“A meditation on the creative process . . . a reminder that even the brightest creative minds face challenges when making consistently great work.” —Wired From award-winning artist and author Christoph Niemann comes a collection of witty illustrations and whimsical views on working creatively. Taking its cue from his New York Times column Abstract Sunday, this book covers Niemann’s entire career and showcases brilliant observations of contemporary life through sketches, travel journals, and popular newspaper features. The narrative guides readers through Christoph’s creative process, how he built his career, and how he overcomes the internal and external obstacles that creative people face—all presented with disarming wit and intellect. Enhanced with nearly 350 original images, this book is a tremendous inspirational and aspirational resource. “A frank and inspirational look at the trials and tribulations of a life spent producing artworks that have been seen the world over.” —It’s Nice That

This anthology of the illustrator’s New York Times blog features a chapter of all-new material: “a masterpiece of sophisticated humor” (Library Journal, starred review). In July 2008, illustrator and designer Christoph Niemann began Abstract City, a visual blog for the New York Times. His posts were inspired by the desire to re-create simple and everyday observations and stories from his own life that everyone could relate to. In Niemann’s hands, mundane experiences such as riding the subway or trying to get a good night’s sleep were transformed into delightful flights of visual fancy. In Abstract City, the struggle to keep up with housework becomes a battle against adorable but crafty goblins, and nostalgia about New York manifests in simple but strikingly spot-on LEGO creations. This brilliantly illustrated collection of reflections on modern life includes all sixteen of the original blog posts as well as a new chapter created exclusively for the book.

What can you do with a word? Read it, spell it, say it, picture it, understand it, make a sentence with it, tell a story with it, share it with a friend. Everything starts with a love of words! More than 300 words inspired by Dr. Edward Fry’s list of sight words are paired with striking and playful illustrations by internationally renowned designer and artist Christoph Niemann to deepen understanding, to enrich, and to enlighten those learning to read and write English, whether they be children or adults. This compilation of more than 300 words and pictures encourages reading, fuels the imagination, and offers hours of decoding fun. Christoph Niemann has illustrated each word with a picture that challenges readers to make connections and puzzle out meaning in a playful way. Homophones, basic punctuation, and an assortment of silly and unusual words are also included to delineate the eighteen sections of the book. Browse the pages to discover words you don’t know (or find a new facet of the ones you do)! Create your own stories or poems by combining words, images, and ideas. Can you think of other words to describe the images, or new drawings to interpret the words? Cover a word with your finger and ask a friend to guess it just by looking at the picture. Or pick a word and draw (or write) what you think happens next. . . . This is an excellent, original, and exuberant teaching tool for parents as well as elementary school teachers, and it will also be useful for ESL programs. Includes an introduction and an index.

Features access to video tutorials! Designed to help architects, planners, and landscape architects use freehand sketching to quickly and creatively generate design concepts, Freehand Drawing and Discovery uses an array of cross-disciplinary examples to help readers develop their drawing skills. Taking a "both/and" approach, this book provides step-by-step guidance on drawing tools and techniques and offers practical suggestions on how to use these skills in conjunction with digital tools on real-world projects. Illustrated with nearly 300 full color drawings, the book includes a series of video demonstrations that reinforces the sketching techniques.

Hermes Press is proud to announce their second major collaboration with Paws, Incorporated producing another unique title featuring everyone's favorite orange cat, GARFIELD! Hermes and Paws have come together to treat the world to a compendium of the greatest examples of original artwork from classic Garfield daily and Sunday comic strips in their original size, including rare unpublished strips, that has never been seen before (the Sunday strips will be reproduced in a slightly smaller format due to their huge size)! This historic archival reprint will feature hundreds of pieces of original production art from the comic strip, with an introductory essay from Jim Davis himself! If you love Garfield and want to experience the strips as they were originally drawn, this is the book for you! From the very beginning in 1979 to the last non-digital strip in 2011, this purrfect book shows you Garfield like you've never seen him before! Jim Davis' Garfield: The Original Art Daily and Sunday Archive dives deep into the treasures contained in the vaults of Paws, Inc. See how Garfield has evolved over the years! See gags with characters that no longer appear in the strip (We miss you Lyman!) in the original inks, with notations galore from the man behind it all, Jim Davis! Garfield, Odie, and the rest of the gang come to life in this full-sized archival reprint.

Scott Robertson returns with his much- anticipated second collection of sketches, clocking in at a whopping 288 drawings that are sure to amaze and inspire. After a brief hiatus from publishing, the acclaimed designer and best-selling author of How to Draw and How to Render is back to remind the industry why he continues to be a force, with a wide, imaginative range of vehicles represented in the book. From futuristic hot rods and otherworldly rovers, to superhero-worthy sports cars and equally incredible headgear, Robertson's latest sketches were created over the last three years, and are now ready to transport you beyond your own imagination.

From Augustine to Caesarius, through the Reformation and the Puritan flight from England, down through the ages to contemporary debates about Sunday worship, Miller explores the fascinating history of the Sabbath.