Enchanting, exquisitely detailed and full of personality, Katherine Dewey's animal sculptures delight all who see them. With the friendly medium of polymer clay and the step-by-step instructions in this book, you can achieve the same magical results! Inside, Katherine leads you through then utterly charming projects, such as a sweet little bluebird, a basset hound and a white-tailed fawn. And that's just the start! The "Making Changes" chapter will help you create your own original animal creations by changing poses, making realistic bases, and even modeling your animals to look like bronze, fade and other materials.

Thirteen-year-old Tara does whatever it takes to keep her beautiful, audacious, and addicted mother, Joan, from falling through the cracks. When a sinkhole forces her rural Louisiana town to evacuate, Tara finds herself homeless and her mother's impulsive personality unleashed. But Joan's raw charisma and plain speak quickly establish her as the public face of the catastrophe. The community rallies around her, and social media demands justice. A class action lawyer grooms Joan to play the starring role in a carefully crafted PR campaign. Tara dares to imagine a better life, built upon the proceeds of the settlement the whole town will share, a life that might even include college. But as the spotlight intensifies, and the promise of a settlement looms, Joan's demons return with a vengeance. Tara must decide whether to pull her mother from the brink as she's always done, or let her fall, severing ties with the only family she's ever known.

Katherine Dewey's expressive and elegantly detailed sculptures enchant all who see them. With the magical medium of polymer clay and this book, you can follow in her footsteps. Thorough instructions supported by more than 400 step-by-step color photos and 200 detailed drawings cover the entire process of sculpting realistic figures, from selecting clay and gathering essential tools to the basics of modeling the human figure, to incorporating poses, facial expressions, ethnic and gender subtleties, costumes, and painted finishing touches. Easy-to-read maps of the figure illustrate the landmarks of the body, while scale diagrams indicate the simple shapes hidden within the human form, as well as how to combine and model those shapes. For anyone who loves fantasy, romance, nature—or sophisticated crafting—this book is a must-have.

Zoological Wonders Unleashed: Unveiling Expert Techniques for Lifelike Animal Illustration Embrace the captivating world of zoological illustration and elevate your artistic skills to new heights with this comprehensive guide. Discover the tools, materials, and techniques employed by professional wildlife artists. Immerse yourself in the intricacies of animal anatomy, from intricate fur textures to vibrant plumage. Master the art of capturing the essence of creatures great and small, whether it's the majestic flight of a bird, the sleek grace of a reptile, or the underwater beauty of fish. Learn to achieve accuracy and realism through detailed anatomical research, meticulous observation, and expert shading. Explore advanced techniques such as digital illustration, 3D modeling, and field sketching to expand your artistic boundaries. Not only is this book an invaluable resource for aspiring and experienced illustrators alike, but it also illuminates the crucial role of illustration in scientific research, conservation, education, and beyond. Delve into the ethical and legal considerations surrounding this field, and gain insights into the diverse career paths available for zoological illustrators. With a wealth of practical advice, stunning illustrations, and inspiring stories, Zoological Wonders Unleashed is an indispensable guide for anyone passionate about bringing the natural world to life through the power of art. Whether you're a beginner looking to embark on this captivating journey or a seasoned artist seeking to enhance your skills, this book is your ultimate companion.

Life-like characters is one of the most exciting technologies for human-computer interface applications today. They convincingly take the roles of virtual presenters, synthetic actors and sales personas, teammates and tutors. A common characteristic underlying their life-likeness or believability as virtual conversational partners is computational models that provide them with affective functions such as synthetic emotions and personalities and implement human interactive behavior. The wide dissemination of life-like characters in multimedia systems, however, will greatly depend on the availability of control languages and tools that facilitate scripting of intelligent conversational behaviour. This book presents the first comprehensive collection of the latest developments in scripting and representation languages for life-like characters, rounded off with an in-depth comparison and synopsis of the major approaches. Introducing toolkits for authoring animated characters further supports the ease of use of this new interface technology. Life-like characters being a vibrant research area, various applications have been designed and implemented. This book offers coverage of the most successful and promising applications, ranging from product presentation and student training to knowledge integration and interactive gaming. It also discusses the key challenges in the area and provides design guidelines for employing life-like characters.

A collection of twelve knitting patterns for animals and birds, accompanied by the author’s sketches and studies of the natural world. Nature lover Claire Garland has studied animals and birds in the environment around her home in rural Cornwall, England—and designed this delightful collection of patterns based on the wildlife she sees there. Choose your favorite from a dozen animals and birds, whether it's a grey squirrel, barn owl, yellow-necked field mouse, wolf, fox, wild rabbit, or roe deer fawn. The patterns, accompanied by striking photography and illustrations, are cleverly designed with the same markings and colors as their real life counterparts, making them irresistible—and capturing the magic of spotting a wild animal in their natural habitat.

Learn to draw incredibly photorealistic pets, exotic animals, horses, and more with Realistic Animals in Colored Pencil in this follow-up to Realistic Portraits in Colored Pencil and Realistic Still Life in Colored Pencil.

Traces the story of how ancient cultures envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices and human enhancements, sharing insights into how the mythologies of the past related to and shaped ancient machine innovations.

Photographer Andrew Zuckerman's collection of astonishing studio portraits of 175 wild creatures from baby leopards to parrots, bears, mandrills, and many more are stunningly foregrounded against white backgrounds, depicting their subjects with rare sensitivity, insight, humor, and wonder. --From publisher description.

Breathe Life into Your Animal Drawings Wildlife artist Doug Lindstrand has spent 30+ years observing animals in nature and capturing them on paper. In this book, he distills his expertise into key lessons for drawing any animal in a charming, realistic style. Inside, a whole herd of step-by-step exercises and demonstrations (43, to be exact!) cover a broad range of subjects and challenges, including how to draw: • Short, long and patterned fur • Mouths, eyes, ears and horns • Various poses, including seated, standing and moving • A diversity of animals, domestic and wild--from housecats to big cats, from tiny cottontails to massive African elephants. Nothing intimidating here! Starting with easy sketches, you'll learn to gradually refine basic shapes into lifelike dogs, wolves, deer, sheep, horses, bears, giraffes, owls, eagles, geese and other magnificent creatures. With this classic and time-tested approach, you'll be able to draw not only the animals illustrated on these pages, but any animal that touches your artistic soul.