My Favorite Art Books! Inspiration + Education

I draw and also love reading. Usually I have a hard time choosing between the two😅 I'm reading Van Gogh, A life in letters ( my first nonfiction in a long time) right now and I didn't know he was such a beautiful writer! The man was talented.

Your channel is one of my absolute favorites right now. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and process. ❤

Thank you for the recommendations. I never would have noticed The Oil Painter's Color Handbook on my own, as I do not paint in oils, but it looks like a wonderful resource. You've inspired me to pick up some of those art books that have been sitting on my wish list for a while.

All great art books. Exactly the artists i love (Gurney, Sargent, Zorn, Sorolla, Schmid) I will order the Gurney book and wait for a deal on the other books...if it ever happens. Thanks for the video.

I just ordered a large coffee table of Klimts complete work. Can't wait to look at it!

Just got the James Gurney book. Read about 20 pages and already happy. Thanks for that good suggestion. Have a happy holiday and a great year 2024.

How is this the first time Im hearing about Sorolla. I studied art history for crying out loud. SUch beautiful paintings. I also had my eye on the JSS book, but... the price :( . And to your question, I would love to see a Zorn palette painting from you

Oh I love art books (as Inso and education) - and have been asked by family for some 'Christmas gift ideas' so this is perfect timing! 😍

Ive been wanting to try using the zorn pallet and would love to see how you decide to utilize those colors!

Yes, zorn palette video would be cool

Oooouu… Zorn palette but make it contemporary??? So much info available (especially technical) but you never see how that palette could be applied in modern paintings of say, unicorn pool toys, etc.

I'm not a painter myself, but I am definintely going to look into Sorolla. My favorite artbook that I own is the Tohl Narita artbook. He was the one behind kaiju (怪獣) designs for Ultraman, which is a classic Japanese hero film series. His designs are so wacky and creative; I'm not even that into the films themselves, but it's always fun to flip through! And I have my eyes on a Yoshimoto Nara artbook. He is more a pop art style illustrator I think, but his child portraits are so expressive.

You are so amazing, Emily. I love that you sketch your references on video, a rarity these days. Quite impressive, from start to finish.

Hi Emily, really enjoying your channel! Love your art books; Sargent and Zorn are also some of my favourite artists that I look to for inspiration. Here's some book titles from my stash: for painting techniques I love "Color Mixing the Van Wyk Way" by Helen Van Wyk; "Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits" by William F. Powell and "Mastering Composition" by Ian Roberts. Both Helen and Ian also have Youtube channels. For inspiration my favourites are "Portrait Revolution" by Julia Kay and "Daily Painting" by Carol Marine" (Carol in her book touches on the topic of painter's block and talks to other artists and how they deal with it.) So many books, so little time! Right now I get a lot of inspiration from your channel. Love the 100 Heads challenge; thinking of doing it as well. Thanks for the great content!

James gurney book is amazing ! One of all time favorites too, I think I'll also get the oil painter habdbook, I been hesitant about it , but it seems to be useful and different enough from James gurney color and light plus I'm also a bit nerd for pigments and their technicalities ,Thanks for the recommendations !

I loved this video! You mentioned that you want to do more oil paintings in 2024. I would love love love an oil painting process video, your gouache walk through was invaluable to me and Id love a similar one for oils including setting up, painting process, and clean up! 🥰🥰

I've never seen Sorolla. So lovely! I'll have to keep an eye out for some of those anatomy books!

The latest additions to my art book collection are Sargent's Watercolors and the giant JC Leyendecker! 😍 Another favorite is Beatrix Potter's Complete Peter Rabbit. The Zorn and Sorolla books are now on my list! Thanks for sharing, always love your videos ♥

Omg! ❤I own four of these books you mentioned! I need to check out the other ones on your list. ⭐️✨

You might be interested in the art books by Oga Kazuo, if you don't already know about him. He did a lot of background artworks for Ghibli films.