Argon Zark! by Charley Parker

ArcLight Publishing   $6.95   ISBN 0-9660-5320-6

OK, how can I list books that include Argon Zark! art and techniques without the main one? The "How does he do that anyway?" chapter describes the creation of a "typical" Argon Zark page (page 41) from sketching the "pencils" in Painter, rendering a 3-D background in Bryce, applying some fun filters with Kai's Power Tools and compositing the whole glorious mess in Photoshop. And of course at $6.95 it's less than 1/7th the cost of most of the others and it comes complete with the first whole Argon Zark! adventure! Plus, sales of the book help keep this Web site going.

Toon Art: The Graphic Art of Digital Cartooning by Steven Withrow

Watson-Guptill   $29.95   ISBN 0823053784

Due in July, 2003

Some of the title below are out-of-date in terms of the software version they are for. However, the Zark techniques are still good if that's yourinterest.

Painter 5 Studio Secrets by Adele Droblas Greenberg and Seth Greenberg

IDG Books   $49.99   ISBN 0-7645-4038-6

Like most of the books in IDG's Studio Secrets series, it's filled with great techniques and stunning artwork. Argon Zark! is featured extensively with several pages and multiple images describing techniques for two different Zark pages. The book features Zark stuff on pages 106-108 and 130-134.

Photoshop and Illustrator Synergy Studio Secrets By Jennifer Alspach

IDG Books   $49.99   ISBN 0-7645-3134-4

Another in the IDG Studio Secrets series, this one delves into the use of Photoshop in conjunction with Illustrator and other applications. In my case it's Painter, Kai's Power Tools and Bryce. Argon Zark! art and techniques featured on pages 223-229.

Official Kai's Power Tools Studio Secrets By Ted Alspach and Steven Frank

IDG Books   $44.99   ISBN 0-7645-4002-5

Also in the IDG Studio Secrets series, this book cracks open some of the essential coolness in KPT 3, Bryce, Vector Effects, FInal Effects, Convolver and Kai's Power Goo. Argon Zark! is featured on pages 141-143.

Designing Interactive Digital Media By Nicholas V. Iuppa, Nick Iuppa, Nicholas V. Luppa

Focal Press   $39.95   ISBN 0-2408-0287-X

This is actually serves as a textbook for just that: designing interactive digital media. The author covers the design of interactive instruction and entertainment from CD-ROM to the net. Although the book is in black & white, the accompanying CD-ROM is in glorious color. Argon Zark! is featured on page 149, and more extensively on the CD-ROM.

Web Site Graphics: Color, The Best Work from the Web by Jeff Carlson, Toby Malina & Glenn Fleishman

Rockport Publishers   $15.99   ISBN 1-56496-516-3

Showcases selected sites that utilize color to advantage. Features a page on the Zark site.

Graphics software Top Painter See Painter 5 Studio Secrets, above The Painter 5 WOW! Book by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis Peachpit Press $44.95 Beautifully produced and packed with excellent tips and tutorials. The Wow! series is comparable to the Studio Secrets series, perhaps a little broader and less in-depth. They do a good job of laying out the basics in a concise way and then go on to specific projects. Fractal Design Painter 5 Complete by Karen Sperling and Winston Steward IDG Books   $39.95 Not as lavishly produced as Studio Secrets or Wow! Book, Sperling and Steward nonetheless have some really good stuff here, including some things the others leave out. Sperling also edits the newsletter that's offered in the can when you buy Painter these days.

Photoshop See Photoshop and Illustrator Synergy Studio Secrets, above Macworld Photoshop 4 Bible by Deke McClelland IDG Books   $49.99 For my money (and these books do cost money), this is the definitive book on Photoshop. Largely in black and white with chunky color sections and a CD-ROM, this thick-as-a-phone-book monster is packed throughout with the real goods, Deke the geek knows his stuff. Also has a good usable index (never to be underestimated in a computer graphics manual) and a Godzilla-size ton 'O Photoshop knowhow. Photoshop 4 Studio Secrets by Deke McClelland IDG Books   $49.99 Deke's at it again, this time he gets to play with the beautiful all-color project-oriented style of the Studio Secrets series. The Photoshop 4 Wow! Book by Linnea Dayton and Jack Davis Peachpit Press   $44.95 Holding up the tradition of the Wow! books. Cool stuff arranged by project and a good overview of the basics.

Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner

Will Eisner is one of the true geniuses of comic art. This is his "how to" book about comics as a medium of expression. Along with Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Eisner's Graphic Storytelling, it's the essential goods on what comics are all about. Brilliant.Anyone interested in doing comics or really knowing something about the medium would appreciate all of these books.

The height of Eisner's work, and one of the heights of comics art, was The Spirit, essentially an 8 page comic book distributed as a newspaper suppliment in the 40's and 50's. Don't let yourself be put off by what may seem at first to be an "old fashioned" comics style, this is the real thing.

Graphic Storytelling by Will Eisner

Sort of an updated companion to Comics and Sequential Art, he focuses here on the #1 skill in doing effective comics. No, it's not drawing, or even writing. It's how words and images are employed together to tell a story, which is what comics (and film, for that matter) are really all about.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Understanding Comics is a fun, fascinating, and highly perceptive look at the nature of the medium, told in comics form. He deconstructs the esence of what comics are and how they work, but I think the book goes well beyond that into the relationship of words and pictures, our perception of time and the fascinating mental process of "closure". If you know someone who thinks that comics are by nature juvenile and silly, try lending them this one.

I find a strong relationship between the "words and pictures in sequence telling a story" aspect of comics and the "words and pictures linked together in paths conveying information" nature of the Web, so I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Web, even though it never even mentions computers.

 

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

JP Tarcher   $15.95

I'm a firm proponent of the idea that drawing is a skill that can be learned, and not something magical limited only to those with "talent". I think I know what I'm talking about here because I think I have just enough "talent" to know what it is. I'll tell you though that I've had to work hard to develop my drawing skills. This book is for anyone who has doubts about their ability to draw, or who wants to sharpen their drawing skills. Look for an older copy in the library and check out the "before and after" drawings by people who have taken her classes. You'll be impressed. She goes right to the core of what makes "realistic" drawing happen: learning to actually see what's in front of you instead of what your brain wants you to think you see. If you're willing to follow her exercises and let go of your preconceptions, this course of study can work wonders. I can't recomend it highly enough.