RUBooks Blog

In honour of the mayhem that is ‘Black Friday’ we’ve got a ma-husive 50% off sale on ALL of our David and Charles Books. That includes great works on painting, photography and drawing. There are almost 200 items in the sale, but here are some of our top picks.  Sale ends Sunday 27 November, so get in quick!

Claudia Nice is nice, so nice she’s willing to share all (well some) of her top tips for drawing and painting all different types of trees in her book, Drawing and Painting Trees in the Landscape.  Whether you’re out in the wild or sketching from photos, this bestseller has all the step by step instructions you’ll need to get every leaf, branch and twig just the way you want it.

Drawing & Painting Trees in the Landscape by Claudia Nice

Buy now for only £7.49

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As artists, we all follow other artists and have our favourites who’s work we admire. Today’s post starts a series of posts highlighting some of the many well known artists in the field today. A series of posts that will bring together a brief run down of the artists, their books, dvds and video clips they have produced. The internet has a wealth of information, but sometimes the information your looking for can be scattered far and wide. The aim of these posts is to bring together information on your favourite artists into one place you can enjoy it.

Terry Harrison, artist and author

Terry Harrison grew up in Norfolk. His early art education was basic and he nerver dreamed that one day he would become an artist. At fifteen, Terry moved to Hampshire and was inspired by a brilliant art teacher. He took ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels in art, then won a place at Farnham Art School at the age of sixteen. He became a graphic artist, but continued to paint in his spare time. In 1984 Terry gave up his job to paint full time. He demonstrates to artists’ groups and teaches on painting holidays. He has also developed a range of his own brushes and paints. He is also the author of many best selling art books on painting with acylics and watercolours and now lives in the Cotswolds.

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In this review we look at Charlie’s Top Tips for Watercolour Artists, a compact handbook from Charles Evans detailing over 100 tips to improve your watercolour painting.

Lets start by looking at the author himself, Charles Evans

Charles Evans is one of the UKs leading Painters. His likeable personality is reflected in his watercolour paintings, and have a lightness that many artists aspire to. Charles lives and works in Morepeth, Northumberland, in the North East of England, and gains inspiration from the natural scenery surrounding him. As well as painting in various mediums, Charles runs his own art classes from his studio, but also travels extensively, holding various painting holidays, visiting art societies and filming for his popular television series.

Charlie’s Top Tips for Watercolour Artists has a hard cover with 96 pages of tips from Charles, built up over years of watercolour painting. At about 160mm x 210mm x 15mm it can be taken anywhere, out and about when painting outside or in your studio.

Charles Evans is a well-known, popular author, and in his watercolour techniques book he shares many of his experience as a professional artist in over 100 great tips. Watercolour artists of various abilities will find this book interesting with superbly illustrated tips, step-by-step demonstrations and glimpses of various finished paintings.

The first thing you notice about Charlie’s Top Tips for Watercolour Artists is that it’s spiral bound. For art reference books, all should be like this as it allows you to lay your book flat without the pages wanting to turn back over and allows you to have your hands free for painting.

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Joe Francis Dowden free tips - read the full post to view the free tips.

As the days grow longer and spring starts to warm up the days it’s time to think about getting out and about, drawing and painting. Joe Francis Dowden’s book, The Landscape Painter’s Essential Handbook, is packed with 50 projects on how to paint beautiful landscapes in watercolour.

To celebrate spring being just around the corner and giving us more chance to get out and paint, below is the first of a few new free projects.

Joe Francis Dowden shows us some great tips on how to paint a shingle beach. As Joe mentions in his opening line for these tips, “A million pebbles on a beach, jumbled one on top of the other, all different colours, all in perspective”, if you are like me you will be thinking where do I start, but these great tips will guide you in the right direction.

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The new book from Impact, Other Worlds by Tom Kidd is now available at RUBooks. An inspirational 192 page book packed with great fantasy art, both pencil and full colour.

Bizarre terrains, enhanced forests, futuristic metropolise, ornate palaces are some of the places where adventure dwells and where Tom Kidd, fantasy artist takes you on the pages of this book. In this fun and fiercely original book celebrated fantasy artist Tom Kidd, you’ll learn how to set the scene for epic tales of adventure and to see the world around you with fresh eyes. (take a look at some of the internal pages below)

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As we celebrate the launch of the new look RUBooks web site we have some free projects for our artists and photographers. The second FREE art project, which you can view or download and take away with you by opening and reading the full post. We hope you enjoy it but let us know what you think, plus, if you have any ideas on the projects you would like to see, just leave us a comment and let us know.

In this great little project, artist Joe Francis Dowden shows us tips for painting surf breaking over rocks, the colour palette used and some steps to help create a wonderful watercolour image. The project itself is taken from the book, The Landscape Painter’s Essential Handbook, which shows you how to paint 50 beautiful landscapes in watercolour.

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To celebrate the launch of the new look RUBooks web site we have some free projects for our artists and photographers. Here’s the first, which you can view or download and take away with you, but keep checking back for more to follow. We hope you enjoy them and let us know what you think, plus, if you have any ideas on the projects you would like to see, just leave us a comment and let us know.

The first project is a page from one of Lee Frost’s books, 50 Photo Projects by David & Charles, which shows you how to make a panorama from a series of photographs, stitching them together to make one panoramic image.

Lee Frost is an acclaimed photographer and one of the best-known writers on photography in the world. He is a regular contributor to the leading UK photography magazines and leads photography tours all over the world. His books include The A-Z Creative Photography, 500 Composition Hints, Tips & Techniques, Lee Frost’s Landscape Photography, The Creative Photography Handbook, The Complete Guide to Night and Low-Light Photography, and The Photographer’s Guide to Filters.

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A quick post to say the final video clip from Bryan Hitch is now available, here, where he talks about the business end of comic illustration. If you have not seen the other  4 videos they are also available on the same page. The topics he covers are: How to break into the world of comics illustration, art of composition, inking and colouring and the importance of your portfolio.

It’s great to here advice and tips from people working in the industry and let us know what you think about the videos and Bryan Hitch’s new book itself if you have bought it.

Bryan Hitch signing copies of his new book and fans comics

The weekend has finished and The British International Comics Show, which myself and Susie attended, is over with the hustle and bustle starting to fade. For me, it was the first show of this type I have attended but what an eye opener it was.

Bryan Hitch was the man of the day for lots of people attending the show but I had a keen interest to see the art on show by the various comic illustrators. The show was over two days on the weekend of the 16th-17th October. Some of the most well known artists and writers from all over the world, as well as here in the UK, attended for signings, interviews and guest panels.

Artists including Peter Gross, Charles Vess and Bryan Hitch attended discussing their work, revealing secrets to fans in live events as well as launching new books, Bryan Hitch’s Ultimate Comic Studio, being one of the books and which was launched on our stand on the Saturday.

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With summer on us, it’s a fantastic time to leave the studio and enjoy the summer air. Many look to the landscape and the inspiration it gives to help produce some stunning paintings. The RUBooks blog team trawl of the net this week has highlighted this video clip which shows a quick insight into Joe Francis Dowden’s approach to painting water. The medium is watercolour and I still take my hat off to anyone who can master this great medium.

Take a look at the clip below but at the RUBooks store we have a great range of watercolour books to help you get started.