Using old technique books for inspiration(?)

lpetiti

Hello All!

I've started slowly getting back into the goal of studying scientific illustration. I've been perusing the Guild of Natural Science Illustrator's site and their book recommendations. My goal is to start really diving into techniques, theory, and most importantly PRACTICE, so I'm starting with some reference/technique books.

I was curious about everyone's thoughts on using old(er) published books to help get techniques and theory down? There are a wide range of suggested books ranging from general scientific illustration to technical theory.

Is it a good idea to get any and all information I can glean, or is looking at older published material not as helpful, in your opinions?

von_Nimmermehr

@lpetiti art is as old as one can imagine and i cant imagine why old books should be bad for learning.

there is a saying: "everything is a remix".

Publishers need something to publish and the industry want the people to buy. Nothing more to say about capitalism.
New is not alsways better and if you are on this science illustrator website i dont think they would recommend books they don't think are good. To this day there are a lot of people still refering to Andrew loomis and his books got first published in 1931-1961

Get not just any but ALL the information you can get.
Look at whatever you can get your hands on.

Just think about how old some of the disneymovies are...i dont think you would say, its not nececarry for an illustrator for maybe character designs to look at it because its old...

Also, in terms of Natural Science illustration...just imagine what changed. You should google how Watermelons looked in earlier centuries, before mankind started to breed the watermelons we know today. Its crazy, what have changed over hundrets of years. couldnt imagine not knowing about that just because its to old to look at?

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/28/9050469/watermelon-breeding-paintings

there are a lot of old impressive books out there, and i would like to know every one of them, but i only have one life though

lpetiti

@von_Nimmermehr I agree, there's so much! Just the list I have alone is like drinking water from a fire hose and all I'm doing right now is searching titles!

I told my husband I might want to spend the next couple of years just studying and practicing this stuff. There's so much