Studios Books

This book give justice to a great work in design and visual effects, more thand the movie did. At the end: AVP2 was a bad movie, with great effects, with great design and here the design and fx production process are very well reported. Great book and art.

This book, much like the original AVP art book, is perfect for anyone who finds the process of monster making fascinating as well as the movies they inhabit.

Very cool behind the scenes art, exposition, and photography illustrates the creative process that brought the creatures to life. A must for any fan of either series, or monster fans in general.

The Amazing Step-by-Step Art Card Studios are both simple and amazing. My children were able--quickly--to draw animals that looked as great as the examples provided by Ms. Ragsdale. This product really delivers!

We bought both books. My daughter was really excited when they came. She loves to draw, & it has step by step instructions in how to draw each pet or Zoo animal. Each set has colored pencils, a drawing pad, & sharpener in a handy box. It has lots of cards with all types of pets & animals to draw. It is the perfect thing to take on long car rides, & gives hours of enjoyment. It will encourage kids to persue their artistic talents. The price is very reasonable. K.Key

This is one of my favorite books. I look at it often and it has inspired me to take more family pictures and document our daily lives. This is a book about the love of a family through pictures and stories. It includes holidays, recipes, gardening tips, and more. Even though the style of decorating may not be my own, I still love the absolute warmth of this book. The warmth of family.

I just love this book. Mary put her heart into this book & the love for her family ...it reflects in every page. The applesauce with plums is fantastic! In the pages of this book you will see awesome pictures that show the true essence on family and there love of home & what is important to them. If you ever get a chance to buy a copy of this book now that it is now out of print -you will be rewarded with joy in seeing the heart of a family. ENJOY & let the pages of this book rub off on you in how you look at life & family.

Nobody has understood the work of Andy Warhol like Gidal. It is not filled with gossip about Andy doing this and Andy saying that like 90% of all Warhol-books. This is about his art, and it's damn good!

At the end of a century where the primitive has finally begun to be understood as complex, and the complex has been revealed quite often to be primitive, Gidal's searing analysis soars above the all-too-common self-adulatory art criticism. Gidal truly understands art and 20th century culture (as Warhol did!), and his book deserves repeated reading.

It might take you a while to notice that this is the "Corebook" for the "Angel" roleplaying game, because fans of the series will be taken by some of the gorgeous graphics on the opening pages and the opening chapter, which translates "Angel's Path" from the television series to the game. While what gamers find here will be compatible with the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" roleplaying game, it is clear that "Angel" has a different flavor. The evil of Los Angeles is decidedly different from what you find in Sunnydale with the Hellmouth. The basic game playing structure is the same, but the characters lean more towards humans and demons than vampires, and understandably so for anyone who watches the show.

Chapter Two is devoted to the Chosen Champions, which lays out a list of archetypes (e.g., Psychic Supermodel, Rogue Demon Hunter), along with the Original Cast: Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Doyle, Kate Lockley, Connor, and the Groosalugg. A section of Seasonal Adjustments covers the first three seasons of the series. Chapter Three, Helping the Helpless covers the game mechanics on how to roll, move, research, and fight. Chapter Four, Arcane Approaches, is all about the magical arts, teaching you how to both cast and create spells. Chapter Five, Cabals, Covens, and Agencies covers the organizations that you will encounter in L.A. Chapter Six, City of Angel lays out the haunts, sights, and suspects of the city as well (including minor allies like Anne Steel and David Nabbit). Chapter Seven, Something Wicked, presents the bad guys, organized by vamps, demons, and others (this is where you find Darla and Drusilla). Chapter Eight, Episodes, Season and Drama are guidelines for Directors on how to create storylines and run games. Chapter Nine, Blood Brothers, is a fleshed-out adventure for the "Angel Roleplaying Game," which does not involve any creating.

The back of the book contains an Appendix that provides a guide to Angelspeak, conversion notes for other Unisystem games, a glossary, character sheets, and other game aids. By this point C. J. Carella has made it very clear that he takes both this game and the television series on which it is based as seriously as the fans, which is exactly what we want. When Carella describes Darla's character motivation as "Pure self-centered evil, return Angelus, be a good mommy (very briefly)" and Drusilla's as "Whimsical nutjob, re-unite the "family," you know he is on target. I have been picking up these Eden Studio volumes because of my devotion to these shows, but I can see where playing one of these games would be a lot of fun as well.

My wife and I spent the past couple months watching the first three seasons of Angel on DVD. After we got Season Three finished, I wanted more Angel stuff, so I decided to get the RPG as I like RPGs. The corebook is very good, though only covers up to season three. Hopefully they will soon do a supplemental for it, but it isn't listed on the angel rpg web site yet.

My wife is interested in playing it with me and she is not a RPG fan, but the unisystem that the game uses is very strait forward. The book is well laid out and easy to follow.

I love the Angel quotes that fill almost every page. If you are Weldon fan, or just enjoy Angel and like to game or would like a different take on the Angelverse then this is the book for you.

I found this book to be very illuminating to me. It helped me understand the shortcomings of the modern church, as men are elevated instead of Christ. The church is the Bride of Christ, we are to please Him, if we are trying to impress anyone other than the Bridegroom, we are missing the point.

I can't say it as well as the book... give it a read, God will challenge you!

Donald Rumble has done the Body of Christ a great service with the publishing of Apostolic and Prophetic foundations. Throughout this book, he points back to the one and only head and foundation of the Church, Christ Jesus. It is time that the institutional church wake up and see that Christ is being invited and predominately shut out of our gatherings. If your heart yearns to see Christ exalted in the midst of his Church (believe it or not, His body), then you don't want to pass up reading this book. This book also gives a wonderful look into the Apostolic ministry, and pulls all its punches from scripture. Most of the Apostolic books that are available today don't have a strong biblical foundation, and tend towards exalting man and setting him in the place of head over the church. Read Donald Rumbles book, and compare it to the Word, and I believe you will be drawn towards the true restoration that God is bringing today.

This is a fascinating read about the Great Culinary Artist, James Beard, whose popularity peaked in the 1940s and '50s. It's a biography, articles by Beard himself, and an excellent 'scratch cooking' gourmet cookbook.

Beard was an old school chef and the antithesis of Poppy Cannon ('The Can-Opener Cookbook'), and he's almost solely responsible for popularizing scratch and gourmet cooking with home cooks. He was also an excellent outdoor chef, stemming from his childhood upraising on the northwest coast of the United States in the early 20th Century, all of which is detailed in the book.

Beard's techniques are copiously noted herein and the volume is quite readable. Any professional chef or home cook can learn a great deal from this fine book. I highly recommend it for casual readers as well.
[...]

After reading this charming collection of James Beards experiences with food and important people in his life - I now know why James Beard is so revered and honored for his amazing talents.

His inspiration continues to flow through his books and this is a must read for the cookbook collector or anyone who wants a taste of the past.

~The Rebecca Review

This a gorgeous book with wonderful photographs and everything you ever wanted to know about Ideal's Patti Playpal. If you love these dolls this is a must have!

I went through this book the very minute I received it, front to back cover. The numerous large color photographs were impressive and the information the book contained on the artist, the dolls, the variations, the clothes, and the other Playpal Family dolls gave me a well-rounded education, along with the other Patti Playpal book, called Patti Playpal Family. I am not disappointed that I splurged on them both. There was much information in the Art of... that was not in the other and yet the other contained some information that the Art of... didn't. A must for Patti Playpal lovers - both books.

Since I was a self taught theorem painter and was very hungry for history of this art. I was pleased to see the work done by the authors. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in doing theorems. I especially enjoyed the work they did on the history of this art. I am the only theorem painter in a 200 mile radius of my home. To find a book about it was exciting.

I am a theorem painter, and I found this book to be very helpful in learning the history of theorem painting and also seeing pictures of antique theorems. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in theorems, whether you are a theorem painter or a collector of theorems. The book also includes patterns for those who wish to cut their own stencils. I know that this book is hard to obtain, but if you get a chance to purchase it, I know that you won't regret it.

It's always a challenge to write about art, particular when exploring the grand masters across history. People have their own perceptions of good, bad, moving, and amazing - this is an area of high subjectivity. With that said, Ms. Altabe met this challenge with grace, style, and wit. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of this book, and was pleasantly surprised to find how outstanding it is. One hundred artists - including those we have all heard of and some lesser-knowns - are explored in this work, including histories, little-known facts about particular works, and descriptions of style. Ms. Altabe's obvious knowledge and passion for the subject lends her work great credibility, all written in an approachable manner. What a delightful read for those that are novices to the art world and lifelong experts!

Joan B. Altabe, art critic and art teacher, has written that little book about art history we've all been waiting for. In one succinct volume, Altabe manages to cover Western art from the 14th to the 20th Century in a manner that is immediately accessible to all readers yet with enough added information that scholars of art history will find some enlightenment also! No simple feat, this, as those who have consistently tried to digest the sociopolitical timeline with concomitant visual artists of each era. What Altabe has produced is a key to the door of understanding how art of the Now came to be, and in the process she has painted in words some dazzlingly fine images!

The book is divided into chapters designated as follows:
1 - 14th, 15th Century: Renaissance - "Rather than heavenly harmony, the earthly variety became the lesson of the day....[artists] paid attention to the way people looked and felt." (da Vinci, Ucello, Fra Filippo Lippi, Mantegna, Raphael, Michelangelo)
2 - 16th Century: Mannerism - "Mannerists wanted their art to stand for the human condition of struggle and conflict, not perfect perspective and ideal proportions." (Botticelli, Corregio, Pontormo, Romano)
3 - 17th Century: Baroque - "Baroque artists piled on the emotion, heightening it, and making it more melodramatic. They took stagy lighting and theatrical gestures to the extreme." (Carravaggio, Rubens, Ribera, Velasquez, Rembrandt)
4 - 18th Century: Rococo - "Artists...weary of the Baroque style and its heavy, histrionic dramas, sought a less weighty look...fun and frivolity al fresco." (Watteau, Tiepolo, Hogarth, Chardin)
5 - 18th Century: Neo-Classicism - "...the end of frivolity and a return to order, simplicity, even austerity" ...accompanying the age of revolution. (Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, David, Ingres)
6 - 19th Century: Impressionism - "artists...sought to liberate the French art by getting out of their studios and painting in the great outdoors...vivid strokes of color side by side...made Impressionist works appear more alive." (Pissarro, Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir)
7 - 19th Century: Post-Impressionism - "imitation of nature is not the aim of painting...an artist's job is [not] to copy nature, but rather to evoke it, and make one feel it." (Cezanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Seurat, Matisse)
8 - 19th - 20th Centuries; Expressionism - The unseen world and the way artists feel about what they see is Expressionism's disinguishing characteristic." (Klimt, Munch, Nolde, Schiele, Kokoscha, Kahlo, Bacon)
9 - 20th Century: Surrealism - "freed images from their ususal association by placing the disparate side-by-side...flouting of logic created by a new reality." (Rousseau, Ernst, de Chirico, Chagall, Magritte, Dali)
10 - 20th Century: Abstract Art - "aims to reflect that part of life beyond the observable, but which is no less real: the underworld of feeling." (Kandinsky, Hofmann, Rothko, Malevich)

Altabe's method is to briefly describe an era, then gives examples of artists of the time, discussing a bit of each artist's output coupled with Behind the Scenes quotes from historians such as Vasari et al and notes form the artists themselves which enhance the human aspect of each artist discussed. This survey covers 100 artists and every reader will question some inclusions and some exclusions: that is of little concern to Altabe. Her mission is clear - write about art history in a manner easily understandable, focusing on cogent facts, offering just enough subjective stance to make the information lively and propulsive.

If there is one aspect that would make this very fine book even better, it would be to offer more visuals of the works Altabe describes in words so well. But then the book might sink in weight into the same category as those magnificent massive tomes and monographs that are more used as pictorial reference and entertainment than in learning.

Altabe has given us what we all have been waiting for - a small book that makes the exploration of art and its place in history available on every level. This is a must-have book for students, collectors, historians, writers, critics, and for those who yearn for more understanding of the genius of making art!