More adventures from one of Canada's premier editors and storytellers Canada is a country rich in stories, and few take as much joy as Douglas Gibson in discovering them. As one of the country's leading editors and publishers for 40 years, he coaxed modern classics out of some of Canada's finest minds, and then took to telling his own stories in his first memoir, Stories About Storytellers. Gibson turned his memoir into a one-man stage show that eventually played almost 100 times, in all ten provinces, from coast to coast. As a literary tourist, he discovered even more about the land and its writers and harvested many more stories, from distant past and recent memory, to share. Now in Across Canada by Story, Gibson brings new stories about Robertson Davies, Jack Hodgins, W.O. Mitchell, Alistair MacLeod, and Alice Munro, and adds lively portraits of Al Purdy, Marshall McLuhan, Margaret Laurence, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Margaret Atwood, Wayne Johnson, Linwood Barclay, Michael Ondaatje, and many, many others. Whether fly fishing in Haida Gwaii or sailing off Labrador, Douglas Gibson is a first-rate ambassador for Canada and the power of great stories.

Nontraditional, controversial, rebellious, and politically volatile, the Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are remembered for their provocative paintings as well as for their deep love for each other. Their marriage was one of the most tumultuous and infamous in history-filled with passion, pain, betrayal, revolution, and, above all, art that helped define the twentieth century.Catherine Reef's inspiring and insightful dual biography features numerous archival photos and full-color reproductions of both artists' work. Endnotes, bibliography, timeline.

285 glorious illustrations celebrate the scratchboard art of Scott McKowen. "McKowen is a scratchboard master, creating theater posters and book covers of fantastic clarity, shrewd wit and subtle mystery. McKowen's mastery of line and texture, gift for arresting juxtapositions and perspectives, and fluency in drawing the human figure make for complex and breathtaking images that are at once old-fashioned and cutting edge. And he writes as crisply as he draws... In McKowen's work, art meets literature, and both thrive." --Booklist on McKowen's 2009 retrospective, A Fine Line "It's hard to decide what's cooler about Scott McKowen's poster art: the astonishing, elegant design and linework, or the way he tips your preconceptions on their head and does something unexpected with every assignment. Luckily, we do not have to make a choice. It's all here." --Neil Gaiman Today's scratchboard artists use sharp instruments to etch lines into a board support layered with white chalk, silver foil and black ink to expose the white and grey surfaces underneath. Color, if used, is then added to make a spectacular work reminiscent of traditional woodcutting but as rich and dynamic as any full color painting. Because it is a reductive process -- you cannot fix mistakes -- it is considered one of the most difficult artistic techniques. In Light Revealed, scratchboard master artist Scott McKowen builds on his 2009 retrospective, A Fine Line, with a personal selection of 150 new works. He gives a detailed analysis of each piece and describes what influenced his design. He includes images of the reference works he consulted during the conceptual process and talks about the struggles he had arriving at a design solution. He also discusses the influence and advantages of technological developments, such as Photoshop, which have carried the medium into the 21st century.

Learn how to draw the main genres of manga characters from scratch with this fantastic guide. Do you want to learn how to draw manga characters from scratch? Then look no further! Aimed specifically at beginners, this book includes examples from the main genres of manga characters and will teach you how to draw different characters in distinct poses. Starting with simple exercises and gradually getting more complicated, there are sections covering Kodomo (child), Shonen (teenage boy), Shojo (teenage girl) and Seinen (youth) characters to practise. To help you along the way, there are clear step-by-step instructions, with 10 exercises for each genre (except kodomo). Friendly chibis also pop up every so often to offer tips and advice to keep in mind while you are drawing. Extensive advice on finishing techniques ranges from colouring by computer, using pen and ink, paintbrush, felt-tip pen and pencils, both in black and white and colour. For the best start to your manga-drawing journey, this book will inspire you to explore and improve your skills.

Minimalismoffers the first straightforward and useful summary of the output and outlook of the artists associated with minimalism in its heyday, as well as its subsequent development into more nuanced visual forms and its relationship to postmodernism. Editor James Meyer is a specialist who has written extensively on Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Sol LeWitt, four of the seminal minimalists (the fifth is Robert Morris). Despite the intellectual thorniness of this art, Meyer avoids the turgidity that marks much of the writing associated with it. Tracing the origins of minimalism primarily to Frank Stella's "Black Paintings" of 1959, Meyer outlines the shifting, often warring definitions of this new kind of art. Once sculptors Andre and Judd had made their mark, there was doubt that painters could be minimalists. Brice Marden and Robert Ryman made the cut because their work was believed to be purely about the process of painting. Interestingly, although this was overwhelmingly a male club, curators also initially embraced the work of several women artists (including Agnes Martin and Anne Truitt) who retained such minimalist no-noes as irregular, handmade marks, color that could be perceived independently of form, and a belief in transcendent meaning.

It is likely that a knife was the first man-made tool, and certainly it was the most important for primitive man. It became the heart of every stage of civilization, evolving through the Stone Age, and the ages of bronze, iron and steel, finally becoming more than a tool -- a true collector's object of artisanal beauty. Knifemaking has benefited through the use of old and new materials, and new techniques that combine traditional metallurgy with advanced technology and aeronautical craftsmanship, using metal powders. Most of all, thanks to a new generation of cutlers from every continent, artisans, artists, designers and crafters have made a wild variety of beautiful knives that are beyond most people's standard idea of a plain cutting tool. Of Knives and Men is a superb display of the world's foremost contemporary knifecrafters. The 46 artisans and their works selected for this book are, to our eyes, the most representative of the last 30 years. Each has their own style and character, mixed with utility and the knifemaking tradition of their home country and culture. Others are quite startling in their inventiveness: a simple steel knife with a handle made from a fox's lower jaw (Mickaël Moing, France); Damascus steel blade and a fossilized mammoth ivory handle (Pekka Tuominen, Finland); stainless steel blade with an ironwood handle encrusted with mother of pearl and precious stones (Harumi Hirayama, Japan); and a button lock knife of Damascus steel, with a handle of Damascus, gold, titanium and mother of pearl (Michael Walker, USA). And the knifemakers are from many countries -- Brazil, USA, France, Slovakia, Finland, Japan, Italy, Canada, South Africa and more -- displaying a stunning variety of materials and techniques. There are 217 astounding knives and sheaths in all, plus a directory of decorative materials used for the handles and sheaths -- from birds eye maple to mammoth molar, carbon fiber and fossilized coral -- and techniques from ancient and lost-and-then-rediscovered to space age. All have a grade of cost and contact information for the makers. Extra sections on embellishments like scrimshaw, blade engraving and sculpting of handle material are added. This is a unique and beautiful volume that will have very wide appeal.

In a stunning and innovative performance, piano maestro James Rhodes introduces today's readers to seven of the greatest composers of all time. Bach. Mozart. Beethoven. Old guys with curly wigs, right? But trust me: those composers were the original rock stars. Open your mind to some of the most breathtaking and magnificent pieces of music ever created, and find out why the rebels and revolutionaries who wrote them are responsible for every track on your phone today. Discover their backstories and how each one shaped and defined classical music. Learn about the structure of an orchestra, the language of music, and the history of musical periods. With jaw-dropping artwork and avant-garde design, this visually exquisite celebration of classical music is a surefire hit for both first-time listeners and longtime fans. Budding aficionados will appreciate the online playlist featuring James Rhodes's favorite selections.

Reel Culture is for the young person who is curious about film history and wants to be the one at the party who knows what Casablanca was about or who made the LBD (little black dress) hot in Breakfast at Tiffany's. From Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reel Culture explores the 50 most influential-yet often unknown to teens-films of the 20th century.

The Sherlock Holmes Book, the latest in DK's award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series, tackles the most "elementary" of subjects — the world of Sherlock Holmes, as told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Sherlock Holmes Book is packed with witty illustrations, clear graphics, and memorable quotes that make it the perfect Sherlock Holmes guide, covering every case of the world's greatest detective, from A Study in Scarlet to The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place, placing the stories in a wider context. Stories include at-a-glance flowcharts that show how Holmes reaches his conclusions through deductive reasoning, and character guides provide handy reference for readers and an invaluable resource for fans of the Sherlock Holmes films and TV series. The Sherlock Holmes Book holds a magnifying glass to the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective.