Book Description
Features unique "dark-to-light" painting technique!
*Second only to flowers, crystal and glass are the most popular subjects for watercolor painters *10 step-by-step demonstrations cover requested items, including cut crystal, jewel-toned vases, Italian beveled glass, Depression-era pieces, canning jars, copper tea kettles, and more *Author's unique method will attract a wide range of readers, from oil painters to watercolorists looking for a fresh approach
In Stunning Crystal and Glass, dramatic light-filled paintings become possible no matter what your skill level. Where most watercolorists paint from light to dark, expert Joyce Faulknor's teaches how to go from dark to light--a technique she says is easier to learn and ultimately adds more depth and texture to any work. Composition examples show ways to add flowers, colorful cloths, and reflective surfaces to backgrounds to create spectacular effects.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable!.......2007-09-05
This is the first book I've been able to follow easily and actually enjoy the whole process. Joyce has a very colorful way of describing the steps and making you feel like you are getting a one-on-one lesson from her. I was so pleased with my own painting results and look forward to my next painting following Joyce Faulknor's descriptive and fabulous book.
Complete book, covering light, set up, palettes and techniques.......2007-07-04
The art of painting glass or crystal is a challenge to most watercolorists. The shadow glancing through the crystal is suffused with the colors of the diffracted light and reflected light, making a play of not only dark and light, but of various colors in the shadow tones. Rendering this is not easy. Equally difficult--getting the reflections on facets and surfaces of glass objects and vessels.
Author and painter Faulknor paints with an ultra-realistic style--the shapes and lighting are almost surreal. She shows you how to set up your painting area, choose a palette of colors, photograph your still life or use reference photos and then paint your picture. There is another similar book by another author Painting Crystal and Flowers by Susanna Spann but it is more about flowing color and limited palettes. This book is great if you desire that super-real look with high-key lighting and very dramatic dark-and-light shadow and highlight. It is not easy, but the author makes a heroic effort to take you along with her and the amazing talent she possesses. Not for the faint of heart, but can really make you think about how you are painting still life.
Good book!.......2007-05-15
Book is well made and each lesson is done step by step, with plenty of details to discuss the process. Compared to other painting books out there, important details aren't just glossed over and I didn't feel lost going from one step to the other. Book does what it says and I would recommend it.
Not what I expected.......2007-01-11
As I went through the book and its tutorials. I couldn't get the same effects the author demonstrated. There is info missing. The ideas are good though.
Stunning Crystal and Glass.......2006-12-04
This author gives very clear instructions on how to paint these complex looking compositions into fun and beautiful images. She helps you to create a very "do able" puzzle piece that lights up your canvass.
Customer Reviews:
A good book.......2001-12-06
Shadows In The Glasshouse is a good book. It has good descriptions. If you like a book that takes a while before the mystery; thats the book. In the book Merry is kidnapped from England and sent to Jamestown. She is forced to work in the glasshouse for five years. She later discovers that this glasshouse is no ordanary glasshouse. There was a murder, a missing book, and broken glass. I recommend this book for anyone. Megan McDonald is a good writer. She gives you a picture in your head. If you don't like this book look for more of Megan McDonald's books because she writes in different styles!!!!!!! She writes many history mysterys!!!!!!!!!
A Book That You Need To Read!.......2001-12-06
This is the kind of book that gets you thinking,(who did it?). Merry is an orphan and gets kidnapped. She finds herself on a smelly ship headed for Jamestown. Is she going to be a slave, or an indentured servant? How long wil she be there? Will she have enough food and clothes? Well, I'll leave that for you to find out. Her life is a threatening patch of thorn bushes. But at least her best friend, Angelo, is there to comfort her. The problem is that Angelo's new glass formula book is missing!Oh, no! This book is one of the best history mysteries that gets you on the edge of your seat. I like this book because my favorite mystery stories are when there is always trouble for the detective, even when it seems like the detective can almost do nothing wrong. Merry may be in harms way, but she is always on the path of victory! This book makes you want to know (automatically) what is going to happen next. My friends and I (in the fourth grade)have just finished reading it and we recommend it as a high winner with all the similes, metaphors, personifications, and vivid descriptions!
THIS IS THE BEST BOOK.......2001-12-06
A GIRL NAMED MERIDETH SHIPMAN WAS STOLEN FROM THE STREETS OF LONDON TO BE A SERVENT IN AMERICA. THEY CALL MERIDETH MERRY FOR SHORT. SHE FINDS A DAGGER UNDER MASTER WEBBE'S MATTRESS. A FEW DAYS LATER SHE FINDS ONE OF THE CHARACTER'S DEAD! SHE WENT TO LOOK FOR ANGELO, HER FRIEND'S BOOK, BUT MISTRESS WEBBE FINDS MERRY AND ASKS HER WHY SHE IS IN THERE? SHE ANSWERED LYING, "MASTER WEBBE CALLED ME OVER HERE TO FINISH HOUSE WORK." I LIKE THIS BOOK BECAUSE ..... IT USES SLANG'TALK, SIMILES, METAPHORS, AND PERSONIFICATIONS.
A Great Book.......2001-12-06
My book reveiw is a great book that everybody will like. It gives
great descriptions, and alot of similes. If you like history mysteries, this is the book for you. Also this book has alot of characters. There are maides that sovle the crime and bad villains. The cool part is that in this mystery, you solve along the way, it also has a good ending, that's why the book is for you.
Mysteries in Glasshouse.......2001-12-06
This book is about Merry and some glassmakers. One of the glassmakers is her friend,Angelo. His book is stolen and glass is broken in the Glasshouse. Merry has to find out who did it. In the begging it's slow, but at the end it is very good. I would recomend the book because it is exiting.
Customer Reviews:
This is why I read Who........2005-09-13
This was one of the best Who books in a long time. Not perfect, but a darn good read. Anytime the Doctor doesn't appear in the first 60 pages and I don't notice, it's a good book. This book really helped to solidify the relationshp between the Brigadier and the Doctor. Nazis, aliens, nosey reporters. This book has it all. At times scary, other times silly, and often over the top, this book captured a little of everything about Who. I don't care if it took only 3 weeks or 3 hours to write, it is a good read.
Imp-erfect but well worth reading........2003-07-06
In the midst of World War II, a strange craft is shot down by British fighter pilots. It lands in a small English village. Over fifty years later, that village remains under military occupation, closely guarded from prying eyes. One reporter manages to sneak in and get some footage on video. The disturbing contents of the tape draw the attention of UNIT, and its retired former head, Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart.
Meanwhile, an associate is investigating the secret meetings of an elite supremacist group -- meetings that are being attended by someone who looks an awful lot like Adolf Hitler.
The Brigadier, of course, summons an associate best equipped to deal with strange and impossible occurrences. The three of them begin to uncover a mystery involving trapped aliens and the intended rise of a new world order...
In contrast to a previously read adventure written by Justin Richards, this one is quite enjoyable. While at times it feels like two separate stories were imperfectly merged into one, for the most part it works pretty well. The main plot builds on unsolved mysteries surrounding the outcome of the war (historically based, but with a certain amount of artistic license) and it is interesting to see how the pieces fit together as the novel progresses. This is always one of the fun things about historical time travel stories.
The characters from the show are faithfully portrayed. The Doctor's sixth incarnation retains his trademark arrogance, yet is sympathetic when need be. And while his mannerisms are a bit more subtle than say, the fourth Doctor's, the authors are observant in including them at the right times. Likewise the Brigadier. It is easy to picture the television actors when reading both roles. Claire, the reporter, is intelligent, resourceful and useful, like too few of the show's companions.
Apparently this novel was put together and rushed out in a shorter time than is normally given. Even so, it's one of the better new adventures I've read.
A fun tale involving an old friend.......2001-12-13
The Brigadier needs the help of an old friend and that old friend comes arunnin'... albeit slightly bothered... at first.
I think this was a classic Doctor Who adventure. There really was no actual need for the aliens involved in this tale. It would have sailed along on its own merits with just the Fourth Reich group, a resurrected Adolph Hitler!?!(I won't spoil anything) and the time travel to WWII.
Both the Brigadier and Doctor are brought to life in this story. Although, neither this incarnation nor the Brig met in the original series, the conversations between them are just right. You can easily picture/hear Colin Baker and Nicholas Courtney saying these lines.
The solo trip back to WWII by the Doctor and the subsequent trip with the Brigadier were pure Doctor Who fun.
And I myself was not surprised by the ending. In traditional Doctor Who fashion... all the clues of what was going to transpire was there in the text.
A fun Doctor Who adventure! I can't say that for a lot of the novels I've read in this series. But I can on this one. Give 'The Shadow in the Glass' a try!
Won't leave you Glassy-eyed.......2001-12-10
Right off the bat, forget that this book was plotted overnight, and written in just three weeks by the former and current "Doctor Who" editors at BBC Books. In spite of the behind-the-scenes woes (shown here as spelling errors and details that change in the middle of scenes), the book is quite enjoyable.
As with any Justin Richards book, the story sets up slowly, each chapter introducing a new character and idea, or a new setting. "Shadow/Glass" opens as a UFO crashes near a RAF military base in 1944, and slowly works up to the present day. Neo-Nazis gather in England and Antarctica, using alien technology -- and someone who looks a lot like Adolf Hitler -- in preparation for the Fourth Reich (given how many other Fourth Reichs there have been in recent DW, this should really be the Eighth Reich...).
As the mystery unfolds, the retired Brigadier and intrepid journalist Claire investigate Hitler's death, and the Sixth Doctor travels through time and meets a war epic's worth of historical figures. Tension mounts and builds up to the showdown with the aliens, and Hitler's suicide in the Berlin bunker in April, 1945.
At the end, the book self-destructs, with a too-short action sequence and a too-stale historical reenactment. Because this is the Sixth Doctor, there's some forced angst literally on the final page, and the Brigadier makes an unusually clumsy metaphor to try and cheer him up.
But never mind the rushed ending -- "Shadow/Glass" is a fun mixture of time travel and authentic history that, in its best moments, summons up the thriving spirit of "Doctor Who" and makes for great potboiler sci-fi. Highly recommended.
wonderful alternative view about World War II.......2001-10-24
This book is great, even more so because it was written in such a short time and yet managed to maintain that fun sense of adventure. Nobody will ever confuse it with literature, but if you want a fun read, this is it.
The Sixth Doctor meets up with the Brigadier, and hijinks ensue. Since the Sixth Doctor has already met the Brigadier in the book series (in one of Gary Russell's books), there is no need to have yet another initial meeting between the two. Instead, Justin and Stephen can get on with the story.
And what a story it is. Did Hitler survive the events of the bunker at the end of the war? What's going on in that strange house? Why has an entire English village been cordoned off since World War II? All of these mysteries come together in a delightful fashion.
Colin Baker *is* the Sixth Doctor in this book. I could see him perfectly in this part. The Brigadier is perfect as the wise old soldier who's still got the will to go on an adventure even though his body may not agree. The "companion" role is taken by a television reporter who is also well characterized. She's got a nose for a mystery, and it shows. What happens to her in this story actually surprised me, though it was almost poetic when I thought about it afterward. It's something that Cole and Richards couldn't do if they had been forced to use a real companion from the series.
There's also a wonderful use of continuity in this book. I love continuity as long as it's used well (for an example of how not to use it, see The Quantum Archangel). This book references both the series, a previous BBC book and also a previous Virgin book, which surprised me a bit.
This book is a lot of fun. Don't expect anything truly deep and meaningful out of it, but it's a nice, straightforward adventure that will make you smile.
Book Description
With this stunning and original debut, Ian Irvine begins the saga of The View from the Mirror, a brilliant epic fantasy that rivals the works of Robert Jordan and J. V. Jones. "Once there were three worlds, each with its own human race. Then, fleeing from out of the void came a fourth race, the Charon. Desperate, on the edge of extinction, they changed the balance between the worlds forever..." THE TALE OF THE FORBIDDING In ancient times the Way Between the Worlds was shattered, leaving bands of Aachim, Faellem, and Charon trapped with the old humans of Santhenar. Now Llian, a Chronicler of the Great Tales, uncovers a 3,000-year-old secret too deadly to be revealed-while Karan, a young sensitive, is compelled by honor to undertake a perilous mission. Neither can imagine they will soon meet as hunted fugitives, snared in the machinations of immortals, the vengeance of warlords, and the magics of powerful mancers. For the swelling deluge of a millennial war is rising, terrible as a tsunami, ready to cast torrents of sorcery and devastation across the land....
Customer Reviews:
This made my brain bleed.......2007-06-02
I had looked at this author on the shelf for years while I read authors like Steven Erikson and George RR Martin over and over again. Convinced that it was time for a change. (By the way I discovered Erikson by just taking a chance and I am almost his biggest fan next to himself). Being a fantasy writer and knowing how hard it is to get in I perhaps naively assumed that anyone published in such quantity would be a good author.
I was wrong (clearly)
It took no more than twenty pages to realise that Irvine cannot write in the same league as the aforementioned authors, or perhaps anyone else I have ever read. He breaks all the rules of writing: 1. Don't data dump at any stage for any reason, 2. Show don't tell, 3. Make sure you actually have a story worth telling before you waste your time writing it. Then again on the third criterion I might have to reassess because obviously someone thought he was worth publishing.
The lack of quality, the cliches, the rediculously bland, boring and utterly frustrating characters forced me to throw down this book after 150 pages.
This book actually made me angry as recently my own manuscript went to third base with Harper Collins before being rejected on the basis of being like someone else just published. It pisses me off that shizer like this gets the go. I am not trying to claim that my writing is in the league of Erikson or Martin either but it is a damnsite better than this drivel.
This is not even worth reading on the bus to work.
Predictable and inconsistent.......2006-10-06
I was disappointed in this book, had I not been on a coast-coast flight I would not have finished it. The author could not keep track of whether his characters had their footwear on or off, among other problems. The two main characters could not between them fight their way out of a wet paper bag if decision making were part of the process. Watching them do stuipid things repeatedly for the sake of the plot became very trying.
It's too bad, the universe is interesting.
Where's the fantasy?.......2006-07-03
I bought this book buy accident. Robert Jordan's `Wheel of Time' series was recommended to me, but I forgot who the author was and purchased this by mistake. The covers do look alike--that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
I think I first realised I was in for a challenge when I saw the `maps' of the world I was about to delve into. I like maps; I like to flick back and forth to see where my characters are in relation to their surroundings. Irvine's maps look like ink blots psychiatrists use to test mental capacity--and mine was sorely tested.
The opening chapters basically outline the entire world and how it evolved. Forget about these chapters, and you'll find yourself lost, as the rest of the book refers to things mentioned only a few times, yet expects you to still have them fresh in your mind.
I kept waiting for the fantasy. I got sick of swamps, mountains, snow and, actually, I was pretty sick of all landscape descriptions. The main character, Karan, goes from a practical rural women with a debt owing, to Lara Croft traversing ravines and escaping ever mounting subplot conspiracies--all she needed was a machine gun (and that handy rope).
Karan's tracked all over the place by powerful `Whelms', evades them at every turn, and just happens to bump into Llian, the wandering minstrel, err, I mean, the brilliant chronicler who's uncovered a perilous mystery.
By the end of the book I didn't give a damn about the `Mirror'. It was the cause of every drama, yet nothing was offered as to its supposed `saving the world' ability. It may as well have been a magic anvil, at least then the author could have padded-out the dialogue with comments on how heavy this block of iron is.
I don't have the rest of the series, and I'm not in a hurry to read them--unless I'm desperate.
Fantastic book.......2006-04-23
I realy recommend this book because it has a very deep plot. If you want fighting and fastpaced books this is not the one for you. The book is slow and you got to have patiens with it because it pays in the end.
The characters behaves like ordenary people and not very much unlike you and me. This is a whole new world, not a trace of the cliche fantasy. Ok you have a magic tainted item but that's it. There is no bad guys even if all of them wants to take the mirror from Karan. They just have difrent objectives and agendas for it. The key to it all is why an who comitted the murder.
I have read all 4 books inte series and it's the most complex work I've read. A warning book 2 and 3 are veeeery slow.
Trite plot devices and third-rate mistakes abound........2006-01-09
Now, I will preface this- and probably be napalmed correspondingly -with a disclaimer: I read a third of this book, and literally threw it down. I devour fantasy and science fiction, both the good, the bad, and the absolutely horrendous, and it is a rare book that literally disgusts me so bad that completing it would be a waste of a precious day of my time.
When I first picked it up, it seemed to have promise, as if Irvine's editor (a person I must have the utmost respect for, since they made this hack an actual published author, and actually buffed his tired prose to being readable) showed special focus on those first few pages, in order to draw in unwitting saps.
However, the sheer lack of talent of Mr Irvine shines through soon enough. Information dumps abound, dropped like steaming piles of excrement from an unhouse-broken dog, and he even goes so far as to be awarded the supreme rebuke of, "Bad author, bad, bad author" when he decides to insult his entire readership with a third of a page pile he leaves when describing his main character. Relying on the tired cliche of "Protaganist looks into the mirror and classifies his features down to the last straggly nose-hair," he even lacks the talent to make this interesting, instead reciting a tired litany of facial features using subpar, repetitive prose.
Are you, the reader, so dumb, so lacking in even the most vestigial traces of an imagination, that you cannot form the image of the protagonist based on a few key, note-worthy features? Apparently, Mr Irvine's answer to that is a resounding "Yes."
I debated, then and there, with dropping the book. But, I trudged on, sad to say, only to find yet more examples of How Not to Write. By the point I put this book down, the prerequisite mysterious-woman-with-the-mysterious-past has appeared and is with another protagonist. Then, she proceeds to get drunk and, with a person she has only just met, told the tale of her dark, sordid past.
Back-story should be one of the most fascinating parts of a tale, like Eriksons "Malazan Book of the Fallen" or Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice." The mystery, the suspense of "I wonder what happened..." can be a highlight to a novel, helping to flesh out the world. To take that and show such an utter lack of talent and ability to create a dramatic moment as to be forced to rely on the cliche of a drunken confession is atrocious.
I have heard, from others more brave than myself, that the later books pick up and get better. However, I find myself unwilling to search through the infinite weight of Irvine's dross for whatever diamond-in-the-offal he has succeeded in creating. Beyond which: it's coal under pressure that creates a diamond.
I do not think the same process is capable of compressing his dregs into something noteworthy.
Avoid: at all costs.
.david
Average customer rating:
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Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present
William E. Waters
Manufacturer: Mellen Poetry Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 20th Century
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
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African American
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
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General
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
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General
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United States
| Single Authors
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
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Slavery & Emancipation
| World
| History
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ASIN: 0773434208 |
Product Description
Should dreams come true? Nicole Legere spent her childhood wishing she'd been born normal, instead of First Daughter to the most powerful psychic on the planet. She receives visions in her dreams, as sporadic as they are, but three consecutive Dreams sets the pattern, and the visions inevitably come true. Now she's Dreaming of a killer targeting the women of Atlanta, women with latent psychic abilities. She goes to Detective Carter Jackson to warn him.
Customer Reviews:
To Believe or Not To Believe?!!!.......2007-10-10
This is the third novel I've read by Ms. Seressia Glass. "Dream of Shadows" is totally different from the other romances I've read by her. It has an enjoyably dark and thrilling edge to it. This novel is about the power and heritage Nicole Legere has denied most of her life, but must come to accept quickly, if she wants to save lives from an evil being who longs to take possession of this power by any means necessary. It's also about Detective Carter Jackson trying to choose between his feelings for a woman with psychic abilities, something he's NEVER believed in and about him being able to do his job as a cop, and bring a criminal to justice, without losing Nicki, his only witness or himself in the process of all this supernatural mumbo-jumbo. And even though he doesn't believe in this metaphysical world, he still wants to protect Nicki and feels that part of his duty is keeping her out of harms way at any cost. It's about a family that continues to make many sacrifices to keep the Balance between "Light and Dark" or "Good and Evil" in this world, in order to keep humanity safe from the unexplainable "things that go bump in the night". This was a dark, yet still a very sensual romance with a rollercoaster ride of suspense-filled moments that kept me turning the pages, just dying to know what would happen next.~~~~~~~The passion between Jax and Nicki was so intense it had that magical or supernatural vibe that neither could deny or escape. All the characters were so unforgettable, and I hope this isn't the last I'll hear of them. I found the storyline to be "UNBELIEVABLY" intriguing, because like Jax, I am a Non-Believer of the metaphysical world, however, I was still caught up in every moment of this story! Good Job, Ms. Glass, looking forward to reading more about the "Legere Legacy" and this families journey!
Average customer rating:
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Glass Cuts the Shadow
Danny Lee Ingram
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Anthologies
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1411648137
Release Date: 2006-04-28 |
Book Description
Images prevail in this book of poems, poems that stimulate the senses and range from haiku to blank verse to free verse on the cutting edge. Break-ups, reality checks, and tongue-in-cheek humor all present sharp edges that cut through the mask, pierce the skin, or tickle the fancy.
Customer Reviews:
Thought Provoking!.......2005-10-22
As I read this work by author Danny Lee Ingram I sensed a deep sadness trying to emerge from the pages. I wondered if indeed this was a spirit crying out to understand life in all its forms.
From aging and not being able to lift as much weight in a shovel of snow, to the travels of an unwanted dog who wondered the highway day after day and then was no more.
Poets pen expressions and impressions of their soul, images seen and recorded within their minds and hearts often span the pages of their work. I feel this is the essence of "Glass Cuts The Shadow," indeed a poets rendering of life and the world we call home. Interesting and thought provoking.
Shirley Johnson
Senior Reviewer
MidWest Book Review
Average customer rating:
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Human Shadows Bright As Glass: Drama As Speculation and Transformation
Howard Pearce
Manufacturer: Bucknell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Theater
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
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History & Criticism
| Theater
| Performing Arts
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General
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General
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ASIN: 0838753531 |
Books:
- Temple of the Winds (Sword of Truth, Book 4)
- The 101 Best Graphic Novels
- The Art of Public Speaking with Learning Tools Suite (Student CD-ROMs 5.0, Audio Abridgement CD set, PowerWeb, & Topic Finder)
- The Black Jewels: Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood / Heir to the Shadows / Queen of the Darkness
- The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, Book 7)
- The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?
- The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: Dealing with Dragons / Searching for Dragons / Calling on Dragons / Talking to Dragons
- The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
- The Golden Days (The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Volume 1)
- The Ice Chronicles: The Quest to Understand Global Climate Change
Books Index
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