Yesterday was the first time ever, when I didn't buy anything at the book store. I wasn't there by accident, I came with a purpose - to buy new art books. I was particularly looking for books to watch and copy from.There were a lot of books and most of them can be grouped into 3 types:
1. Poorly illustrated books. Small/cheap books with a bad quality photos of paintings.
2. Books with small photos and a huge amount of text. There were a lot of nice books of this type, but I already have something to read.
3. Beautifully illustrated books with a lot of close-ups that reveal the brushstrokes. But all of them were huge. It's a riddle for me why publishers don't separate huge books into parts. It's impossible to keep such book in hands or on stand - there always should be a table with a lot of free space.
All the projects like Google Cultural Institute (Art Project) and Hermitage Digital Collection (link) make the most of the printed paintings look wretched. It's so good that we can enjoy a superb quality, but so sad at the same time, because I was always a huge fan of buying books.
Did you buy any books recently? Maybe you have something to recommend? I will be grateful.
Here is the sketch for a new painting. I'm not satisfied with the poses, so the final painting will look a little bit different.
