《Picutre this--how pictures work》

I spent maybe 5 hours reading the book 'Picutre this--how pictures work', a book worth reading if you are interested in design, drawing or related fields.

It is an incredible book of articulating how to build a picture. Different shapes, colors, contexts give us various feelings when they appear individially or in group. You haven't tried to abstract the principles of them, but the author did it.

I thought it might be a boring book filled up with doctrine-like words. When I read it, I said to myself what a surprise!  Simple but impressive stories,  like the words chosen by the writer,  tell us the process to build a picture that expresses the feeling best. I felt I became a child and the author taught me create a picutre step by step.  It is a book for both adults and children.

《艺术与自然中的抽象》

《艺术与自然中的抽象》是《The abstract of Art and Nature》的译本。一句话表达，这是一本值得一读再读的书。我们似乎认为抽象是那些抽象派艺术家才需要了解和掌握的，于常人而言抽象是看不透的。我之前就总认为抽象是艺术家们对事物的强行夸张和扭曲，总有一种不得要领的感觉。这本书恰好解决了我的疑问。本书从抽象的含义讲起，分别讲述了线，形、形状和体积，图式，空间、比例、尺度和透视，光与暗、黑与白，自然界的色彩表达，围绕的重心始终是“抽象即意味着说出一系列事物或一个环境的基本特质这一事实。”

举几个例子，本书开始就刷新了我的观念，“线存在吗？”，线不是线，是空间或者是一种实物在某种情况下呈现的形式。你是否发现人体内血管的网状分布和陆地上流水形成的线如此相似；气象图中的云团形状像极了夜空中的旋涡星系；还记得物理学的磁场么，仔细观察南瓜的外形，俨然活生生的磁场复制品……宇宙的事物都在内在有着千丝万缕的关系，遵循着一些共同的本质。

这本书将世间万物洗牌再重新以抽象类别分类，深入浅出。这是一本工具书，也是一本哲学书，教育学书，让我重新好好看看我周围的环境，人与物，天与地；也能引导小朋友从小学会以大局观看待这万变不离其宗的世界。看完电子版实在意犹未尽，买了纸质版，我想随着对事物感知描绘的能力的提高，会有更深刻的认识。