I bought the pdf of Mastering Artistic Composition by Tavis Glover a few months back and was quite happy with it 
If you’re interested in rendering, “Physically based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation” (2nd edition) is the perfect book. It contains all the stuff you need for understanding/coding rendering engines, complete with source code (LuxRender started as a fork of the first edition).
Where to start, I have little library on human anatomy books going. These are all books I have read and own. I think you need to get several books because the all have there strength and weakness
George Bridgeman Constructive Anatomy - a good introductory text, but the drawings are heavily stylized and most can verge on been very quick gestural drawings i.e it’s hard to sometimes know what is going on.
Stephen Peck Atlas of Human Anatomy - Also a good introductory text with drawings that are easier to read compared to Bridgeman but has the downside of having a lot of drawings in orthographic views. Also doesn’t show the insertions and origins in of muscles using drawings but rather through tables.
Bammes complete guide to life drawing - I think this is one of the fews of his books with an English translation. Most are in German, Russian and French. This is a book I would highly recommend anyone get, it’s a bit on the intermediate and advanced side. He deals with proportion far better than I have seen other people do and his system of abstracting the human skeleton is the best I have seen.
Goldfinger Human Anatomy for artist - Another book I would put in the highly recommend category this is the book you get when you want to bone up on the insertion and origin of muscles it also has very helpful abstractions to help you understand and photograph of people which help you to see what happens when all those get covered up by skin and fat.
Paul Richer Artistic Anatomy- This probably my least read book because it is a book firmly in the advanced category, it is also old fashioned(I think it was written in the very early 20th century or late 19th) The English has been modernized but the layout has not. What I mean by this is that it is extremely text heavy and the drawings are separated from the text. There is a wall of text in the first 150 pages of the book and the last 30 or so are plates of drawings. If you don’t have a basic understanding of anatomy you will struggle to read through the text. If you don’t know where or what the mastoid process, acromion process or greater trochanter are then this is not the book for you.
I bought the pdf of Mastering Artistic Composition by Tavis Glover a few months back and was quite happy with it
Thanks, Jeepster! I knew composition was one of those topics that hadn’t been brought up yet I need to explore further. That looks like a brief, but interesting book.
I think I may have seen this book somewhere, but it seemed more about programming, and I was looking more for the artistic, rather than the coding, side of things. Still, it’s one to keep in mind if I decide to pursue that avenue someday.
Wow… That is an impressive collection! I know anatomy is one area I really need to work on, so I’ll have to check this out. Thanks!
Ever thought of visiting a real painting museum or so, and buy some art books there ?.
Great artist, have often good feeling for impression, scene, color, drama, expresionism etc, one can learn a lot from it.
Also some intro books to photography about portraits or landscapes.
And perhaps some books about anatomics, if one finds that difficult, or practice drawing real people using pen
(much better to train your mind)…
http://blenderart.org
^
That’s the blender magazine. If it hasn’t been mentioned. Lots of reading ^^
Hmm… I had thought to go to a museum for reference of things to model… Hand’t thought about it as a style reference, though now that you mention it, that sounds like an excellent idea! Thanks Razorblade!
Interesting you should mention that, Drawingisdead, because I just finished reading issue 46 a few days ago. Even read the article by Grady Pruitt… Hey, wait a minute… Why does that name sound familiar? 
They usually do have a number of great tutorials and articles in there.
i’m currently reading “the color correction handbook” by alexis van hurkman. he is very thorough, which i like, and software agnostic enough.
also on my wish list (and hadn’t come up already): “vision and art”; “light for the visual artist”.
there is also the recommended reading list andrew price put on blenderguru.
and a last one on compositing: “professional digital compositing”, which is hard to come by.
Thanks oris! The cover on the last one looks familiar, though I’m not sure from where.
That one is on my list of things to get 
But a part of me asking this was to find some non-Blender specific books because I already knew or have most of them and am kind of getting to the point where I’m looking beyond the simple “how to” stuff and starting to explore the other facets of creating art.
The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
That’s the classic Disney one I’ve heard about for years, isn’t it! I’d LOVE to get my hands on that one!
Maybe you already know these, even more related to illustration and drawing than cg, they are invaluable:
Someone else recommended that too, I think (though maybe not here). Might have to check them out.
I just wanted to thank everyone for the reading suggestions. I compiled the list of all the ones suggested here, plus a few others I’ve heard about or read, for those looking for some ideas of areas to explore. I’ve also included a section of Blender specific books, some of which may be a bit dated, but the essential fundamentals are still unchanged. Wiling to add any others if you see any missing!
http://www.blendercanvas.com/resources/books/suggested-reading
(Note: I’ve not read most of these, but many do seem promising, and it’s nice to have them all in a single list.)