March 2023 MBR The Art Shelf

The Art Shelf

Painting Calm
Inga Buividavice
Leaping Hare Press
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
100 Cummings Center, Suite 265D, Beverly, MA 01915
www.quartoknows.com
9780711281844, $20.00, PB, 160pp

https://www.amazon.com/Painting-Calm-Connect-through-watercolour/dp/071128184X

Synopsis: The act of painting is widely acknowledged to bring positive mental health benefits as an Art Therapy. Painting can helps us center ourselves, focus our intentions and engage creatively with the world around us. With the publication of "Painting Calm: Connect to Nature Through the Art of Watercolour", Inga Buividavice has created a beautiful guided watercolor book that reveals aspects of painting with the healing powers of nature, taking you on a journey toward peace and tranquility.

Even if you have no experience with watercolours or painting, the accessible and easy-to-follow prompts found in "Painting Calm" will allow you to express yourself and create with ease and joy. Gather inspiration from artist Inga Buivadavice's beautiful illustrations, designed to capture an emotional connection with the natural world through texture and color.

"Painting Calm" includes: An overview of watercolour painting supplies and how to use them; Basic watercolor techniques and color theory; Exercises for finding inspiration in nature; Seasonal projects that include painting trees, leaves, flowers, natural light and patterns found in nature; Tips for building a creative practice.

Discover your inner artist (and forge a new and powerful relationship to nature) with "Paining Calm", as you watercolor your way to mindful wellbeing.

Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated throughout in full color, "Painting Calm: Connect to Nature Through the Art of Watercolour" will have a special appeal and value for anyone with an interest in art therapy, stress relief, and relaxation through painting flowers, landscapes, and images of light, structure and symmetry with watercolors. Motivational and inspiring as it lays out a course of DIY activities to calm the soul and ease the mind, "Painting Calm" is an extraordinary and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library collections. It should be noted that "Painting Calm" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99) as well.

Editorial Note: Inga Buividavice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unzx2FOoi3M) is a graphic artist and author based in Liverpool but originally from Lithuania. She graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts with an MA in graphic design, and started hand drawing and painting in 2018. Her work centres on the natural world and its relation to the act of creating, and is inspired by plant and animal life around her.

The Art of Drawing Manga Furries
Talia Horsburgh
Walter Foster
walterfoster.com
c/o Quarto
quarto.com
9780760381861 $22.99 pbk / $11.99 Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Drawing-Manga-Furries-anthropomorphic/dp/0760381860

Synopsis: The Art of Drawing Manga Furries is packed with hundreds of tips, tricks, and step-by-step how-tos for creating a variety of manga furry characters, including kemono, kemonomimi, scalies, and fursonas.

With its in-depth instruction, this book is suitable for all manga artists and furry enthusiasts, regardless of skill level or age. From learning the basics of drawing characters and giving them personalities to designing your own fursona and creating reference sheets for them, this book is the ultimate guide to creating all things furry. Follow the simple steps to learn how to draw a variety of furries, including neko (cat girls), kitsune (fox girls), and dragon-like characters.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to create:

Kemonomimi characters, which are humans who possess animal-like features such as ears or tails
Kemono characters, which are largely animalistic
Scalies, which are furries of the reptile and amphibian variety
Personalized fursona designs and reference sheets for them
Characters in different poses using templates

Along the way, you'll learn the basics of drawing, how to combine humans and animals into unique creatures, and use templates to create your own characters. All instruction is easy to follow, so you can quickly learn to draw different faces and expressions, hairstyles, clothing and accessories, various animal-like qualities, and so much more.

Step-by-step instructions make the drawing process approachable for beginning and aspiring artists. Projects range from simple and easy furries to more complex ones. Also included are tips for developing your own characters, while looking to common styles for inspiration. Templates at the end of the book allow for easy practice of character faces and poses.

Critique: The Art of Drawing Manga Furries lives up to its title as a guide to drawing anthropomorphic characters in the style of Japanese manga, with both black-and-white and color illustrations to demonstrate each step of the process. Both "kemonomimi" characters (which appear like humans with animal features like ears or tails) and "kemono" characters (which appear much more animalistic) are covered, as are tips and tricks for drawing scaly characters and personalized fursona designs. A handful of sample templates round out this excellent, easy-to-follow guide and supplementary resource for budding manga artists! It should be noted for personal art guide collections that The Art of Drawing Manga Furries is also available in a Kindle edition ($11.99). Another highly recommended title is author Talia Horsburgh's previous how-to guide, The Art of Drawing Manga (9780760375440, $22.99).

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