Weta Digital Horse FEM Simulation- Julian Butler built the model and setup the simulation layers for Weta Digital's horse asset. This amazing anatomical simulation of a galloping horse shows the progressive addition of layers required to simulate realistic-looking outer surface, from the skeleton to the muscles, fascia, fat and skin, and finally a body hair, mane and tail.

Horse Breeds- Oklahoma State's comprehensive horse database

The Equine Resin Directory allows you to search their well indexed model photo data base by horse breed, model name, manufacturer, sculpter and painter

Horsesculpture.com features the amazing bronze equine sculpture of Marrita Black, along with a nice video of the bronze casting process

Living Images Photography features the work of horse and wildlife photographer Carol Walker

Horse'n Around, the Model Horse Store has a huge selection of Breyer models

The purpose of Horses Inside Out is to show the anatomy, biomechanics and physiology of the horse

Veryl Goodnight- Sculpting the American West

Tamara Gooch- Horses, Landscape, Western LIfestyle & Wildlife Fine Art photography

Stone Horses has a lot of nice resin models

The Model Horse Gallery has over 25,000 photos, 275 galleries and 2,500 pages

White Pine Equine Limited Edition Resin Model Horses from Original Sculptures

Elk Horn Stables Studios features the equine art of Angelica Nelson

The Horse Sculpture by Deborah McDermott- Realistic ceramic and resin model horse sculptures

Catwalk Studios features equine art by Laura Kosiorek

Tony O'Conner Equine Art features his stunning animal portraits and drawings- also check out his Facebook page

Nancy Weimer Belden, Equine sculpture

Heather Jansch Bronze and Driftwood Equine Sculpture

Alexandra Kline Sculptures- Realistic equine sculpture in bronze and resin

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Assorted Critters

The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections has all 80 plates of the definitive Veterinary Anatomical lllustrations of Hermann Dittrich usually published as An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists

Sandy Scott is a world renowned wildlife sculptor specializing in bronze castings, and has a very enlightening tutorial blog sharing her skills in sculpting techniques, anatomy, and dynamic posing

Mike Hollingshead of Storm and Sky is well known for his amazing storm chasing photos, but he also specializes in birds in flight, with some incredible shots of fighting and hunting eagles

Herb Houghton Wildlife Photography- specializing in bald eagles, peregrine falcons, owls and other raptors, with shorebirds, warblers, mammals, macro and landscapes taking a close second. Here is more at his Pixoto page

Jess Lee Photos is world renowned source for great scenic North American wildlife and western photography

Wing Photos- If you're sculpting feathers, check out this great photo archive from the Slater Natural History Museum at the University of Puget Sound

Will's Skull Page-The head bone's connected to the....

SKULLS- Lots of different species from the nice folks at the California Academy of Sciences

Insect photography by Alex Wild, with an emphasis on ant species. Includes galleries of images and wallpapers.

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Dinosaurs

The Dinosaur toys Collectors Guide should rekindle a lot of memories for those of us too ancient to have had fancy electronic gadgets for entertainment in our youth. Although these bits of injected plastic were not as sophisticated and accurate as today's CGI creations, they sure fired up a lot of young imaginations

The Dinosaur Toy Blog is dedicated to reviewing models, figures and replicas of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Each blog entry covers a different dinosaur toy and includes detailed photographs from several angles. The blog has many regular authors and guest reviewers. We want to share our thoughts, opinions and recommendations on the figures in our collections, and when possible, we provide links to help you find them as well

CM Studio produces realistic dinosaur models and sculptures in both life-size and scale models.

Zdenek Burian was an extremely prolific artist whose works are estimated to number between 15,000 and 20,000 paintings and drawings (ink pen and pencil). He illustrated over 500 books (including natural history subjects and numerous classic novels such as Robinson Crusoe, Tarzan of the Apes, Plutonia) and some 600 book covers, but it is within the fields of palaeontology and palaeoanthropology that Burian's influence has been most notable. Since the late 1950s and early 1960s when Burian's work became known in the west through a series of large-format books released by the Artia publishing house, numerous scholarly and popular books on prehistoric life have featured his work, either as originals or as art based closely on them. For more info, check out this Flickr page, blog featuring his work.

DinoAnimals.com -Loads of great photos, illustrations, and information about dinosaurs and contemporary critters

Micheal Trcic -the sculptor of the T-Rex used in the "Jurassic Park" movies and the IMAX feature "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous", offers amazing dinosaur sculptures, as well as Western and fantasy pieces in bronze and model kits

Welcome to the Natural History Museum's online guide to dinosaurs with images, facts and figures for over 300 dinosaurs.

Prehistoric Planet- Critters even older than I

Luis V. Rey's Art Gallery- Dinosaurs and Paleontology

John Sibbick Illustration- Prehistoric, natural history, and fantasy art

Search4dinosaurs.com will help you locate great illustrations of dinosaurs

The Dinosaur Art and Space Imagery of Joe Tucciarone

Dinosaurs in Art is the official website of paleo artist Michael Skrepnick

The Dinosaur Society is dedicated to promoting an interest in everything dinosaur related

StrangeScience.net may be a self-proclaimed eclectic collection of old illustrations and information, but it is also an outstanding resource on the the history of paleontology and biology. The Goof Gallery is loaded with great old timey illustrations of the mysterious beasts that haunted those unknown lands on the map

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Historical sites

Jas. Townsend & Son Inc. is a manufacturer and retailer of quality reproduction 18th and early 19th Century clothing and personal accessories. We service the living history community, historic sites, museums, and theatrical, motion picture, and television production companies. Subscribe to their YouTube Channel for lots of great authentic recipes, history, and reenacting videos.

The Oakeshott Institute was founded by Ewart Oakeshott and his wife Sybil Marshall with the purpose of furthering research and education in the field of ancient arms and armor. Ewart's life long study of weapons and armor helped revolutionize our understanding of Medieval culture

Check out Reenactor.Net- the world-wide, on-line home of historical reenacting!

Welcome to HistoryOfWar.org They aim to make their site your first call for information on any aspect of military history. Your probably won't live long enough to read it all- be prepared to lose a few days just getting to the B section

Best of History Web Sites is an award-winning portal created for history teachers, students, and general history enthusiasts. BOHWS contains annotated links to over 1000 history web sites as well links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more throughout its pages

JuniorGeneral.org promotes the use of historical simulations as a tool for teaching history by providing free resources that anyone can use. 1000's of free military reference downloads

Rome Exposed- the site geared toward the spreading of information on Roman Life throughout the Internet. In the other sections of Classics Unveiled, you can find information on Greek Mythology, Roman History and Latin Vocabulary and Derivatives

De Re Militari- Your portal to scholarly information on warfare in the Middle Ages

ARMA - the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, is an educational non-profit organization dedicated to the study and practice of historical fencing and the exploration and promotion of our Western martial heritage

EveryCastle.com is a comprehensive resource about castles, palaces and fortifications.

Medieval-castle.com is another nice resource for those interested in castles and medieval life

Medievality.com provides plenty of information about castles, medieval life, medieval warfare and much moree

Odin's Castle of Dreams & Legends- A massive archive of historical resources

Gode Cookery is an extensive and enlightening guide to life, food, and the arts of the Middle Ages

Medieval Gastronomy - In Images is a nicely illustrated guide to food, diet, meal preparation and dining customs back when salt barrel herring, black bread, and cabbage soup were good eats for the average schmuck- Now some dingus will write a "Peasant Diet Plan" book, get on Oprah, and they'll all make another kazillion bucks

Welcome to Exploring the Middle Ages, where you will find information on heraldry, myths and legends, religion, medicine, and other aspects of life in Britain during the Middle Ages

Medieval Life and Times- Step back into history get Medieval facts and information about the famous people, life and events of Medieval Times

Heraldry of the world contains at present 29,250 pages and 95,322 images, the total site has over 50.000 pages. Check them out on Facebook as well

Modar's Heraldry Page

A Heraldic Primer, from the nice folks at the Society for Creative Anachronism

International Heraldry & Heralds has a lot of good information

The Heraldry Society exists to increase and extend interest in and knowledge of heraldry, armory, chivalry, genealogy and allied subjects

How to draw Celtic knots (or sculpt them)

Images of Medieval Art and Architecture- Watch your apse!

Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Costume Illustration- Nearly 20,000 prints, drawings, watercolors, and printed book and magazines illustrations of military costume

Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection- The artwork vividly documents all aspects of military and naval history, with emphasis on the history and illustration of world military and naval uniforms from the 17th century to the present

The Selected Civil War Photographs Collection contains 1,118 photographs. Most of the images were made under the supervision of Mathew B. Brady, and include scenes of military personnel, preparations for battle, and battle after-effects. The collection also includes portraits of both Confederate and Union officers, and a selection of enlisted men.

The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis- Library of Congress online image collection

Native American History was created by the University of Washington Libraries' Reference and Research Services Division and provides users with an "Annotated list of links to Native American history sites."

Images of Native Americans: The Bancroft Library

New York Public

The Defence of DUFFER'S DRIFT- The classic in small unit tactics, this Boer War scenario still has sound lessons for today's infantryman, as well as being a great wargame adventure. I reformatted the book and cleaned up the graphics to make it easier to navigate

World War I Color Photos -"World War I.... who would have thought there were original color photos of WWI? This site contains hundreds of photos taken by the French in the last two years of World War One."

Shorpy.com is a photo blog about life a hundred years ago- a great source for period character study, with tough people in tough times

Search the Smithsonian Institution Archive Collections

They Drew Fire- the combat artists of World War II

Historical Military Pictures and Photos from WWII & Vietnam- Explore the largest free collection of historical US Military photos from WWII and Vietnam on the Web—digitized by Footnote from the vaults of The National Archives

Things with Wings has fascinating aircraft design drawings and photos of some unusual experimental, military, and commercial aircraft

Airplane-Pictures.Net has lots of creative aviation photography (and girlie photos, featuring the aircraft, of course)

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Weapons- Antique to Modern

Grey Company Trebuchet page- Medieval WMDs

Dressed To Kill, the vision of armourer Mark Taylor, has been making quality arms and armour for museums, castles and re-enactors since 1992.

Pictorial Glossary of Armor Terms-based heavily on the glossary in Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight

MEDIEVAL ARMOUR- articles and links on armour as it applies to the Middle Ages, the SCA and to SCA combat.

The armor collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art has more than fourteen thousand objects from many countries and covers fourteen centuries of history

Heavenly Swords has lots of weaponry, including historical reproductions as well as fantasy arms from movies and games

Armor Venue- has a wide variety of armor, weapons, and military replicas from ancient to modern eras

Albion Swords Ltd.- museum-quality swords handmade to exacting design specifications, based on countless hours spent in the detailed study the of original swords

Toledo Swords- Another dealer in fantasy and historical toadstickers

Global Effects Inc. manufactures, sells and rents all types of props, costumes, armor, miniatures, sets, creatures and makeup effects for TV, movies and museums.

Medieval Collectibles-your one stop shop for Medieval Swords, Renaissance Clothing and many other Medieval and Renaissance items

Epic Armoury Only wondrous weaponry and extraordinary equipment ever leave the Epic Armoury! Our tale began in 2008 when the limited selection of quality live action role-playing (LARP) products drove an adventurous party of store owners to manufacture their own.

MuseumReplicas.com- Historical and fantasy arms and armor from the nice folks at Atlanta Cutlery

Paul Southren's Sword Buyers Guide.com has been developed to provide you with the most up to date and relevant information on the major production (i.e. non custom) makers in the industry

Check out the Medieval weapons at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rock Island Auction Company is the worlds leading auction house for firearms, edged weapons and military artifacts. They have highly detailed phtos of all of their auction items, from antiques to modern items- a great place to check for firearm and military reference photos

The Specialists.LTD. is a full service prop house with thousands of high detail photos of the weapon replicas they design and supply for movies, TV, theater and advertising. From Paleolithic knives to modern miltary equipment, if you need it, they have it

The Internet Movie Firearms Database is a great source to find out who is shooting what in movies and TV

Modern Firearms & Ammunition- Online encyclopedia of firearms and ammunition of the 20th and 21st centuries

www.Military-Today.com Everything about modern warfare

Welcome to Olive-Drab.com, where you will find over fifteen-hundred pages of military photos and information resources. Military jeeps, HMMWVs, trucks, tanks, weapons and ammunition, rations, uniforms, web gear and field equipment, electronics, history, books & videos, and much more. From World War II through Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and the wars of the 21st Century you will find reading and photos on all the things that equip the soldier to keep the military fighting and moving.

Military Factory- Amazing archive of military info and photos of weapons, aircraft, ships, armor and vehicles

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Interesting Miscellaneous Art Sites and Online Galleries

American Art Archives(AAA)is meant to help preserve the memory of the great illustrators and their works, give visitors a chance to experience the kind of art that people of the last century experienced virtually every day, and provide an outlet for you fans of illustration art where you can contribute bio information, corrections (we do make mistakes), gallery ideas and artwork, articles on artists, trends, and techniques, upcoming events you want to promote, whatever else you can think of.

MetPublications is a portal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's comprehensive publishing program with 1,500 titles, including books, online publications, and Bulletins and Journals from the last five decades.

The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project dedicated to showcasing the most interesting and unusual out-of-copyright works available online

Poster artists, due to the silkscreen techniques and printing process, usually work with limited colors, and have to get the most out of limited detail lines and negative space to create a good, balanced image. Gadzooks! Thats kind of like what miniature designers should do! Here are a couple of nice current poster art sites to peruse- INSIDE THE ROCK POSTER FRAME. Check 'em out- should be some solid inspiration for form, dynamic flow, and how minimal lines can have quite an impact

Street Art Utopia is not simple graffiti- it is an amazing collection of street art varying in scale from minute to monumental, across a wide variety of techniques and genres

Monster Brains A never ending celebration of monsters, is a blog by fantasy artist Aeron Alfrey. Mr. Alfrey has posted an amazing collection of fantasy illustrations that have inspired him, and will do the same for you. I especially appreciate his great selection of the works of Virgil Finlay

The British Museum is the authoritative source of images depicting world culture and history including ceramics, sculpture, prints, drawings, and paintings

Beautifullife.info is a daily updated online magazine dedicated to all aspects of design

The Artcyclopedia is an index of online museums and image archives:find out where the works of over 8,000 different fine artists can be viewed online

Art History: A Resource Guide has a lot of good information on arts centers, conferences, art research, teaching resources and more.

Art History Resources on the Web is another massive index of links maintained by Professor Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe of Sweet Briar College, Virginia

The Timeline of Art History is a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated especially by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection

The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture from 12th to mid-19th centuries

African tribal art-Wooden and bronze statues, masks, totems & symbols

Here is a fine selection of Oni demon masks and sculpture

A Love of Monsters- Gargoyles and Architectural Sculpture in NYC

Beej's Pirate Image Archive- ARRRGGH!!!!!!

The Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists

Draconika.com I think they like dragons

Here Be Dragons is also rather fond of scaly beasties

NSFW! The Pin-up Files- contains over 1500 pin-up art images from "classic" and "contemporary" artists. Galleries are devoted to each featured artist. Each gallery contains artwork, a biography, notes on each image and important links
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Specific Artist's sites

Michael Leonard's cover illustration of John Gardener's Grendel from the early 70s is still one of my favorite monster illustrations of all time. His photoreal drawings are an excellent source for anyone interested in dynamic anatomy

Walter S. Arnold, Sculptor-Stone Carver. Get your gargoyles here!

The late Bernie Wrightson is world renowned for his amazing cover, comic, and card illustrations

Jakub Rózalski is a Polish visual artist, born in 1981, in Koszalin. Professionally works as a concept artist, illustrator & designer since 2002, best known as a creator of the World of 1920+ (Scythe, Iron Harvest), as well as from dark, full of storytelling and very evocative paintings. He is most inspired by history, folktales, myths, countryside, and wild nature. He works both traditionally and digitally.

Henry Clive has an amazing body of work featuring movie posters, murals, magazine covers and glamour portraits that propelled him into being an iconic force of the art deco Jazz Age

James Bama has had an amazing career as a photorealistic illustrator in pulp magazines and cover illustration, and his work on the Doc Savage series is considered iconic. He is best known for his amazing wildlife and portrait work of the American West. Here is a great interview with MensPulpMags.com and his sections at the Jerry W. Horn Gallery and Bighorn Gallery

Frederick Cooper ia an amazing artist, and he has an amazing number of archived albums featuring thousands of examples of the work of his favorite artists on his FaceBook page.

Susan Alpaugh ia another great illustrator with many albums featuring her favorite artists on FaceBook.

The art of Matt Dixon- Over the top fun fantasy, sci-fi and horror

Clyde Caldwell is legendary for his outstanding fantasy illustrations

Keith Parkinson is sorely missed. Take some time to appreciate his talent

The Offical Site for Larry Elmore

Check out the blog of Hugo award-winning fantasy/SF artist Bob Eggleton

Stephen Hickman has illustrated more than 450 book covers for major speculative fiction authors—including Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey and Larry Niven—since 1976

Aly Fell beautifully illustrates the female form in many genres

Brian M. Viveros also has an unmistakable style with the feminine profile

Check out the home page of Jeff Easley -during his 20+ year tenure at TSR/WOTC Jeff did many rulebook, boxed set, and module covers for all of TSR's gaming worlds including the iconic 1st Edition AD&D hard covers and then all of the 2nd Edition core hard cover rule books.

Raul Vitale has done beautiful fantasy illustration in a variety of genres, including childrens books

Concept illustration and fantasy art by Ed Binkley, Program Director, Animation & Concept Development - Madison College, Madison, WI.

Omar Rayyan is based in Martha's Vineyard and has created illustrations for children's magazines and books, as well as the gaming market

Sean Andrew Murray is a freelance concept artist and illustrator, and the creator of the World of Gateway, and the writer/illustrator of the upcoming Kickstarter-funded book: "Gateway - The Book of Wizards"

Marc Simonetti does great work in covers, video games, movies, and advertising

The official website of Barry Windsor-Smith, with news and biographical information, original art and prints for sale, and an extensive selection of current and classic art, comics, and texts

Matthew Kirscht has lots of cool spooky Halloween art

The official website of Burne Hogarth presents a definitive, career-spanning insight into one of the most respected and influential artists of the 20th century

The Official Frazetta Art Gallery

FrankFrazetta.org- The UNOFFICIAL Frank Frazetta Fantasy Art Gallery has a lot of quality scans that the official site does not provide

The Official Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell Website

Since 1950, Earl Norem has painted hundreds of memorable covers for novels, gaming books, trading cards, and Marvel Comics

Joe Jusko is undoubtedly one of the best known Fantasy, Pin-Up and Comic Artists in the world today. His career has spanned over 30 years, starting with the sale of his very first cover for Heavy Metal Magazine in 1977 at the age of 17

The Official Hajime Sorayama Website

FANTASY ART COLLECTION - a fansite in Russia with hundreds of scans of the work of dozens of fantasy artists

The work of illustrator Alphonse Mucha is a valuable source for figurative study- here is another nice selection of Mucha's Art Nouveau posters, lithographs, and illustrations

I was always a big fan of movie poster artist and illustrator Reynold Brown, whose artwork was often far better than the movies it was advertising. Here's Brown's section at American Art Archives, also check out "The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters", a great 1994 PBS documentary available on YouTube.

Shiflett Brothers- These boys do some interesting work

The CS Moore Studio and sculptor Clayburn Moore proudly present premier licensed and original statues, busts and more

The Mariusz Kozik vel Lacedemon Portfolio - Mariusz Kozik currently lives in Lublin City, Poland where he works as an illustrator and concept artist, Lots of stunning war art at the bottom of the page, including some great Osprey work

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Assorted Literary Links

The Fantastic in Art and Fiction- from the nice folks at the Cornell University Library

Winsor McKay's amazing classic complete comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, is available in high res scans at The Comic Strip Library

Nonsenselit.org is a portal devoted to Nonsense literature, with a lot of great illustrations and art links as well as the fun prose and poetry

Encyclopedia Mythica- An expansive and comprehensive database and portal

Welcome to the Theoi Project, a comprehensive guide to the Gods (Theoi), Spirits (Daimones) and Monsters (Theres) of ancient Greek mythology and religion

Paleothea.com: Women in Greek Myths- Ailia Athena has compiled a remarkable treasure trove of tales, art, and great reference sources for the classically inclined

The Medieval Beastiary: Here begins the book of the nature of beasts. Of lions and panthers and tigers, wolves and foxes, dogs and apes

Glorious Nonsense- All things Jabberwocky

Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts

ERBzine- The Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site Since 1996 ~ 15,000 Web Pages in Archive. Check out their featured artists section for amazing galleries of the great illustrators

The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs- A jungle full of great images, info and links!

The Works of Robert E. Howard -The idea behind this page is to make available for the Howard scholar and collector, a list of every story, article, fragment and synopsis written by REH, and where to find them

Barbarian Keep- another Conan and Robert E. Howard Website

Welcome to the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center-celebrating the life of Jack Kirby and his creations

Fantastic Fiction - Fantasy & Sci Fi Literature Database- Information and links for over 6000 authors

MensPulpMags.com is a great blog dedicated to the fun illustrations and stories of men's adventure magazines published in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. They have lots of information about the amazing artwork used to hook the readers of that now extinct paper medium, including a comprehensive index section with links to artists, models and magazines. Check them out on FaceBook as well!

The Pulp Magazines Project is an open-access digital archive dedicated to the study and preservation of one of the twentieth century's most influential literary & artistic forms: the all-fiction pulpwood magazine. The Project also provides information on the history of this important but long neglected medium, along with biographies of pulp authors, artists, and their publishers.

PULPS et MAGAZINES AMERICAINS- Outstanding French site with a huge archive of cover art from the great American pulp golden age, featuring fantasy and sci-fi from Amazing Stories to Weird Tales, from the 1920's into the 1960's.

Enter The Pulp Magazine Archive, Featuring Over 11,000 Digitized Issues of Classic Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Detective Fiction

The Field Guide to Wild American PULP ARTISTS features basic biographical information to broaden awareness of pulp magazine illustrators, mainly from 1930 to 1960 when technical advances in color printing led to a golden era of pulp art

Cover Browser - displays galleries of comic book covers for comic book fans & enjoy (there's also links to find out more about individual comics or to buy them). Some of the artists you'll find : John Byrne, Barry Windsor-Smith, Frank Miller, Ivan Brunetti, Alex Ross, Todd McFarlane, Mark Bagley, Steve Ditko, Jim Lee, Daniel Clowes, Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, Jack Kirby, Rob Liefeld, Andy Kubert, John Romita Sr. and Jr., Sam Keith, Dave Gibbons, Erik Larsen and many more.

Pulp Covers-The Best Of The Worst has a lot of great covers preserved and easy to use search feature

Check out the cover art of 1960s-80s Warren comics CREEPY, EERIE and VAMPIRELLA, as created by a literal Who's Who of fantasy artists. Flash-enhanced site; English-language, hosted in Japan.

CRIME BOSS- Crime Comic Books of the 1940s and 1950s, with great galleries of dangerous dames with gorgeous gams and gats galore!

Welcome to the Lambiek Comiclopedia, an illustrated compendium of over 7,000 comic artists, listed under last name (or pseudonym)

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Recommended Books and Movies

Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (2004)."From a small Italian community in 15th-century Florence, the Medici family would rise to rule Europe in many ways. Using charm, patronage, skill, duplicity and ruthlessness, they would amass unparalleled wealth and unprecedented power. They would also ignite the most important cultural and artistic revolution in Western history--the European Renaissance. But the forces of change the Medici helped unleash would one day topple their ordered world. An epic drama played out in the courts, cathedrals and palaces of Europe, this series is both the tale of one family's powerful ambition and of Europe's tortured struggle to emerge from the ravages of the dark ages." This series gives a great basic overview of Renaissance art and politics in under 4 hours, so check it out. Also on YouTube

Also check out Born of Hope, an independent film prequel to Lord of the Rings-very nicely done and free for all to view. More here

Burne Hogarth- Especially recommended- Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery and here is a free PDF version.

How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way- 'Nuff said

Meditations On a Hobby Horse and Other Essays On the Theory of Art -great essays about image creation, physiognomy, illusions and our responses to visual media by E. H. Gombrich

Troll Hunter - Good effects, impressive CGI critters, and a bit of dark humor. Subtitled

Beowulf & Grendel - is a somewhat obscure 2005 film that gives a bit more sympathy to the monster and a gritty view of the good guys. Great scenary, good costumes, and a refreshing emphasis on a solid plot line and character developement instead of overblown special effects.

Peter and the Wolf Amazing stop action- beautifully filmed, Oscar winning animated short

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Graphics Editing and Web Stuff

PureRef was created to be a simple and lightweight tool for artists to organize and view their reference images. Excellent free app, especially for those with just one monitor

FileZilla, the free FTP solution. Both a client and a server are available. FileZilla is open source software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License

IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP.

GIMP the Free and Open Source Image Editor

Pixia very advanced and continually updated freeware from Japan

Piriform has free versions of several great programs that will clean your PCs, protect your privacy and make your PCs faster and more secure. Check out their advanced file recovery and system information tools.

HTML.com- "Our goal is to provide the most fun, fast & helpful guide to learning to code HTML anywhere"

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement with a lot of features, including easy HTML editing

Malwarebytes is good malware scanner that has free for private use version

SpywareBlaster prevents the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software

VLC media player is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols

LibreOffice is the power-packed free, libre and open source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs


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