Any good art theory books out there?

[Jeff Sonner]

I don't really know where to post this so I will post it here. I have the mechanics of taxidermy down pretty good, but struggle with the artistic part.  I have read Frank Newmyers's books and all of Stephens articles in Breakthrough. I have recently purchased some great drawing instruction books to help expand my ability to see the shapes and balance of animals in various poses and hopefully help me to interpret reference even better. The artistic theories just seem to escape me-flow, balance of positive/negative space, perceived  motion, and sometimes just  the ability to influence a persons "feeling" about the mount. I know that alot of this is intuitive and natural God-given insight and ability, but there ought to be some books out there that someone on here has used that could help the artistically challenged such as I. Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated.

[Maddog]

While I'm sure you could find a book to cover basic color theory, terminology, and concepts like composition...you must train your eye.  Draw.  From life.  Set up a still life of objects on a table and draw them as acurately as you possibly can.  Draw self portraits.  It sounds silly, but the practice of drawing really helps you learn to see differently,  it forces you to use parts of your brain that you don't normally--and with practice you'll improve.
If possible look at art, too.  Go to museums or buy an art history book and look at great painting and sculpture, and really try to discover for yourself why they are so succesful. 

[Codi]

I got some good ones while I was in college at the Art Institute at Chicago. "How To Draw What You See" is really really good. It is about making things as they actually are, rather than how we perceive them. Sort of like how we use reference photos all the time, instead of going by how we think things should look.

"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is also swell. It should help you tap into the artistic/imagery side of thought. A good one for doing buildings and landscapes, and possibly helping you with habitat work, is "Perspetive Without Pain."

I'm too lazy to walk over to my bookshelf and see who the authors are, but I imagine if you just search for the titles on Amazon you will find them easy enough. Hope this helps.

-Codi