Bear: The Ultimate Artist's Reference

Lindstrand is the dean of North American wildlife art instructors. He has photographed and sketched caribou, deer, wolves, big horn sheep, elk, bison, and bears for more than 30 years. Among his many successful books are Drawing Big Game and Drawing Mammals: An Artist's Reference Guide to North American Mammals. Lindstrand provides a perfect balance of fine photography, information on habitat and range, sketches, and finished portraits. His two new volumes cover every species of North American bear (from grizzly to black bear and polar bear) and of deer (from white-tailed to the mule deer). Small libraries may be satisfied by the two general titles by Lindstrand cited above, but larger collections will want all four. Macnamara and Donnelly offer a completely different approach to a similar field. Macnamara forgoes the strict realism most wildlife artists strive for and creates instead an almost surreal watercolor style. She layers color to achieve luminous effects, using, for example, ultramarine and yellow-green in the hide of an otherwise gray elephant. The dazzling results can be seen in exotic birds, mammals, reptiles, beetles, and more. Highly recommended for general collections.