide to drawing or painting stylized animals and plants. For each animal, the authors illustrated how to draw the basic shapes--circles, triangles, rectangles--and connect the shapes to give the basic animal outline. Then they showed which direction to paint and provided illustrations for adding color and patterns with additional details added in each step. The text mainly described information about the animal with a few tips on how to make a stylized animal recognizable.

They briefly talked about various materials you might use, like markers, watercolors, gouache, and acrylic. They showed how to make the patterns on animal coats. Overall, the illustrations do a good job of showing how to make these animals and plants, especially if you are comfortable with how-to art books with minimal text.

The authors showed how to draw a jaguar, snow leopard, tiger, lion, house cat, dog, wolf, fox, horse, deer, hare, panda, bears, sloth, elephant, giraffe, whale, dolphin, tropical fish, narwhal, octopus, seahorse, swan, flamingo, peacock, crane, owl, cardinal, butterfly, moth, damselfly, bee, phoenix, fairy, mermaid, unicorn, pegasus, griffin, centaur, hippogriff, and Asian dragon. They also provided step-by-step illustrations for several garden plants, forest plants, jungle plants, and underwater plants.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Happy Cactus by DK

Happy Cactus by DK ISBN-13: 9781465474537 Hardcover: 144 pages Publisher: DK Released: May 15, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
In-depth profiles, care tips, and display inspiration for more than 50 popular cactus and succulent varieties. Practical advice, from potting to propagating. Unearth the secrets of different cacti and succulents, with profiles on more than 50 popular varieties. From the cute, flowering pincushion cactus to the wacky prickly pear, discover what makes your plant unique and how it might behave when treated with a little bit of love. Find out where to put it, when to water it, what to feed it, what to look out for, and how to encourage its distinctive traits, from flower stalks to fast growth.

Whether you're seeking a stylish houseplant for your apartment but struggling to keep more temperamental plants alive, or you're a green-fingered cactus enthusiast determined to get your precious plant to grow and flower this year, Happy Cactus is here to answer your questions.


My Review:
Happy Cactus is a gardening book about growing cacti and succulents as houseplants. The book started by talking about choosing a pot and soil, how much sunlight, fertilizer, and water they need, how to repot or propagate them, and dealing with potential pests. Then they provided specific details for about 46 types of cacti and succulents (with sidebars on related plants). These in-depth pages talked about characteristics of the plants (like height, potential pests, how fast it grows, and spines) and care instructions (how much sunlight it needs, when to fertilize and water, plus repotting, propagating, and flowering tips).

They talked about cacti that are only a few inches tall to those that can grow several feet tall. They talked about plants that have spines and those that don't. They even talked about cacti that are grown in a hanging pot. This book is a fun way to learn more about these plants and potentially find some that would suit your house. The only thing they don't really cover is how to find these plants, as some aren't going to be in your local stores.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

The Road to Dawn by Jared A. Brock

The Road to Dawn by Jared A. Brock ISBN-13: 9781541773929 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: PublicAffairs Released: May 15, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
This sweeping biography immortalizes the man who was the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in an epic tale of courage and bravery in the face of unimaginable trials.

Josiah Henson overcame incredible odds to escape from slavery and improve the lives of hundreds of freedmen throughout his long life. He found international fame--including visits to Windsor Castle and the White House--as the real "Uncle Tom" in the novel that fueled the abolitionist movement and ignited the Civil War. But his story has been mostly lost to history, until now.

A dynamic, driven man with exceptional intelligence and unyielding principles, Henson spent forty-one years in bondage before he was finally able to escape with his wife and four children, carrying the youngest two on his broken shoulders for 600 miles. He eventually settled with his family as a free man across the border in Canada. Once there, Henson agitated for racial equality, raised millions for the abolitionist cause, won a medal at the first World's Fair in London, and became a beloved preacher. He returned to America and rescued 118 more slaves, including his own brother, and helped purchase land to build what would become one of the final stops on the Underground Railroad, a 500-person freedman settlement called Dawn.

The Road to Dawn retraces Henson's improbable journey from slavery to freedom and restores a hero of the abolitionist movement to his rightful place in history.


My Review:
The Road to Dawn is a biography about Josiah Henson, who lived from 1789 to 1883. He was born a slave in Maryland and remained a slave for 41 years. In real danger of being sold to a brutal master in the Deep South, he ran away to Canada with his wife and four young children. This was before the Underground Railroad, so he had to forge his own way north with occasional help from kindly strangers. As a preacher concerned for his fellow ex-slaves, Josiah raised money and convinced other ex-slaves to build a town (Dawn) with a school (British American Institute) to help former slaves build a new, prosperous life. He created a successful farm out of wilderness, preached a circuit, encouraged the town's development, raised funds for the school, dictated a popular memoir, and told many famous people (including Harriet Beecher Stowe) his story and about the horrors of slavery.

The author used Josiah Henson's memoirs, newspaper articles, lawsuit records, and such to find details about his life. In addition to talking about Josiah's time as a slave, the author included stories about how cruel slavery could be in general. Even once free, Josiah had a hard life as people who resented his influence and his methods of helping others repeatedly tried to ruin his reputation. The author focused on Josiah's fundraising tours and the battles waged over who got to run the British American Institute--which Josiah never did, though he raised funds for it.

The author also talked about Harriet Beecher Stowe's books and the Civil War. Though Stowe loosely modeled Uncle Tom on Josiah Henson, Josiah's life was different than the character's in many ways. I realized this, but I also had expected an inspirational story. Instead, the first part was hard to read because the author wanted to paint a vivid, graphic picture of the torture slaves sometimes endured. The second part was just depressing. Rather than focusing on all the good done, it focused on a good man being torn down while giving his all to help others. Overall, I'd recommend this book, but just realize that the whole thing is a sad story.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Drawing Wild Animals by Oana Befort, Maggie Reinbold

Drawing Wild Animals by Oana Befort, Maggie Reinbold ISBN-13: 9781631593499 Paperback: 144 pages Publisher: Quarry Books Released: May 8, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Featuring the delightful and informative illustrations of artist Oana Befort and the inspiring expertise of conservation educator Maggie Reinbold, Drawing Wild Animals guides artists at all skill levels as they learn about, observe, and draw animals in a whole new light.

To feed your curiosity, you’ll learn the characteristics, behaviors and, habitats of animals from categories like predators, grazers, and marsupials. To nurture the artist, you'll get step-by-step instructions that show how to develop each animal from simple shapes into richly detailed drawings. Armed with a deeper understanding of animals, you’ll be better able to capture their stunning beauty and enchanting attributes in your artwork.


My Review:
Drawing Wild Animals is an art book on drawing and painting wild animals. The conservation educator provided some basic information about the animals in the demonstrations. The artist showed how to draw wild animals with 26 step-by-step demonstrations. Each demonstration had 6-8 steps with easy-to-follow illustrations and clear text instructions. She used general colors in the instructions rather than specific brand name colors, so you don't need a specific brand to follow the demonstrations.

She started by drawing the basic shapes in pencil, then connecting and refining the shapes. She then added the features, fur, and patterns to make the animal look realistic. She used ink to draw the finalized lines then used watercolor to add color and shading. While not hyper-realistic, the finished art is realistic, not stylized. She didn't specifically talk about how to look at an animal and figure out the steps (using shapes to establish proportions, refinement of the form, adding details), but she did point out how the steps for one animal could be used to draw similarly shaped animals. I felt like I could apply the steps to animals that aren't in the demonstrations. Overall, I'd highly recommend this book to beginning animal artists, from children to adult.

Animals in the demonstrations: Bengal tiger, grey wolf, polar bear, mongoose, elk, hippopotamus, giraffe, zebra, rhinoceros, elephant, hedgehog, chinchilla, hare, sloth, bat, monkey, lemur, koala, frog, toad, salamander, gecko, rattlesnake, crocodile, tortoise, and turtle.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Portrait Drawing by Joanna Henly

Pocket Art: Portrait Drawing by Joanna Henly ISBN-13: 9781631594694 Paperback: 112 pages Publisher: Rockport Publishing Released: April 24, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
This lively, graphic approach to explaining concepts will have you looking and learning with step by step illustrations and expert tips straight from London-based artist "Miss Led" (aka Joanna Henly). Henly begins by guiding you through your initial set up, then moves on to "Understanding the Face". She takes you through capturing facial features and expressions and rendering of hair and skin. This compact 112-page book is just right for carrying in a backpack or pocket for when you’re learning on the go.


My Review:
Portrait Drawing provides tips on how to draw simple portraits of people using pencils. The author briefly described the basics of using a pencil to draw (like how to hold the pencil and the types of marks you can make). Then she showed how to draw a general face/head oval and place guidelines on it to help put the facial features in the correct spots. She then focused on drawing each facial feature at various angles and included male/female and age differences. She also provided sketches and some tips for creating expressions, skin tones, and different types of hair.

The book was mainly illustrations showing how to block in the face and features from various viewing angles plus a number of the author's finished portraits. Overall, I'd recommend this book to artists who like examples and tips on creating portraits at unusual angles, as that seemed to be the strong point of this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Beginning Color Mixing by Kimberly Adams

Beginning Color Mixing by Kimberly Adams ISBN-13: 9781633224902 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Released: April 3, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Perfect for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate artists, the concept- and technique-driven approach makes this challenging subject approachable for artists of any skill level.

Loaded with techniques on how to use and create color for vivid artwork, Beginning Color Mixing explains every key aspect of color mixing. You’ll see basic color theory, hue and saturation, value, temperature, and color relationships and learn to wield color to create mood and atmosphere.

Each key concept is clearly explained, allowing you to master the core techniques and put them into practice immediately whether you’re working in oil, acrylic, or watercolor. Featuring plenty of step-by-step exercises and expert instruction, this is a resource no painter’s library should be without.


My Review:
Beginning Color Mixing is an art techniques book on how to pick what colors to use to create vivid, colorful artwork. The author creates colorful, finger-painted, Impressionistic landscapes. Her technique is to use vivid colors straight from the tube (mainly oil, but also acrylic or watercolor) and place dabs of color next to each other to create eye-catching paintings. (This book won't be of much help if you're looking for instruction on mixing your own colors on a palette; it's about placing color on the canvas.)

The author briefly covered tools, materials, etc., and then discussed the basics of colors and color theory. Then she talked about the main colors--reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, neutrals, black and white--as well as the specific paint colors that she uses to create a range of red (or other) colors in her paintings. She also gave tips about specific paint colors that look good together and how to use color to draw the eye or unify the painting.

She was very easy to understand and her demonstrations were clear and well-illustrated. She provided 4 step-by-step landscape demonstrations (lighthouse and ocean, clouds and a field, fall trees, and more trees) in her Impressionistic style. Overall, I'd recommend this book to any painter who is drawn to her vivid, colorful paintings--like the one on the cover.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.