Making A Mark

Drawing is not a talent, it's a skill anyone can learn. This is the philosophy of drawing instructor Brent Eviston based on his more than twenty years of teaching. He has tested numerous types of drawing instruction from centuries old classical techniques to contemporary practices and designed an approach that combines tried and true techniques with innovative methods of his own. Now, he shares his secrets with this book that provides the most accessible, streamlined, and effective methods for learning to draw.

Taking the reader through the entire process, beginning with the most basic skills to more advanced such as volumetric drawing, shading, and figure sketching, this book contains numerous projects and guidance on what and how to practice. It also features instructional images and diagrams as well as finished drawings. With this book and a dedication to practice, anyone can learn to draw!

So many people want to explore the artist within, but don't know where to start. Make Your Mark is the answer. Packed with exciting and accessible art projects, step-by-step instruction, beautiful illustrations, and helpful diagrams, Make Your Mark is a veritable at-home art instructor. Author, artist, and teacher Margaret Peot shares her encouragement and ideas in this fully illustrated guidebook, mapping out new pathways for the personal artistic journey. Eleven chapters focus on different art techniquesfrom stencils and prints to collage and rubbingssuggesting 55 easy-to-follow, step-by-step projects that offer sophisticated and satisfying results. Peot's warm and engaging voice, helpful tips, clear explanations, and simple instructions make it easy to get started, and the sheer range of projects will keep the creative fires burning. Decorated with more than 180 illustrations, every page is brimming with encouragement.

Through the simple act of drawing—whether it’s doodling or creating detailed illustrations—embrace your inner voice and unlock the power of your intuitive intelligence. Do you remember being a child and the pure joy brought on by a box of crayons and piece of paper? Do you still find yourself sketching away every time you pick up a pencil? That’s because drawing is a natural impulse that stays with us throughout our entire lives. Whether you are doodling in a notebook or carving your name in the sand, this simple, stream-of-consciousness activity is a window into your deepest, truest self. In Making Marks, you’ll learn that every single line, smudge, or spot you make contains visual imagery with the power to heal the past, develop your sense of empathy, and reveal solutions and answers you never realized before. You don’t need to have any specific experience or skills to benefit from this book; through simple steps and interactive exercises, people of all ages and artistic abilities can gain insight and learn to reconnect with their creative selves. With beautiful black-and-white and full-color illustrations, Making Marks is a powerful guide to self-discovery. Tap into your unconsciousness as artist and spiritual guide Elaine Clayton takes you on a journey of the soul.

Eric Maisel’s prolific, multifaceted career is a testament to his profound understanding of what it takes to live out one’s creative ambitions. A therapist who is also a bestselling author, coach (and coach trainer), columnist for Professional Artist magazine, and featured blogger for Psychology Today and the Huffington Post, Maisel is an expert on all that blocks the creative. In Making Your Creative Mark, Maisel distills his decades of coaching, teaching, listening, and creating into nine keys, including Passion, Confidence, Empathy, Stress, and Relationship. Each key’s lesson helps creators implement real solutions to their individual challenges. Whether they are writers, painters, actors, composers, or craftspeople, readers will learn to “unlock” what has kept them from beginning, continuing, completing — and succeeding.

The visual imagery of Neolithic Britain and Ireland is spectacular. While the imagery of passage tombs, such as Knowth and Newgrange, are well known the rich imagery on decorated portable artefacts is less well understood. How does the visual imagery found on decorated portable artefacts compare with other Neolithic imagery, such as passage tomb art and rock art? How do decorated portable artefacts relate chronologically to other examples of Neolithic imagery? Using cutting edge digital imaging techniques, the Making a Mark project examined Neolithic decorated portable artefacts of chalk, stone, bone, antler, and wood from three key regions: southern England and East Anglia; the Irish Sea region (Wales, the Isle of Man and eastern Ireland); and Northeast Scotland and Orkney. Digital analysis revealed, for the first time, the prevalence of practices of erasure and reworking amongst a host of decorated portable artefacts, changing our understanding of these enigmatic artefacts. Rather than mark making being a peripheral activity, we can now appreciate the central importance of mark making to the formation of Neolithic communities across Britain and Ireland. The volume visually documents and discusses the contexts of the decorated portable artefacts from each region, discusses the significance and chronology of practices of erasure and reworking, and compares these practices with those found in other Neolithic contexts, such as passage tomb art, rock art and pottery decoration. A contribution from Antonia Thomas also discusses the settlement art and mortuary art of Orkney, while Ian Dawson and Louisa Minkin contribute with a discussion of the collaborative fine art practices established during the project.

Making a Mark! Discovering the Power of Neurodiversity on a Learning Safari is an educational resource in a story format aimed at 9–14 year olds. It highlights neurodiverse learning profiles – particularly dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and ADHD – while weaving in educational themes like grit and the growth mindset through its characters and their experiences. The book uses world-famous sculptor Mark Stoddart’s life and art as inspiration and through powerful analogies shows that learning can be adventurous and safari-like. The first section of Making a Mark! Discovering the Power of Neurodiversity on a Learning Safari is written in story format and tells the educational journey of Mark and his neurodiverse friends. The second section provides information on how the brain works and neurodiversity and enables readers to reflect upon their own learning profiles: their strengths and challenges alike. The book can be easily integrated into a classroom setting aimed at supporting neurodiverse students while also benefitting neurotypical learners in helping them build a balanced understanding of cognitive learning differences. Making a Mark! Discovering the Power of Neurodiversity on a Learning Safari teaches that every single brain is unique and therefore neurodiversity is ‘normal’. It will encourage all children to embark on a journey of creative learning, perseverance and triumph.

Learn to draw the human figure with a two-step approach used by the biggest animation studios in the business with Figure Drawing for Artists.

From beehive to hotplate to the artist's hand, encaustic has evolved as a versatile medium applied to almost every artistic style. A long-overdue look at a newly popular art form, this book explores 79 North American artists' feelings about their work in encaustic and how they use it to express their inner worlds and the world around them. Eight chapters organize the artists by geographical region and focus on how the heated beeswax and resin material is used to create seductive, skin-like surfaces and rich, layered membranes. More than 2,000 years old, this cross-disciplinary medium ranges from painting to sculpture, assemblage, collage, and printmaking and encourages risk-taking in a way that other materials do not. Its inherent contradictions--it can be hot or cold, malleable or solid, opaque or translucent, layered or thin, permanent or fragile--make it all the more fascinating.