Anyone who works in 3-D is aware of the importance of texture. Texture is what makes 3-D digital art look real, but often 3-D images fall well short of realism. In (Digital) Texturing and Painting Owen Demers gets to the core of what texture is all about.

This is much more than a manual of digital techniques, though if you want to know how to create anything from a steel braided hose to a cloth bandana it's covered in the project section in chapters seven to 14. First, Demers takes you on a textural tour so comprehensive that by the end of it you'll never look at anything in the same way again.

This is a man obsessed with texture. Why else would anyone accumulate a library of photographs of textures including cracked and peeling paintwork, atmospheric pollution, rusted metals, carved wood, stains, glass, brickwork, old masters and contemporary paintings?

Demers shows you how to "decipher and describe what you are looking at" and then how to recreate it digitally using Photoshop, Painter, Maya and other applications, and also with traditional media such as oil paint. If you're an artist with no digital aspirations you'll still learn a great deal from the first half of this book.

While there are plenty of books out there that tell you how to achieve a particular technique, few tackle the subject from first principles. [Digital] Texturing and Painting shows you a different way of looking at the world, one which will make you a better digital artist. --Ken McMahon