Jonathan Stephenson (1)

Published in 1987, this book chronicles all the: graphic media: Rotring isograph, (glass bottled) studio colour Magic Markers, sable brushes, and Badger and Paashche air brushes etc. As well as desk equipment: steel rulers, T-square, Artgum erasers, spray mount (which we used like it was going out of fashion!), Swann-Morton (10a's by the hundreds!) scalpels, Letraset/tone, and Pantone color charts spring immediately to mind; and the studio equipment: drawing boards and drafting machines, light boxes, etc. and who could forget the essential Grant enlarger, used back then.

The book describes and explains all the materials and equipment visually through hundreds of photographs, backed up with detailed charts, so it feels like waling through the best stocked art supply shop imaginable (albeit from thirty years ago), but this was a time when hand skills were much higher than they are today. I often wonder what would happen if computers for whatever reason weren't available to today's graphic designer, and if the studio of today would still be able to get the work out on time?
The answer is probably, no - because studios back then had a much closer working relationship with the rest of the industry, i.e. the printers etc, and that industry is also unrecognisable today and has also become largely automated. Do printers still even have Velox screens? I doubt it, but that is the subject for another time.

A great bit of nostalgia and a reminder for a few of us of the good old days when working in the industry still gave people a buzz both creatively, and probably chemically too - if I think about the hours spent under hot, un-ventilated lighting with open cans of lighter fluid and solvent based markers. ;)… (more)

A terrific introduction to a number of media and supports, with clear simple drawings that walk the beginning artist through prepping a canvas or a panel, sun-drying oil, grinding pigments, etc. This and Cennini should make you a hands-on painter.
Just as informative is Stephenson's readable and scholarly essay about the craft of painting, its ancient origins, and how craft and understanding of materials was lost as painting became the pursuit of gentleman amateurs and academicians. Invaluable in understanding the mental and societal shift of painting from craft to art, and what was lost in the gaining of prestige.… (more)