Clip Art Books

This book is just okay. Five thousand designs is a lot to put into one book. If I had realized this BEFORE I bought this book, I would have known these pictures were all very TINY. Although this book is overwhelming, I give it 3 stars for inspiration.

This book was a real disappointment. I expected to see well drawn motifs with sources listed. This book delivered a whole lot of images that are hard to use and really poorly drawn.

This is a great way to get aquainted with India's graphic history.There are many items worth using and particularly clear for many art project uses!Have fun!

This book has a nice selection of Indian designs although some are very simple & primitive.I bought it for using in graphic designs, not all the patterns but at least 1/3 are useful.Nevertheless I'm very fond of owning it.

This is an excellent collection of images that cover a wide range of subject matter. All of the images are approximately 5 cm wide by 3.5 cm high, so you would need access to a good scanner and softwware program to use them at any significant size.

Beautiful little book. Delightful collection from various artists - shame they cannot be copied.... some are 'way out' - CAT fairies?? but inspiring to the fairy devotee. Particularly liked designs from the author, Myrea Pettit also Erin Minks: but that is a personal choice - there are mny other contributions from a variety of artists displaying alternative styles and ideas (inc. a few elves). The author's passion for the subject, and inclusion of contact sites for all contributors is to be commended.

500 Fairy Motifs is so much more than I expected. I want to thank the author for putting toegther such a great collections of artists and artwork. This is exactly what I was looking for --- a great reference for fairy lovers and believers-
I am truely inspired thanks :)helene

This is an awesome collection of fairy artwork that takes your breath away with it's beauty. It arrived promptly and in beautiful condition.

There are so many wonderful images of Fairy for inspiration in this book along with websites where to contact the Artist. It's perfect.

I loved this book! I have been looking at so many books in bookstores and never found anything that I liked. This book was perfect for me because it has so many different styles. I have been trying to find my own style and truly needed to look at all different fairies. My experience with Amazon was a positive one and I received the book in no time!

I know that people have been complaining about how some of the stencils are too small and become unclear when blown up. They have a few other issues, too.
Here's the thing: the book has over 2,000 great stencils that are perfectly legible. I'm an illustrator, woodworker, and paper crafter. I am simply delighted at the various choices of stencil. Plus, the book is very inspiring in terms of providing a jumping off point to make up my own. I simply love it.

This is a wonderful resource for design ideas! I use elements of these stencils as patterns for guitar inlays. The copyright info on the inside cover is generous allowing use of the patterns, "free and without special permission." in certain circumstances.

I use these stencils as layouts for gun engraving. While many designs are too small and lack enough detail to be able to reproduce (about 30%) most are of good quality and detail. It's a great value for the price and I strongly recommend it as an indispensible aid for all engravers, wood carvers, and stencil makers.

This book is chock full of great Victorian design. It has cartouches (ornamental borders), patterns, single filligree elements, and the best part is that they are all royalty free. You will need to scan the elements and clean them up a bit, but this book is a fantastic resource for the "flourish" trend that is going on in graphic design right now.

Highly recommended.

If you are a craftperson, do not buy this book, though pictoral, it is more historical and you need a magnifying glass to see some of the stencils.

If you are looking for a book of Mucha's work as he did it, look elsewhere. This book is an artist's renditions, or, more crudely, tracings, of ~37 Mucha works. It seems other reviewers weren't expecting this. The drawings could be useful for some applications; I have seen Mucha's work copied at street-painting festivals, and I think this book would be helpful to one replicating the work in such a way. I can also see this book used as a coloring book for an older child who is interested in art (although, note there is partial female nudity).

The works represented spans his poster work, advertising pieces, and decorative pieces, produced from 1896-1905.

Again, if you want colorful Mucha work, try another book. One example is Alphonse Mucha, by Sarah Mucha. Dover press produces many wonderful books, so you are are bound to find more than one to suit your desires.

Shame on those giving this a poor review because they failed to read the description. A review should be based on what the product is, and not what they thought it might be. Mucha's intricate work is so highly detailed I could never hope to draw anything like it, but it gives me great satisfaction to colour these fine line drawings. For those seeking a Mucha tattoo this is an excellent reference to bring to the studio because an artist will add to detail and shading to the line drawings provided!

as an art student i LOVE Mucha's work, and while searching for full color printed books on his art, i discovered this fun little item. the renderings of his art are very well done, hours of fun when you feel like being a kid again! defenatly more of a novelty or adult coloring book, but i know plenty of adults who still enjoy coloring. as an artist myself it seems a bit silly to use a coloring book, but what artist doesnt want to recreate the masterpeices of their idols in a fun, stress free way?

The product is very useful to me. I received it in a timely manner and for a good price. All is well.

I don't know what happened, if this product has more than one listing, or what, but I could swear it wasn't clearly listed as a "colouring book". I also was unaware that these were Mucha drawings traced by another's hand -- and not traced with special sensitivity toward Mucha's intentions -- lines implied with color are absent (including Sarah Bernhardt's upper lip, making her smile in the poster for "La Dame aux Camelias" appear insipid) , highly rendered chalk and pencil drawings are reduced to a few bold ink lines. There is an appealing sharpness, but, for me, the drawbacks out-weigh this positive.

The foreword mentions that the book is intended as "clip art", and I suppose it would serve that purpose, though it's not a purpose that interests me.

I'm a bit puzzled by the coloring book aspect -- I'm not sure Mucha's figures, sometimes of bare-breasted women, is the ideal material for crayolas.

Unless you ARE looking for clip art or a coloring book for grown-ups, Dover's several other Mucha books would be a better purchase.

The product was promptly delivered in excellent condition. I am impressed with the number of different Native American tribes that were represented in the motifs.

I was expecting full size patterns. However there are good
patterns, but will have to be enlarged to use them.

I bought this for my son who loves drawing and he really has enjoyed it. The illustrations are great and theres good information along with the illustartions.

I purchased this one some time ago and do not have one regret. I have it in almost constant use. The graphics are wonderful, easy to use and well identified as to tribal origins. I use this publications and it's designs primarily for my gourd art, i.e. carving and burning and drawing. The designs are printed on one side and I have found that by making a copy of the page I can then enlarge or reduce the designed I need. There are approximately 391 different designs here and I have check several of them out and not found one that was not authentic. The designs cover quite a bit of area, from the Pacific Northwest and Artic to Estern Woodland to the Great Pland and Rockies to the Southwest and Mexico. Each design is quite crisp and quite accurate. Cannot recommend this one highly enough.

As a descendant of the Native American Choctaw tribe, I was VERY pleased with this book. The illustrations are clear and precisely drawn. The reader receives a lot of inspiration for Native American art and designs. However, of far more value to the reader, the author identifies the designs with various tribes. Naturally, I was particularly pleased to find the highly modernistic looking designs of the Choctaws. I strongly recommend this book to any students of Native Americans or students of art.

Robert J. Deffeyes

I really like this book. There are interesting shapes of flowers of various design and size. It is exactly what I expected it to be.

This book has a lot of designs of more or less the same style (like that you see on the cover.) If you're into leather tooling, embroidery, or rugmaking, you might like this book, as that's what these images remind me of. The book does mention that they're all from the same antique source, so while there are a lot of very nice designs, there isn't a lot of variety. If the style of the images on the book's cover don't appeal to you, then I wouldn't recommend buying this book, because that's the one and only style of image this book contains.

I found that that designd in the book were all very similiar and not much in the way of sparking any creativity. Don't bother with this one since there are much better ones out there. Go with "4000 Flower and Plant Motifs"

I am a freelance artist and was looking for a good source of stylized florals/paisleys for some drawings that I wanted to do...this book fits the bill perfectly! The designs are full of detail and the book carries enough variety to supply my needs for a very long time.
With the added use of my own imagination, I can see myself happily referring to it for when ever my needs cross over into this type of theme. The only way to make it better would be to make it hold even more than it already does...
Well done!

Another excellent book from Dover. Unlike many design books, this book has many variations on stylized flower designs.

Buyers shoud be aware that this book has the same content as an earlier Dover book,Ready-to-Use Calligraphic Ornaments by Kiyoshi Takahashi. This is better becuase it comes with a CD, but it is the same collection of images.

The .eps format dissapointed me...like other reviewers, I was hoping vor vector based images. I did have good results with Illustrator CS2's live trace tool. I turned the images into plain linework, then added the thick/thin look of calligraphy by applying Illustrator's calligraphic brushes. A bit if work, but the results are nice.

And unfortunately I was looking for true clip art! However, I must say that the ornaments presented are truly stunning, and can easily be used in paper crafting of any kind. I used this book to create labels for gifts and to address holiday envelopes. I am a novice desktop publisher and was not disappointed.

Cris Cunningham

The ornamentation is very nice but something anyone buying any of the Dover Electronic Clip Art series books should take into account is that they are not actual clip art items. Dover has just scanned the art and put it on a CD, the items are not scalable or changeable in a usual clip art format. It is very helpful to have the images already scanned but if you want true clip art, this book is not for you.

I must say I am glad that I read the other reviews so that I was prepared when I purchased this item. It is a bit misleading that the CD contains files in EPS format because they act just like a placed image in Illustrator. HOWEVER, with a program like Adobe Streamline, the images are absolutely GORGEOUS. I highly recommend this item along with Streamline. In the end, the quality workmanship of a Dover book is found in this product.

When i first saw this book, i was very excited because it said that i had .eps files, which to me, mean vector, easy to use etc. These files are all raster, thus if you are seeking full vector, you might need to order a copy of Adobe Streamline and covert these. Big disappointment.

joshua
(...)

I bought this book looking for inspiration for a Celtic or Viking tattoo design. Hearing what a revered artist Courtney Davis was, I thought I couldn't go wrong with this book. Unfortunately, all the drawings were incredibly unsophisticated and they remind me more of an amateur's work (perhaps at copying Courtney Davis). All of the designs were in black and white and many of them were just plain - and I *do* mean plain - knotwork patterns better suited to tablecloths than tattoos. There is none of the beautiful intricacy you find in real Celtic art - almost all of the patterns have huge unfilled or "blackened" spaces.

If you're looking for inspiration in Celtic design, buy a reproduction of the Book of Kells. I know that will put the shoddiness of this work to light. I suspect this was just a cheap attempt at making money and that Courtney himself does not prize this work.

The good news is - it's cheap, so it wasn't a total waste.

Most of the designs in CELTIC AND OLD NORSE DESIGNS by Courtney Davis appear to have been copied from items found in and around archelogical sites that date from around 1,000 B.C.E. to about 1,000 C.E., now housed in museums. Davis does not inform the reader of the specific aspects of these pieces. In fact, her text is almost non-existent.

Some of the items shown appear to match items that precede Roman times, others seem to coincide with Roman and early Christian times, and others are very similar to items discoved in Anglo-Saxon tombs like Sutton Hoo, or Viking sites in Scandanavia and are thus contemporary with the early Middle Ages. Some designs are found on spoons, horse collars, or weather vanes, while others are taken from church sculpture or graveyard crosses.

As the elements shown are not categoried by historical period, or referenced or sourced, this is not the scholarly work that I hoped it might be. However, if you don't care it does not matter. I will be using the book for children's artwork projects this summer (i.e. coloring books).

STRONGLY recommend this book as THE best source for Norse type designs! Bold and true, this book is highly usable to impart the Nordic of Old flavor to your work!

This is a great resourse for those looking for charted scrollwork, knotwork and other Celtic or Norse motifs.

I purchased this book as an artistic tool. In the process of ultimately developing my own designs in this stylistic vein, I wanted to be able to refer to line art renderings of actual ancient Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Nordic designs. This book has proved to be an excellent resource. The representations featured here make up a top-notch selection, and I appreciate the basic geographic and chronological labels for each piece. The renderings are nicely detailed, but they're not so intricate as to prove impossible to mimic in a sketch book.

This was purchased as a gift for my 11-year-old granddaughter who is very interested in historic costumes. She immediately, on Christmas day, sharpened the special hard-lead colored pencils I bought to go with it and proceeded to submerge herself in the detailed illustrations. Seemed like a successful gift to me.

This is quite simply a fabulous book, and a very useful one too! I am an author who writes historical novels, and when I need to know what the characters I'm writing about would have been wearing in any given year from antiquity through to modern times (1930s), I turn to this book. Fortunately, it's not cluttered with text, but merely contains drawings, pure and simple and straighforward. It's the quickest, most accurate reference book I own, aside from my dictionary, of course.

My only qualm is that it doesn't contain anything about undergarments, such as bustles, knickers, petticoats, crinolines or girdles. But then, the pictures in this book are sourced from historical paintings, sculptures, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts and so forth, which probably never showed such things, as they might have been considered indecent or irrelevant. (I suppose not too many people throughout history wanted to be painted in their underwear!)

If you're a writer, an arts student, a costume designer or just someone who has an interest in the history of fashion, I would highly recommend this book to you.

I love to use this book as a quick visual reference while working on shows. When helping a customer, or explaining something to an assistant at our shop, this book is the easiest way to do so. It is so great to have a book where I can flip to a certain date, and have pages full of pictures grouped together to show someone what exactly I am thinking of. We have to work at a fast pace, and this book saves me lots of valuable time.

They say up front that they (the authors) purposely did not put in any writing to as not to sway our view of the clothing. Alas, that means if one does not know period clothing from LOTS of different periods, one will not be able to identify items. Still, lovely drawings. It will make a fine adult coloring book! (Yes, I'm serious) :-)

This book consisted of black and white 2D scetches that lacked any real depth or detail. They are basic and generalised in presenting each period and contain nothing new that you would not have already seen or known about that decade.
I do not recommend it to anyone who has a intrest in costume or design, but think it would be better suited as a childrens colouring in book.
Don't waste your money.

Found this book very useful when doing research on clothing for a fashion history class.

As a reference for fashion history, this book is very nice. However, the fasions that are included bear only a faint resemblance to what we in the US think of 1920s fashion. Where we think of Flapper Era fashions as characterized by straight lines, dropped waists, and cloche hats, the fashions in this book are a definite departure from that. Most of the dresses have round skirts and definite waist lines. When I say rounded shirts I mean rounded skirts. They are like balloons of fabric. I would recommend this book to those who have a real interest in. or curiosity about French fashion of the 1920's, then this will serve you well. Otherwise it is a disappointment.

I have lots of fashion books and this is one of my favorites just for the illustrations. There is very little text, but again if you want fun and inspiring illustrations this book is the best. I personally like these little drawings better than even Erte's illustrations.

Yes this is a good book that captures the general feel of the time-periods. However, as an owner of said book, I must point out that more than a few fashions are repeated in the "years/chapters". This gives the book a clip-art feel and detracts, somewhat, from the over-all quality. The book is all in straight Black & White and some people might be put off by this but it preserves the charm of the periods the book aims to capture. So I say this is a fair purchase for those interested in 20's art and not too obsessed whith graphics.

Found this book very useful when doing research on clothing for a fashion history class.