A master explains his craft
592644
I teach English composition and literature as my day job.  That being the case, it will come as a surprise to some that I appreciate Stephen King, but I'm not going to let my opinions be tailored by snobs.  King is a fine writer, a master of the craft.  Much of what passes for literary writing these days has lost sight of what King tells us is the fundamental element of telling stories, namely telling stories.  This book is an excellent primer for the aspiring writer and a good reminder for those who have been practicing the art for years.  My own copy is underlined and annotated with my comments and reactions and with notes of key points that I want to come back to again and again.

Review by the author of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/A-Draft-of-Moonlight/dp/0983687242/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">A Draft of Moonlight</a>
1837665
Great book written by the master.  The content is fantastic,  getting his true and candid thoughts, but  I was really impresses with the quality of the book itself.  The pages are thick and the photos are very high quality - he gives a ton of examples of ads he liked and ads that he did not like with details on what went wrong.

Very easy and fun to read.  The guy is hyper intelligent.  You can tell he is a master student and his wisdom shines through in this book.
1291368
Finch is a master and I like to get books and particularly DVDs of excellent craftsmen to get ideas.  This is well worth studying for the serious artist. The focus is more for cartoons but anyone who wants to draw the head will get a lot out of this.  It is incredible to watch him draw.  I'm afraid he is a bit over my head but I intend to go back to it again and again as I learn.  And he converted me to mechanical pencils.
4308128
Read . . . . study. . . . and learn from this great master teacher of our time.
1525338
When I first saw Eric's work, I incorrectly assumed that he just took some nice photos and then used Photoshop to add color to the shot. I was surprised to learn that these amazing photographs were all composed by carefully lighting each part of the picture, then layering the results to achieve a high definition, almost three-dimensional look to the final composition.

In "Painting with Light," Eric explains the process he uses to achieve his phenomenally impressive work.  As an aspiring novice photographer, I found the book interesting and easy to understand.  The material is presented in a manner that will benefit amateur and professional photographers alike. Eric takes the reader through the entire process, from planning the shot, to setting it up, to photographing the subject, and finally explaining the postproduction involved to create the final composition.

Eric's unselfish willingness to share his artistic brilliance is to be commended. After seeing many of his finished photographs, I would have to compare this to Michelangelo teaching us how to paint ceilings in your local chapel! Eric makes it clear that he is presenting this material not so that someone can mimic his work, but so that they can approach photographic lighting techniques in new and creative ways.  I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in photography.
1599712
This book is well written and most of the instructions are actual photographs for the techniques in progress. I would recommend anyone to buy this book, whether you are a beginner or an expert. The author has another book that is also exceptionally well written and I have learned a lot from her techniques.
4308070
Arnold Lowery is a master at watercolor, I watched his DVD and had to get his book. He is very good at explaning his technique.
1187296
This is a book about how to make beautiful furniture from one of the most meticulous craftsmen working today.  I've taken a 2 week class with Craig, and his careful, considered approach to every step of furnituremaking shows through wonderfully in this book.  He uses coffee tables as a teaching tool to show you how wood should be treated - like a precious resource deserving of your best efforts to turn it into something astonishingly beautiful.
1024402
Benedetto is the master.  His guitars are not only great playing instruments but works of art.  I saw him at the Smithsonian Museum many years ago during a guitar exhibit.  Ironically, people were swarming around Paul Reed Smith's booth and getting his autograph while only one or two folks were at Benedetto's booth.  I figured they just didn't understand guitars.

Inspired, I purchased Benedetto's book thinking I could build my own archtop.  I have some acoustic guitar building experience so I thought I could tackle this.  I am halfway finished.  It requires more skill and time than I have right know.  I am ready to cut the dovetail joint but do not want to mess it up.  I need to practice my dovetails before I cut the body and neck.

Bottom line - You have to know what you are doing to use the Benedetto book.  It is not for the novice.
268898
If you are as fascinated with the graphics of Escher as I am; you'll be entertained,amazed and engrossed with this 'kit' which allows you to assemble and hold these wonderful models of intrigueing mathematics , coupled with the graphic art and figures of the master himself; M.C.Escher.
  It is one thing to look at Escher's magnificient work in 2-dimension; but it is another experience entirely, to hold these 3-dimensional models and view the figures and patterns as you turn as fold these models on themselves,
  One of the other reviewers talked about creating additional models; and that is obviously possible ,because there is all the information needed to do that; right here in the book.
  I have had this kit for some time ; but hadn't actually constructed any of the models. I recently was told about a man who constructed ball and stick models. I contacted him,and visited him to see his models. I brought along with me a book ,
"Polyhedron Models" by Magnus Wenninger .This is an outstanding book covering the subject as well as 119 models. The man I was visiting ,had the book and even knew its author. This book deals with models whose surfaces are flat and made of cardboard or if desired ,other materials. To see what these fascinating models look like, look them up on the net under "Magnus Wenninger".
 The man I visited constructs similar models;but uses only wooden balls and sticks. Think of those chemistry models of compounds,and you can imagine how beautiful and interesting they can be. All models begin with one of the known uniform polyhedra and from them the stellated models are formed. The variations are in the many millions.
  Anyone who has much interest in this sort of stuff will find an excellent chapter ,Polyhedra,in "Mathematical Recreations and Essays" by W.W. Rouse Ball,a real classic in the subject of Mathematical Recreations.
  The man I went to visit has been working on these models for many,many years. He has created his own techniques and even an intrigueing appratus to make the holes in the balls. The exactness is so critical,that making them by hand would be terribly difficult. To date he has made about 500 0f these ball and stick models.
 So, after my visit,it was a real joy to sit down and construct some models.
2148964
One master playing another master's work.  Fabulous!  His violin is a part of him as he 'sings'  this masterpiece.  Enjoy!
4507709
The three volume work is well done and was written by one who knows his subject. He approaches each topic with an organized process and was easy to follow,even for a beginner, which I am. I have just finished the first two volumes with one to go. I like the way he works in his cautions about turning ,with humor and not preaching. I know I'll re read sections a second and third time as the need arises. The work is complete and much more than I expected. Happy I made the purchase.
1958411
This book will be a foundation upon which many will build their lives. I cannot wait to employ some of his techniques.
2648055
Just enough highlights of this man's life and plenty of pictures of his art. It includes his technique which I have used successfully. Though my life has not been as adventurous.
741806
This is a book for those artists who would prefer to understand why they should do certain things, rather than just following "how to" advice.  It is a fairly solid read, as its title would suggest.  However, it is well worth the effort.  It is also a book that you will come back to time and time again, as something new can usually be gleaned from each reading.

Hoffman sets out to explain what goes through an artist's mind in thinking about what to paint and then planning the composition and how a scene should be painted.  This is the sort of knowledge that is generally missing from the usual how to paint book but it can make all the difference to the finished piece.  For example, Hoffman does not tell you what techniques you should use to achieve a hard or soft edge but he does explain brilliantly why and where you should consider using one as opposed to the other.

I would thoroughly recommend this book.
4284466
Whereas the only way that you'll be able to fully understand this author's enigmatic style and classical education is to read his other works more than once and parse his keyed language, at least in this instance there are clear visual references for the lattice of his cards after having been painted so beautifully by Lady Frieda Harris. Descended of the Golden Dawn and blinded by correspondence confusion, this work, one of his last, includes esoteric and rudimentary oracular instruction for any usage. It has minimum value without the deck for which it is a manual, excepting that one would seek to assimilate the abstruse knowledge and understanding of the Master. Helpfully organized by conventional and symbolical categories, it is festooned occasionally with confounding and arcane diagrams perhaps designed or organized so as to confuse the non-initiate to his cults (see a minor example below from page 284, wherein some reshuffling of the the data has obviously occurred during handling, initiate notes included).

I obtained a new copy of this edition recently to supplement my 1970s tattered and worn, heavily-marked-up, book. It was helpful to see the original text without the haze of scribbles and annotations. It is a classic text well-suited for those who plan to submit to the arrogance and outrageous opinions of the Beast 666, Aleister Crowley (amongst his numerous other pseudonyms, nomes de plume, and initiatic conceits). The egyptomania inherent to the presentation should not overly-persuade the interested to fall under the spell that this is some genuine "Book of Thoth" such as may be spoken of in hushed tones by mystics and magicians after the very deities like Tahuti-Thoth. That would best be reserved for some tarotic implement, perhaps inclusive of the one for which this is a Large White Book.
333
103029
A  beautiful book by an amazingly talented man!  His woodworking books are also incredibly illustrated and works of art in their own right.