posted 12-31-2003 07:18 PM              

The Dick Powel books are great, very dated, but very helpful

Try anything you can get your grubby hands on by Syd Mead, I have Sudio 1-3, but he has a ton of books on his site, still the man, http://www.sydmead.com/

John Frye's site has some great reference http://www.home.earthlink.net/%7ejafrye/

Some great stuff here http://www.designstudiopress.com/books/index.html

good demos online http://www.cardesignnews.com/studio/tutorials/index.php

some other awesome inspirational material from some great sketchers in the entertainment field
http://jamesclyne.com/ http://www.drawthrough.com/ http://www.haraldbelker.com/ http://www.timflattery.com/

posted 01-04-2004 12:56 PM              

Sadly, the books you are looking for are out of print. I finished ID BFA in 2001, and at the time the professionals in the field, some for that matter, told me that markers were not used a lot anymore.

Well, honestly I think this is stupid, because this at one time was what was available to create color visuals, for many years. It is also a skill that takes years to perfect, if that is possible, and it is a shame that there is so little reference material for something that is and should always be an important tool for the designer's skillset. The computer can of course give us an alternative to markers, and in many ways is easier to use because of easy "undo" for correcting mistakes. But it does not replace the development of hand skills that every designer should master. You actually learn a lot from using markers to render your concepts. You find out that there are limitations to markers, then you can appreciate Photoshop because it does not have those same limitations. However there is a certain quality that a hand-made drawing has over one done completely with computer. It is important to master freehand skills before moving to the computer, which really is only a tool to enhance a good freehand drawing. A lot of people do not stress sketching/drawing but in the long run it is what fuels the creativity behind good design, it is at least a major part of it. Let's face it, there aren't really any good books on design sketching anymore. Matter of fact I don't think there are any, still in print anyway. I can almost understand the lack of a good marker book, but no good drawing books? That's worse. If you cannot draw, then don't expect to render.

I would look diligently for the above books by Dick Powell. It is a crime that his books are out of print. The least someone could do is put out a good book on Photoshop/Illustrator Product Rendering for Design.

Oh well, my two cents. Good luck