Some people like to identify leaves and there are plenty of books to help you do so, such as the one above.
Other people prefer to do it a little differently…….
Artist Christoph Niemann has done illustrations for the New Yorker and New York Times, amongst other things and his Abstract City Blog is interesting. You can see more of his fun work there with regards to leaf “identification”. Have some fun!
Some of the most popular books that people ask for at the library are books on learning to draw or paint. We have a wide variety of books on the subject in both the children’s section, and adult. You can find a book that will teach you how to draw cool girl stuff:
or some things not so girly (but cool to someone, I’m sure):
as well as wide variety of other art books. But what if you need a little more instruction and can’t find a teacher who is offering you exactly what you want? How about taking an online drawing course? Drawspace.com offers a wide variety of courses, teachers and start dates. You just sign up, choose a course you’d like, pay online and and wait for your instructions. There are detailed pages on what drawing supplies to purchase and what resources you might need, so you’ll never be lost. The professor will send you a copy of your assignment in PDF format which you download and complete. Then, you just scan your work and upload it to the site for marking. Lots of fun and you don’t even have to leave your house! Very convenient for people who work and might not be able to attend a class.
So have fun and learn to draw!
We have plenty of books in the library about optical illusions, mainly in the children’s area, but it seems that kids are not the only ones interested in these wonderful eye-tricks. Artist Felice Varini decided to try his hand at a very large scale version of an optical illusion, involving an entire town in the process. It is part art installation on a grand scale and optical illusion, called “Cercle et suite d’eclats” .
In Vercorin, Switzerland, Varini projected the circles onto the village and then traced the images to provide an outline to work from. Then, he went about adding the circles appropriately to all of the houses in the village with paint and the village was photographed. At first, I thought the circles were added digitally to show something specific in the photo, but then I realized that the circles themselves were the optical illusion. You can see a full photograph at Varini’s site here. Thanks to Been-Seen.com for the great article!
If you’re still interested in optical illusions, drop by and look for one of these great books in J152.14
One of my favourite books growing up had to be There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. I’ve seen it done in a variety of forms since, and it never fails to interest kids when I read it in storytime, but a new version put out by Mutt Ink with illustrations by Jeremy Holmes is sure to entice readers back to the tale, even if they’ve long since gone past the reading level. The latest version is a flip book of sorts, with the old lady’s head remaining throughout and the contents of her stomach as she swallows various objects visible as you flip through the book.
You can see more of the book here, as well as other fascinating books in the collection.
Manga, or the art of Japanese animation, is growing more popular everyday, so it’s no surprise that artists of different cultures would take on the challenge of creating their own versions of Manga.
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a Canadian artist who has worked in the Haida tradition of art his whole life, and is believed to be the artist responsible for the Haida Manga movement which began with his first book of the kind called A Tale of Two Shaman in 2001. It is a fabulous combination of design that still allows the distinct look of Canadian Haida artwork with the bold animation style of Manga. A perfect pairing, I think.
You can see an animated version of one of Yahgulanaas’ pieces called Flight of the Hummingbird here:
Or you can follow along with one of his most recent works called HaidaCosmic right here.
He is truly a gifted artist and the combination of the two artforms is fascinating. What’s next for manga?
Kids often come to the front desk and ask us for books about drawing, and we keep a nice selection of books on the subject, from drawing fairies to dogs to fancy cars. Just the other night, a young girl and her mother spent an evening in the air conditioned library, using our art books as inspiration for their work. They came with markers, sketch pads and craft supplies and came up with these great pictures as a result.
I came across a fun instructional video on how to draw simple cartoon faces that might inspire the young artist in your home (or even yourself)! Who knew it was so simple?
Come in and pick up an art book and be inspired to learn to draw!
