It's short on technical detail, but Beyond Art Fundamentals is a great guide to bringing emotion into your work.
For
Full of inspiring images
Plenty of advice and insight
Against
Not especially technical
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Beyond Art Fundamentals looks at how moods and feelings are the key to creating successful art that sticks in people's memories.
Following a short introduction by the editor, Beyond Art Fundamentals is split into three main parts. The bulk of the 222-page softback is devoted to the Emotions section, where 18 artist tutorials reveal how different moods such as anger and nostalgia can be interpreted. These articles follow the development of an image that conveys a certain feeling, with each one offering unique takes on composition, character details and general working practices.
Damien Mammoliti taps into his own fear of the "dark unknown" to create this disturbing piece of art
The remaining quarter of the book is set aside for a cooperative project, where two artists tackle the same topic to reveal how collaboration can produce the best work, before closing with a gallery in which artists discuss their creative process.
Beyond Art Fundamentals might not be the most technical book around, but considering that it deals with something as personal and abstract as emotions, this doesn't matter. Furnished throughout with beautiful images, there's a wealth of advice and insight here for hobbyists and skilled artists to enjoy.
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
