The Confident Creative: Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind

Overcome the obstacles to your artistic expression

Improving your artwork can be as simple as learning how to trust your eyes. Your Artist's Brain shows you how to portray even the most complex subjects by focusing on what you really see - not what you think you see.

Expert art instructor Carl Purcell shows you how to overcome dependency on the "intellectual brain" and listen carefully to the more observant "artist's brain."

With Your Artist's Brain, you'll learn visual skills and artistic techniques that will instantly make you a better artist, no matter what your medium.

• 22 step-by-step demonstrations on key relationships between shapes, spaces, subjects, backgrounds, angles, sizes, values and more
• Easy examples and fun exercises teaching you how to "see" and design great compositions
• "Points to Remember" sidebars that allow you to quickly grasp each concept

It can happen at any moment - A powerful light effect. A telling gesture. A unique posture.

When you're struck by am image or impression you want to use in your art, you must record it - quickly! - before it's gone.But what's an artist to do when there's no time for a carefully rendered drawing or even a good photo? Some quick field sketching, that's what!

This book will revolutionize the way you sketch. David Rankin reveals the simple secrets to creating quick, impressionistic field sketches from life - and how to work with them once you're back in the studio. With the tools and methods described here, you'll be surprised how easy it is to draw rapid visuals of landscapes, animals, figures, crowds, any subject.

So the next time you're taken by a sudden, fleeting inspiration, you can capture it. And make the most of it in your art.

• Quick and easy step-by-step instructions for drawing everything from simple spheres to apples, trees, buildings, and the human hand and face

• More than 500 line drawings, illustrating each step

• Time-tested tips, techniques, and tutorials for drawing in 3-D

• The 9 Fundamental Laws of Drawing to create the illusion of depth in any drawing

• 75 student examples to help gauge your own progress

In just 20 minutes a day for a month, you can learn to draw anything, whether from the world around you or from your own imagination. It’s time to embark on your creative journey. Pick up your pencil and begin today!

Pen Drawing An Illustrated Treatise by Charles Maginnis, Includes beautiful illustrations from the original book. Easy to use table of contents take you right to the chapter and verse you are looking for

CHAPTER I.—Style in Pen Drawing
CHAPTER II.—Materials
CHAPTER III.—Technique
CHAPTER IV.—Values
CHAPTER V.—Practical Problems
CHAPTER VI.—Architectural Drawing
CHAPTER VII.—Decorative Drawing

In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world's most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling—a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown's most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.

As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object —artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon—a prominent Mason and philanthropist —is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations—all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown's novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown's fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet.