Illustration: Books & Other Resources

Inspiration

• On Point  A daily NPR-sponsored news program on WBUR radio, Boston.
• This American Life A weekly public radio program broadcast on more than 500 stations, featuring “true stories of everyday people.”
• TED A free source for “riveting talks by remarkable people” on technology, entertainment, design, business, science, and global issues: over 700 thinkers from around the world.
• One Cool Thing a Day A public blog that invites and posts interesting visual imagery submitted by viewers.  See "Vivian Maier: Street Photographer" and “Forced perspective Forces You to Perceive Awesomeness.”
• William Kentridge: Anything is Possible (A PBS Art21 film)
• An amazing light 3D show at Kharkov, Ukraine 
• The Food Project  An organization that promotes growing your own food with raised beds for Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, East Boston, and Lynn residents, providing seeds, other gardening resources & workshops.

Art & Illustration History

• University of Florida Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature Excellent archive of illustration.
• Illustration History Excellent archive produced by Norman Rockwell Museum.
• A Journey Round my Skull A blog that presents relatively obscure imagery and information about historic illustration.
• BibliOdyssey A blog about books, illustration, science, history, visual material obscura and eclectic bookarts.
• Open Culture  A portal for free access to cultural & educational media, including audio books, eBooks, textbooks, videos, films, online courses.
• 100 Greatest Posters of Film Noir  Information about Film Noir and a portal for viewing 10 classic posters and 23 classic films from the 1940’s and 1950’s.
• Art Cyclopedia  A large, well-organized database of visual art.
• American Illustrators Articles & essays from the Resource Library, an online publication of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc.
• The Web Gallery of Art  A visual database of European painting and sculpture from 11th to mid-19th centuries.
• The Art Renewal Center A visual database of late 19th Century Academic painting.
• A World History of Art  An extensive database of visual art, including all forms, from pre-history to contemporary, world-wide.
• Illustration House  An auction house for “Golden Age” illustration.
• Today’s Inspiration  A public blog, focused on 1940’s and 1950’s illustration to share.
• Vintage Paperbacks  An online collection of pulp cover illustration from 1940’s and 1950’s.

Skill Development

• Color Scheme Designer  A free online application for exploring color schemes.
• Andrew Loomis’ Art Instruction Books  LA Freebee offers free downloads of out-of-print. books: Fun with a Pencil, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth, Drawing the Heads & Hands, Successful Drawing, Creative Illustration and The Eye of the Painter.
• Google SketchUp A free digital perspective and 3D modeling application; check and correct perspective.

Resources & Reference

• Morbid Anatomy  An online Wunderkammer: private collection and research library that surveys “the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture.”
• Dream Anatomy  An online exhibition of historical anatomical illustration from the National Library of Medicine.
• Skullsite.com  An indexed database for bird skull images and some digital 3D models of bird skeletons.
• Posemaniacs A resource for figure reference: an anatomical model, featuring poses useful to artists interested in animé, manga and game art.
• Senshi Stock  A Creative Commons stock site for free figure reference, featuring poses useful to artists interested in animé, manga and game art.
• Action Stock  A Creative Commons stock site for free figure reference, featuring poses useful to artists interested in animé, manga and game art.
• Man Stock  A Creative Commons stock site for free figure reference, featuring poses useful to artists interested in animé, manga and game art.
• Lady Stock  A Creative Commons stock site for free figure reference, featuring poses useful to artists interested in animé, manga and game art.
• Unrestricted Stock  A Creative Commons stock site for free figure reference, featuring poses useful to artists interested in animé, manga and game art.
• Face Research  An online computer graphics tool that combines faces and displays an average.
• Gesture Drawing Practice Tool  A site that displays random photos of figures (or animals) at a choice of time intervals, featuring poses and costumes useful to artists interested in animé, manga and game art.
• Female Body Type  An online article on various female body types.
• Todd Farm Antiques & Flea Market  A weekly flea market, Sundays, in Rowley, MA.
• The Garment District  A great thrift/vintage/costume shop in Cambridge with a "Dollar a Pound" section.
• The Recycle Shop  A source for an large variety of reusable fabrics, plastics, papers, and strings for crafts and fine arts projects.
• Boomerangs  A source for vintage clothing, homewares, electronics, and furniture in Jamaica Plain and the South End.
• Boston Redevelopment Corporation  A local source for inexpensive leftover new and old recycled cabinets, doors, windows, molding, sinks, bathtubs, electrical gadgets, screws, bolts, hinges, doorknobs, etc.
• Boston Redevelopment Authority  A government organization that helps Boston artists apply for studio spaces and affordable housing and announces art exhibition opportunities.

Contemporary Illustration, Art & Design

• Artist a Day 
• Gigposters  A Great poster site 
• Gurney Journey  Illustrator James Gurney’s blog
• And the Pursuit of Happiness Maira Kalman’s New York Times illustrated online column with essays on American history and culture.
• Society of Illustrators Video Archives Online access to an archive of Society of Illustrators lectures.

Editorial Illustration

• OP-ED at 40: Four Decades of Illustration A video history of the New York Times political art, including commentary by art directors and artists.

Children’s Illustration

• Tuesday  David Wiesner’s wordless moving picture book

Masks

• Behind the Mask  A studio that produces custom-made masks and face wear, costumes and accessories for rent and for sale, as well as workshops and theatrical productions incorporating music, storytelling, dance, puppetry, martial arts, and other art forms.

Books Arts

• Center for Book Arts  An organization committed to exploring and cultivating contemporary aesthetic interpretations of the book as an art object while invigorating traditional artistic practices of the art of the book.
• Center for the Book  The web site for the University of Iowa’s MFA degree program.
• College Book Art Association  An organization that supports and promotes academic book arts education by fostering the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism.
• The Bone Folder  An online bookbinding journal. linked to the Book Arts Web.
• The Friends of Dard Hunter  Web site of an international organization of hand papermakers: a educational and informational forum about the art, craft, history, science and technology of papermaking, the book arts, and other diverse interests which captured the interest of Dard Hunter, a collector of book art.

Graphic Design

• The History of Type  A collection of 100 relatively typefaces in historical context.

Illustrator Blog & Community Sites

• Drawger
• IllustrationMundo 
• Escape From Illustration Island 
• Illustration Friday 
• Character Design  Interviews & galleries from the top artists in animation, movies, games, illustration & comics. 

Illustration Portfolio Sites

• Illoz 
• Theispot  
• Folioplanet 
• Workbook 
• Directory of Illustration 

Ask at the Library Front Desk 
Email library@massart.edu
Call 617-879-7150

Sculpture: Richard Artschwager,
Question Mark, 1994 
Photo: Stefan Baudy, CC-BY License

Or Browse Subject Headings: 

Illustrators

Illustration of books

Commercial art

Scientific illustration

Picture books for children

Children's literature--illustrations

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NC950-(996) Illustration

NC997-1003 Commercial art. Advertising art

NC1280-1284 Printed ephemera.

NC1300-1766 Pictorial humor, caricature, etc.

NC1800-1850 Posters

NC1860-1896 Greeting cards, postcards, invitations, book jackets, etc

PN6700-6790 Comic books, strips, etc.

PZ(1)-90 Children's literature

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