My name is Jeff Mellem and this is my blog to share useful books I have read, quality materials that I have used, museums I have visited, and any other art related experiences. I am the author of Sketching People: Life Drawing Basics and How to Draw People: Step-by-Step Lessons for Figures and Poses.
George Bridgman was a renowned figure drawing instructor whose books are still immensely popular with art students. He taught many students at Art Students League of New York who became well known artists, including Andrew Loomis, Norman Rockwell, and Will Eisner.
Harry Carmean is a master figure artist, sometimes classified as a Romantic Mannerist. He composes in a classical and mannerist style (among other influences) but uses modern color and style in his paintings. He was also an influential teacher at Art Center College of Design from 1952 through 1996.
The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation is an epic tome by two of Disney’s greatest animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. This 575 page book covers every aspect of traditional animation and tells many stories about how the artists, writers, directors, musicians, and technicians at Disney developed their animated films. Beyond technique, it is also an amazing collection of Disney art that include many character sketches, storyboards, concept art, and stills from the final film.
Creating art every day (or at least often) is undeniably the quickest way to improve. Carol Marine’s book Daily Painting is a great book that encourages you to create small pieces every day as a way to practice, experiment, and grow as an artist. Her book encourages artists by sharing her story and stories of other artists about how creating art daily transformed their art. The stories are peppered throughout the book but most of the book is dedicated to teaching art techniques and explaining art concepts. It also is filled with wonderful paintings by many different artist.
The Museum of Neon Art is a small museum in Glendale California that rescues, restores, and preserves neon signs and provides a gallery place for art made from neon lights. They also have a classroom to teach the craft of creating neon art.
The Art of Tangled is an amazing book filled with wonderful concept art for Disney’s animated movie. The character sketches throughout the book are beautiful examples of drawings that show personality and great action. The color concept art shows how the style of the film developed and how they established a design language for the film. It’s interesting to see where they drew inspiration from and how they worked to make it unique for this movie. The book also covers story development and includes several storyboards.
A website refresh is long overdue. It’s a giant undertaking to start a new website from scratch. Aside from a new design, the structure and focus of JeffMellem.com had to change. When I originally launched my site I had spent weeks on the design and had grand ideas for content (that I fell short on fulfilling). Other projects took precedent and the website languished.
