Drawing Class: Animals, Learn to Draw with Simple Shapes and Online Tutorials by Heegyum Kim

 

Artists and doodlers will love this step-by-step method of drawing sixty different animals using simple shapes like rectangles, triangles and semi-circles. Kim makes the process easy with clear directions for making the cute critters. Graphic Designer and illustrator, Heegyum Kim, masterfully simplifies heads, torsos, legs of farm animals, woodland creatures, and animals from many other biomes. All of them have cartoon-like rounded features and appealing faces.  QR codes link to videos of Kim demonstrating her craft. Each animal is given a range of expressions and poses. Fun and easy to follow, this technique book will be enjoyed by all age groups.

The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black.

In her youth, Clare spent all her time with Patrick Carraday, the son of one of richest men in Galveston. Patrick who lives in the large historical home adjacent to her own is wild and reckless. Drawn to each other, they become confidantes and co-conspirators. After a shocking and horrifying incident that alarms both of their families, the two of them are sent away--to opposite corners of the world.

Clare is sent to Ohio where she marries and establishes herself as a successful photographer. After her daughter's death, though, and with her own marriage crumbling, Clare returns to the island that relentlessly calls out to her.  Though Eleanor, her mother, and Faline, the cook, try to dissuade her from seeing him, she persists in searching for Patrick who eludes her. 

Clare ostensibly returns to Galveston to create a photographic exhibit. Clare has an even more urgent need, however,  to excavate her past. She wants to understand her mother and father's coldness towards her. Most of all, she wants to know what happened after she and Patrick were sent away. 

Many stories swirl around the Carraday family, including the one about Stella who had become part of the island's lore. Clare identifies with Stella, who died while trying to escape the hurricane of 1900 with her architect boyfriend, Henry Durand, because Stella is also a rebel. 

As Clare sifts through ancient photographs, Clare tries to comprehend Stella's story. She planned on including Stella's story at her own photography exhibit. She is unprepared, however, for what she finds--a photograph of a woman that may be Stella.  If it is Stella, then the photo could prove the island's legend wrong. Stella may have survived the storm and she may have been forced to return to the Carraday house. 

Clare uncovers many more secrets--a secret relationship between Will Carraday and her own mother. As memories flood in, Clare begins to understand her difficult, complicated relationship with her father and sister. Clare pieces together the real reason she and Patrick were forcibly separated.

This novel captures the Galveston atmosphere perfectly as well as the isolation and the pride of its inhabitants. Inhabitants are proud to point out if they were BOI or born on the island. Black also depicts the island's rich history and its vulnerability. 

Clare mirrors the island's qualities. She feels isolated and vulnerable because certain facts have been kept from her. The truth, however, will set Clare free to be the artist that she was always meant to be. Black includes just enough mystery to keep readers hooked. 

Making Art and Making a Living

 

Is it really possible to make a living while pursuing your art?  Mason Currey explores this intriguing question in Making Art and Making a Living. Currey explains how Petrarch, Baudelaire, Van Gogh and other notables funded their art careers. In a breezy style, he places artists into categories. They either inherited wealth, mooched off of others, or worked odd jobs.  A select few worked parallel jobs, insurance, law, or medicine, while some worked in cultural institutions, e.g., Museum of Modern Art. During the depression, many artists benefited from the Federal Arts Project. This really isn't a how-to for funding art careers, but it satisfies those who are curious about artistic achievement.