This is the page where I like to just pass along some information about good writers I like that might benefit those of you artists who want to develop your skills. I also include a little about advertising, andwhatever.

Another author, who some times wrote about art is Francis Schaeffer. Really all of his writings are worth while. I have and recommend his book "True Spirituality"- I first read it in the Fall of 2000. His son Franky Schaeffer wrote a modern classic called "Addicted to Mediocrity", I recommend it as well.

I'd like to recommend a Classic. Some say that reading through the Classics in Literature is the equivalent to getting a college degree. However well I did at parenting my sons I'm not sure, but I'm sure reading to them was probably the best thing I did, we read most of the Classics...They are total book lovers. "ROBINSON CRUSOE" is my all time favorite book, The original unabridged version. My copy has illustrations done by N.C.Wyeth.

  I was recently introduced to John Steinbeck, "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday" and really like his writing...He doesn't appear to be Christian, ( but who knows for sure) it's reported that He is one of the charactors in his books and they aren't as fiction as they look, I don't know if that's true...In any event, he's a excellent writer!

Now for a couple of Advertising books.These are books, not specifically written from a Christian world view perhaps but very truthful and insightful as far as helping people advertise their products. These are full of content, and instructive to help you write ad copy. They are:"Tested Advertising Methods" by John Caples, published by Prentice Hall. "Ogilvy on Advertising" by David Ogilvy published by Vintage books/Random House

John Ruskin was a brilliant art teacher, critic and writer of the last century. His first book "The Elements of Drawing" was published in the summer of 1857 and was a quick seller for several years to come. It's gone in and out of print ever since. One thing to note is that it's written at a higher reading educational level than the average American uses today, so you may have to struggle through it, read and re-read in order to understand it. Even so, the book is a gem of art teaching, with a tremendous amount of valuable content, which is rarely given in art books today or by teachers for that matter. It is fortunately still in print.

"The Elements of Drawing" is my favorite art book.

Here's a little sample of the writings of John Ruskin taken from an out of print book entitled "Precious Thoughts"

Some years ago, as I was talking of the curvilinear forms in a piece of rock to one of our academians, he said to me, in a somewhat despondent accent, "If you look for curves, you will see curves; if you look for angles, you will see angles." The saying appeared to me to be an infinitely sad one. It was the utterance of an experienced man; and in many ways true, for one of the most singular gifts, or, if abused, most singular weaknesses, of the human mind is its power of persuading itself to see whatever it chooses: a great gift, if directed to the discernment of the things needful and pertinent to its own work and being; a great weakness, if directed to the discovery of things profitless or discouraging. In all things throughout the world, the men who look for the crooked will see the crooked, and the men who look for the straight will see the straight. But yet the saying was a notably sad one; for it came of the conviction in the speaker's mind that there was in reality no crooked and no straight; that all so called discernment was fancy, and that men might, with equal rectitude of judgment, and good-deserving of their fellow men, perceive and paint whatever was convenient to them. Whereas things may always be seen truly by candid people, though never completely. No human capacity ever yet saw the whole of a thing; but we may see more and more of it the longer we look. Every individual temper will see something different in it: but supposing the tempers honest, all the differences are there. Every advance in our acuteness of perception will show us something new; but the old and first discerned thing will still be there, not falsified, only modified and enriched by the new perceptions, becoming continually more beautiful in its harmony with them and more approved as a part of the Infinite truth.

Composition, from "The Elements of Drawing" Pg. 161, 162, (Dover edition.)

188. (Paragraph 2) Composition means, literally and simply, putting several things together, so as to make one thing of them; the nature and goodness of which they all share in producing. Thus a musician composes an air, by putting notes together in certain relations; a poet composes a poem, by putting thoughts and words in pleasant order; and a painter a picture, by putting thoughts, forms, and colours in pleasant order.

In all these cases, observe, an intended unity must be the result of composition. A paviour (mason) cannot be said to compose the heap of stones which he empties from his cart, nor the sower the hand full of seed which he scatters from his hand. It is the essence of composition that everything should be in a determined place, perform an intended part, and act, in that part, advantageously for everything that is connected with it.

189. Composition, understood in this pure sense, is the type, in the arts of mankind, of the Provdential governments of the world. It is the exhibition, in the order given to notes, or colours, or forms, of the advantage of perfect fellowship, discipline, and contentment. In a well composed air, no note, however short or low, can be spared, but the least is as necessary as the greatest: no note, however prolonged, is tedious: but the others prepare for it, and are benefited by, it's duration: no note, however high, is tyrannous; the others prepare for, and are benefited by it's exaltation: no note, however low, is overpowered; the others prepare for, and sympathise with, it's humility: and the result is, that each and every note has a value in the position assigned to it, which, by itself, it never possessed, and of which, by separation from the others, it would instantly be deprived.