Visual Forces: An Introduction to Design

This book is good for beginners. It has the basic design principles to consider when creating art. It doesn't take the place of class, however. A good instructor is more helpful because they can look at your work and assist you hands on. The book is still pretty good but not very flashy.I've been looking for design books and haven't found very many good ones. I liked this one better than any of the others.

Circumstances are such that I've been forced into a crash course-type study of composition for the past two months. I've been buying many books and checking them out from the library as well. I find it amazing that there is so much original information in each book, given that they are all discussing approximately the same thing. My conclusion about this aspect is that composition is an extremely complex and rich subject. (That fact is probably supremely obvious to any seasoned artists reading this.) "Visual Forces" by Benjamin Martinez is one of the books that covers many design AND composition topics well and also has much that the other books I've read so far didn't cover. Or at least you don't have to dig to find the information. The payoff for time invested is high. With two pages per topic and excellent illustrations, the point is made and then you're ready to go on to the next point which is logically connected. One two-page topic that stands out is the one on using depth cues to control eye movement. It uses an illustration that shows how the eye rests briefly at each spot where a different level of depth occurs. With two pages per topic and 228 pages, Visual Forces is a great value and a vital addition to any collection of books on design and/or composition. The concepts it illuminates can be applied to many design disciplines, including furniture design, drawing, painting, sculpture, multimedia creations and so on.