VIRTU A love of or taste for works of art or curios;
a knowledge of or interest in the fine arts as a subject or interest

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Virtu Art Books

How-to Draw, How to Draw Heads and Portraits, Still Life in Pencil

The Zen of Seeing: Seeing Drawing as Meditation
Review: This is a fascinating book that stimulates one to observe the beauty of life's everyday processes and to record these experiences in the form of simpledrawings -- sketches that need not be exact, are often indistinct, yet capture some intricate details to reveal the beauty of nature. This is a very "warm and friendly" book with a very rustic, imaginative style, and is very readable. The expressions in this book have stimulated the interest of almost all who have picked it up- my sons aged 14 and 8, my daughter aged 4, a computer programmer, a cancer patient in the ward, a nurse, and therapist and others from all walks of life - the artist within all of us !

The Yoga of Drawing: Uniting Body, Mind and Spirit in the Art of Drawing
Review: After reading her two other fine books on the technique of watercolor and zen, I didn't think she could come up with another as good as they were,I was so pleasently surprised: "Yoga of Drawing" has surpassed both! Her lovely drawing and simple techniques are easy to understand and most pleasing to the sense of balance and spirit in the presentation of the printed word to the reader. The flow of the spirit and mind are merged together as one to carry one happily through all the pages one by one in the process of understanding. My warmest recommendations

Sengai: The Zen of Ink and Paper
Gibbon Sengai (1750-1837), Zen master of the Rinzai school, was one of Japan's greatest Zen artists, and his expressive calligraphies and paintings - his primary mode of teaching in the last half of his life - are renowned throughout the world. This study by the Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki was Suzuki's last published book, and it is said he considered it the culmination of his work. Each of the 128 images is accompanied by a commentary by Suzuki, to provide inside into the Zen teachings that each image exemplifies

Learn How to Draw and Paint
Paperback
Publisher:
Southwater

School of Drawing:
Start to Learn How to Draw
- The First 21 Steps to Get Started in Artistic Drawing
This is a brilliant text to get started in the world of drawing
in an easy and amusing manner.

How to Draw Plants:
The Techniques of Botanical Illustration (Art Pratical S.)
A comprehensive and authoritative handbook for all those who want to portray plants and flowers with botanical accuracy. In it, the author gives detailed advice on working in pencil, pen, scaper board, watercolour, acrylics and gouache

How to Draw the Human Figure:
Famous Artists School Step-by-step Method
Paperback
Publisher:
H.Holt, U.S.

How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs
If using grids was good enough for Leonardo da Vinci then its certainly good for the rest of us. It does take longer to perfect your works of art than the book suggests (or maybe thats just me) but I have to admit I have been stunned by my own results after only a few attempts and I have not used a pencil since school! Even my matchstick men look like splodges. If you want to draw portraits then buy this book

Portraits (How to Draw S.)
A complete beginner should be amazed at what they can achieve by following the progressive series of demonstrations and learning from the tips, tricks and know-how of the experienced artist.

Heads: v. 2 (How to Draw & Paint S.)
Paperback
Publisher:
Walter Foster Publishing Inc

How to Draw Heads and Portraits (Artists Library)
This book begins with essential information about skull characteristics and head construction. Next, the author presents the canon of the human head, the system that delineates correct placement and proportion of all facial features, allowing for differences based on age and sex. Individual facial features - eyebrows and eyes, nose and ears, mouth and lips - are analyzed in detail. Throughout the book the emphasis is on achieving a good, natural likeness, which involves studying the model in depth. Included is practical information on setting up the work, lighting and posing the model, composition, background, and appropriate format sizes. Step-by-step demonstrations include creating a portrait using chalk, and making a self-portrait

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Helps the reader gain access to right-brain functions, which affect artistic and creative abilities, by teaching the skills of drawing through unusual exercises designed to increase visual skills

Keys to Drawing
Describes the drawing process, discusses proportions, light, depth, texture, pattern, design, and imagination, and tells how to evaluate one's work

Pencil Drawing Techniques
Discusses the basics of drawing, explains how to handle colored pencils, and offers advice on making pencil drawings of landscapes, people, and animals

Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil
In a series of step-by-step demonstrations and illustrations, the author shows how to create the look of metal, wood, hair and other remarkably realistic textures. The book will appeal to both doodlers and more advanced pencil artists

Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces
Carrie Stuart Parks is a trained fine artist and a nationally known forensic artist. With this book, she'll teach artists and non-artists of all ages how to draw incredibly accurate and realistic REAL faces, both self-portraits and portraits of others. Her method for teaching begins with 18 helpful tools to train minds how to see. Many of these are well known and established tools for drawing, but she explains to readers how to use them, where to use them, and why to use them. The core of the book is spent teaching how to lay out the face, placing facial features, and making it look "real." There are illustrations throughout, including before and after work, some of which were completed by her students

The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing
Paperback
Publisher:
Watson-Guptill Publications Inc.,U.S

Colored Pencil Portraits
As a long term colour pencil devotee, i am always interested in books on the subject and, feeling in need of some inspiration, i can say i found it in Ann Kullbergs' book 'Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step'. Straightforward and easy to understand techniques, step by step lessons and fab. drawings. Excellent!

Still Life in Pencil (How to Draw and Paint Series No.215)
Paperback
Publisher:
Walter Foster Publishing Inc