• The Artist's Organizer for 2005 by Sue Viders and Urania Christy Tarbet is now available online. This calendar, journal and record-keeper has helpful motivational and marketing tips throughout. The spiral-bound book is custom-made for artists with a two-page spread for every week, handily set up for tracking daily chores as well as art activities, marketing ideas and goal-setting colulmns. And, of course, charts. Sue loves charts! And quotes. I love quotes! There is even a monthly summary at the end of each month for quick reference on expenses.

• James Hamilton's Turner and the Scientists describes the effect of the industrial revolution on J.M.W. Turner's paintings and drawings. Turner's interest in architecture and perspective was matched by his fascination with scientific ideas and he valued his friendships with leading scientists of his day. The range of his interests included industry, railroads, the sky and meteorology, geology and volcanic activity. Some of his atmospheric paintings are believed to have resulted from conditions caused by natural catastrophes that occurred during his lifetime.

• Painting Watercolors That Sparkle With Life. Working with photos, Cindy Agan uses a limited palette and pre-mixes her colors to paint striking images of dogs and cats, flowers and children's portraits. The book stresses emotional involvement and expression, plus motivation. She uses step-by-step demonstrations, including how to make a detailed drawing that will result in lifelike images. Agan uses both student and artist colors, which goes against my principles, but it seems to work for her.

• Mark and Mary Willebank's book, Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner, subtitled "A Clear and Easy Guide to Successful Painting." includes many demos and supplies are fairly simple. A glossary defines basic terms. The book covers many areas that are overlooked in some beginner books: simple perspective, structural drawing, value scales, intensity, simple color and composition, using a view finder, making value and color sketches, tracing and transferring drawings, matting and framing, and planning a painting.

• The Luminous Brush: Painting With Egg Tempera by Altoon Sultan covers a lot of territory, from a concise history to materials and demos. This small book includes a bibliography, an index and a source guide for materials. There are excellent hands-on photos showing how to make paints and support panels and a detailed demonstration of ink-drawing foundation for underdrawing. Several step-by-step paintings and examples by contemporary artists show a variety of approaches to the medium.

• Watercolor Simplified by Pat Weaver is hard to categorize. The book contains good advice, but it a bit intimidating for beginners. The photos of the artist's studio are a bit too much for a "simplified" approach to watercolor. The supplies are basic, but the text seems to assume that you already know how to use watercolor. There are discussions of the Golden Mean and a good section on drawing, with an emphasis on planning and sketching with values. More for intermediates, I think.

• Dory Kanter's Art Escapes is subtitled "Daily exercises & inspirations for discovering greater creativity & artistic confidence." This spiral-bound hardcover book is a treasury of creative, doable projects in watercolor, collage and drawing that is sure to jump-start your creativity. Make up three small pocket-kits for the three media, add a 9x12 sketchbook and you're ready to make art no matter where you are. Kanter's positive, you-can-do-it approach makes it fun, but there is also useful instruction in drawing and painting, including perspective, value and color.

• How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs by Lee Hammond uses simple materials and a simple method based on blending of soft pencil strokes to create form and volume in the human face. There are detailed how-to demonstrations on drawing the nose, eyes, ears, hair and folds in clothing. Emphasis is on practice. The text is very motivating. All illustrations are in black-and-white and the book is filled with good examples on every page.

Be sure to check out my Awesome Book List page for hundreds of recommended books with direct links to Amazon.com for reviews and ordering.

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