The best art books you’ve never heard of

Books in Video:

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PLACES TO FIND ME

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ABOUT ME

Hi! My name is Margot and I am a professional artist and graphic designer. My parents like to joke that I was born with a paintbrush in hand. I started my career after graduating from the renown Parsons School of Design in New York City and spent over 15 years creating and designing for many of the world's top Fortune 500 brands and companies. My painting journey started as a side project and a creative outlet for me to step away from the computer, go back to my "roots" in fine art and to hone my skills as an illustrator and painter. I started posting some of my work on instagram and the rest is history. My work is inspired by all the things that I am passionate about. Ballet, travel, graphic design, color and finding a world of beauty in all facets of everyday life. I hope you'll join me in this YouTube journey as I take you through all the tips, tricks and trade secrets I've gathered throughout the years. I hope I can teach you some of what I know, help you discover your creative voice and I hope you enjoy this Channel!

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*Disclaimer: Pointebrush is a participant in the Amazon, Blick Art Materials and Jackson's Art affiliate programs. An affiliate advertising program is designed to provide a means for creators to earn fees by linking to products they recommend on these websites. The cost to you for these products is the same, but Pointebrush earns a small commission which helps support the creation of these videos and content.

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[jenneke]

The map book looks wonderful. Another bonus of the Rosemary and Co. catalogue is that all the brushes are shown in their actual ‘real life’ size! So if you have, for example, a Princeton brush in size 8 and want to replace it with one from Rosemary +Co., you can compare it very easily. This is great because brush head sizes can vary considerably from one company to another!

[mayuvalladolid]

Hazel Soan’s Watercolour Rainbow, Essence of Watercolour and Light and Shadow. They’ve helped me understand how watercolour behaves and just wow! Inspirational in her mastery of the medium.. very easy to understand and hard to put down.

[joninieminen]

My top three art books:
1. Color and Light: A guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney. The best book about how color works in nature, a must for every artist.
2. Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art by Scott McCloud. Even if you're not that much into comics you should still read it. Absolutely brilliant.
3. Picture This: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang. If you're only going to read one book about composition, get this one.

[jaimejaime]

Hi Margot. Jim from Madrid, Spain (a fellow artist and a New Yorker expat living abroad).
Interesting book collection.
Your last book shown on Oil painters interested me but not because if the book itself...
Lately (I'm a self taught artist) I have been studying "Sorolla", the Master of Light as he is known world wide.
He was an Oil painter but the way he studied, worked and visualized light was incredible.
Why am I bringing this subject here?
Well... I don't often see (very seldomly) watercolor artists talking about artists from other mediums and how to apply it to watercolor, for example, or vice versa.
Maybe it's because I was not educated in a proper art school/university or whatever... but "thinking out of the box" and learning from a true mixed media approach (and I'm NOT talking on how to use watercolor with coloured pencils and graphite, or an ink and wash, or watercolors with gouache, etc., because the market is completely flooded!).
I mean... learning from other Mediums and How yo apply it to your own (in this case watercolor, but it could also be the other way around).
Maybe is my lack of proper artistic and formal education... but I've never encountered such a subject (and yeah... James Burney and his famous book talks a bit about it but there aren't any YouTube videos on it - for those who can't spend a fortune in courses).
Well... It's just a thought.
I am (on my own) just doing that right now with Sorolla, because the way he treated light is just amazing! And how I can use that in watercolor (if I can learn how to do it) is just going to be amazing!
Anyway... great channel and thank you for sharing!
Cheers from Sunny Spain!
😁👍😎✌

[TheMessyDeskxyz]

I heard of the Sennelier store a while back from youtube but Paris is so far and seemed almost impossible for me… Then lo and behold, I fitted Paris into my work/vacation trip last year. You bet I went to Sennelier! It was just amazing to be in there!

[KITTYSASYA]

OMG! The Rosemary and Company catalog, I save them too. It's a beautiful catalog. I love this company.

[saral.]

The single most informative book out there on color and light is called ‘Vision and Art: the Biology of Seeing’ by Margaret Livingstone. It is now a textbook in most first year art courses. It is so informative, and startling, and will help you to apply color theory to your artwork. You will be able to create more vibrant paintings with some little devices in paint application as well as 3D effects done according to theory provided in the book.
2nd book is ‘Reflections of nature: paintings by Joseph Raffael’. Sadly, Joseph died recently, a couple years back, following his wife, who died maybe three or four years before him. He is a wonderful and talented, watercolor artist. Earlier in his career, he painted with oils as well. Interestingly, he went to school during Advent Guard or modern art era. His work has some aspects of abstract art, while at the same time he painted in detail from nature very lifelike images in large scale.
A gorgeous book filled with splendid images, painted without any traditional background, he consistently breaks all the rules of traditional watercolor, but all of his art is captivating & rich with color!
Both books are treasures, and I happen to have them both out. I like to put ‘Raffael’ out open on a table and review different paintings for inspiration.
I’m sure Margot that you will love them both!
SARA

[awatercolourist]

I’m guessing 3s, 5s and 7s is the arrangement of flowers. In interior design, I often hear that it’s best to arrange similar objects in odd numbers, so I’m guessing the same applies to flower arrangements?

[selmag]

Cool collection, thank you for sharing! Author of the first book has a Youtube-channel.

[brushmiles]

Hi Margot!
firstly, I love your videos.
I also appreciate that you create in such ways that require a lot of effort and time while having young children. Thank you! for all that you do!

I loved this book video and wanted to share that I too, have been quite taken by the "Oil Painter's color handbook"! My copy is from the library even before I saw your video and have found the colour information so valuable!
You mentioned wanting to hear of other books we might recommend; I really like "Seeing Flowers - discover the hidden life of flowers (written by Teri Dunn Chace, photographed by Robert Llewellyn) This is a beautiful book on the beauty of flowers. I think you would like it too!
Take care
xo

[JLB]

I honestly hate books and paper - I’ve always thought it’s clutter. Now that I’ve started painting I’ve purchased more books and paper in the last 6 months than I have in the 15 years since college, and I’m ok with it. Thanks for the inspiration!

[christopherkelly]

The best art books THIS year? Crap, I am going to need more bookshelves!

[irmadelgado]

Hi Margot, I love, love books. I got The Secret Lives of Colours after watching your other video and I found out that in the 1500's my country(Guatemala) was a major producer and export of the plant for Indigo. Very interesting fact I did not know. I enjoyed that book enormously. Thank you.

[KatWoman_]

I added the Botanical Watercolors to my Amazon cart. TY.

[awatercolourist]

Sandrine Maugy is also on youtube. She has a very nice channel.

[elisabethseeger]

That color book hS already helped me with choosing landscape colors - it is incredible!!

[debh]

Love these videos, and especially your discussion of how you use these books. Thanks! Hope you do another mid-year!

[lisaharner]

I love books and your references are amazing! I just put three of them in my cart on drawing, color and botanicals. Botanicals are my favorite! There are so many techniques to try. ❤

[natashafranko]

Thank you very much this video was very helpful and interesting 😊

[chacallachaise]

Only purchas3 Rosemary and Co, and it began with their Eradicators. Their travel brushes are wonderful, too.