16 Ways of Looking at a Photograph serves as an introduction to photography theory, explaining fundamental concepts for theorizing the photograph. 

Alternate Process in Photography: Technique, History, and Creative Potential offers a unique, practitioner's perspective on the history and practice of photographic processes. The book emphasizes handmade, largely historical photographic techniques, and provides detailed information for both beginning and advanced photographers.

Leading historian Dell Upton's Architecture in America reveals the dazzling richness of America's human landscape. It tells the complete story of American architecture, from pre-European conquest sites to the latest post-modern structures.  The text covers indigenous, folk, ethnic, and popular architectures like Chaco Canyon, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Native American houses while also exploring the great monuments of traditional histories lik...

Art Matters introduces students to the wide range of art that is around them.  Featuring an enormous assortment of types of art that numerous diverse artists have created for different people around the world, it demonstrates how pervasive and critical art is in our lives—from the emojis we text, to the furniture we sit on, to the buildings we live in, to the photographs we see.

Through stories, examples, thoughtful pedagogy, and in-de...

Art and Design Fundamentals is a contemporary introduction to art and design that emphasizes ideation and critical thinking. Written for visual learners, the text offers thorough yet succinct coverage of both traditional topics and new technologies, with diverse visual examples and a wealth of projects and resources that help students hone the skills they need to produce exceptional work in a dynamic field.

Originally written for students at Chemeketa Community College, Art for Everyone is a practical and accessible guide to art appreciation that emphasizes artists' creative process and the importance of art in our everyday lives. Written by practicing artists, Art for Everyone pairs a thorough exploration of art techniques with the most concise introduction to art history available, highlighting topics that are meaningful to today's students.

Art of the Non-Western World is an in-depth, contextual exploration of the art of the larger world outside of the Western Tradition. It covers the arts: painting, sculpture, pottery, graphic arts, and architecture of Asia, the Americas, Africa, Austrailia, and the Pacific Island.

Welcome to the Companion Website for the second edition of Drawing: A Sketch and Textbook, by Margaret Lazzari, Dona Schlesier, and Douglas Schlesier. The book contains icons that point you to the videos on this website on drawing techniques or media. Better than thousands of words, the videos show you ways to draw from observation, measure while you draw, apply fixative properly, work with perspective, and much more.

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Ideal for introductory studio art courses in drawing, Drawing Essentials: A Complete Guide to Drawing, Fourth Edition, explains clearly and in depth the essentials of depicting form and space on a two-dimensional surface, focusing on the cultivation of observational skills, increased sensitivity, critical thinking, technical refinement, and knowledge of materials.  The text is appropriate for use in all levels of drawing classes, from introd...

Effective Graphic Design follows a fixed structure throughout each project and examples to make it easier for students to learn graphic design.  Most books introduce design concepts and then illustrate them through well-done examples. The problem is that many concepts are tightly integrated in practice, making it difficult to teach a concept in a one-shot, stand-alone fashion. Effective Graphic Design is application oriented and takes the op...

Richly illustrated and interactive in its approach, How Color Works: Color Theory in the Twenty-First Century explores the contemporary aesthetics of color. Color and its many meanings are presented in culturally specific terms, encouraging students to appreciate the power that color holds over different societies. The text demonstrates that interest in color is alive and well-even in surprising corners of artistic production-and shows students o...

Richly illustrated and interactive in its approach, Life Drawing: A Sketch and Textbook is an innovative, dual-use textbook/sketchbook, combining technical instruction with the space to actually execute the lessons. Its unique format alternates between education and practice-a critical balance in studio-art courses. Concise instructions are supported by a wide assortment of examples that clearly address the basics of drawing the human figure and ...

Medieval Art 250-1450: Matter, Making, and Meaning is a new innovative textbook for the undergraduate medieval art course. Using a case-studies approach, the textbook engages students in close readings of medieval objects and buildings in their devotional and experiential contexts. It also asks students to consider the fascinating trajectories of medieval images and objects, from invention to production and from reception to preservation.

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Themes of Contemporary Art has long been considered the best introduction to art created since 1970. This thought-provoking volume features over 200 full-color images of artworks that exemplify a wide variety of materials, techniques, theoretical viewpoints, and stylistic approaches, by artists from diverse ethnic, cultural, and geographic backgrounds. Its concise, engaging, and accessible narrative challenges readers to think actively and critic...

Themes of Contemporary Art, Fifth Edition, provides a comprehensive introductory text for studio art and art history students taking a Contemporary Art or Art Since 1970 class. It avoids a “timeline” approach to allow students to make connections between a wide ranging selection of artists, styles, and media, offering a rich visual program complementing a detailed text. Unlike other texts that take a chronological approach that fails to make thes...

This Is America: Re-Viewing the Art of the United States is a new, brief text on the history of American art from the Colonial era through the contemporary. Broadening the story of American art, This Is America offers the most diverse and inclusive introduction to the subject.

The Visual Arts of Africa: Power, Gender, and Life Cycles, Second Edition, presents a broad geographical coverage of the rich, diverse art traditions found on the vast continent of Africa. Beginning with North Africa and the Sahara and ending with South Africa, the book introduces students to major art traditions ranging from important ancient, archaeological finds to the work of artists active today, both those working with received traditions a...

Appropriate for both graphic designers and fine artists, Visual Literacy Workbook: For Graphic Design and Fine Art Students provides a detailed approach to understanding visual imagery. The text presents a wide range of fine art, graphic, and digital examples and is divided into two major parts: visual form and visual content. As students cover new material in the workbook, concepts are reinforced and synthesized, resulting in a comprehensive und...

A next-generation textbook that presents Visual Culture in the arts and sciences, Visual Worlds is designed to introduce students to visuality across all the fields that theorize it. Highlighting examples ranging from traditional “artworks” to the physics of candle flames to the visualization of neurons, it gives a full introduction to the visual world for undergraduate students. The text offers students across disciplines -- from the...

Richard Ingersoll's World Architecture: A Cross-Cultural History, Second Edition, provides the most comprehensive and contemporary survey in the field. Each chapter within the text's chronological organization focuses on three unique architectural cultures, giving instructors the flexibility to choose which traditions are the most relevant to their courses. The text also provides students with numerous pedagogical tools, including timelines, comp...