Artist's Materials: All the Materials You Will Ever Need to Make Art - Hardcover

Lorraine Harrison is an author and illustrator.

There has never been a more exciting time for artists to explore the range of materials and media available to them. Until recently, the choice was not very wide, but in the past few years we have seen the introduction of many new materials and innovations that have been made possible by technological advances. Whether we are aspiring artists or experienced professionals, we can all learn something from trying a different way of working. Picking up a new medium and exploring its possibilities can often send an artist's work off in fresh and quite unexpected directions.

A new material can sometimes make us see and observe differently, and can help stretch and flex our expressive boundaries. Similarly, a close study of how other artists, both traditional and contemporary, have used a particular medium can greatly enhance our own understanding of its use and possibilities, so research as much as you can.

This book aims to show the vast range of media that is available, both for professional and amateur artists. It deals with all the equipment and materials that the artist can deploy to create original and innovative pieces. However, the techniques and processes, such as printmaking, which are used to produce multiple copies of the same image, do not fall within the scope of this book, nor do sculpture, artists' books or other three-dimensional artworks. It is hoped that the following pages, which are packed with images of intriguing materials, beautiful works of art and informative and helpful advice, will excite and inspire the reader to experiment with and enjoy a whole new area of creative mark-making.