[Sabatier]

You are so right. Also, more and more museums and galleries are on-line with parts of their collections and that's worth checking out, too.

[Mamzelle]

Off my own shelf: "Encyclopedia of Colored Pencil Techniques" and "Encyclopedia of Illustration Techniques." The Martin publisher has a series of straighforward but beautiful technique books...

These books are not the cheapest reading in the store, but compared to one worthless course at your local prestigious university...eighteen bucks isn't too bad. And I have sat down at B&N and done some studying at their expense...but I *did* buy lots of coffee.

[Ditter]

It is true that many artists can't draw. If you go to the Houston Livestock Show (going on right now) Go to the Student Art Show. You will see many "drawings" in pencil & in color that look like photographs from a distance. They have been projected from a photograph using a machine & then the image has been traced. These highschool students will recieve thousands of dollars for their "work" toward college tuition. Then when the get to college they will be encouraged toward "abstract art". The situition is very sad. Some of these students might have had potential, but who knows?