If at all possible, try to discuss your topic with your TA or Professor prior to beginning the research process. Most students who are doing research for a paper consult various sources and often, half-way through the research process, forget which sources they ve used, or have forgotten to take down important information such as dates, pages, and are never able to locate the source again. To save enormous amounts of time, keep consistent notes about sources in one place. A general text such as Janson s History of Art can provide good overviews that cover many periods and artists. Bibliographies are also usually contained at the end of each chapter.
Footnotes citing additional publications can also lead to additional useful sources.
Encyclopedia articles are written by notable scholars in the field, and often contain excellent bibliographies which will lead to additional sources of information. A bibliography is a list of resources written on a particular topic, or artist. For art history topics, printed indexes as well as CD-ROMs will also be very useful. Specialized materials concentrate on biographies of famous people according to gender, geographic area, ethnic background, occupation, etc. Some have excellent bibliographies and lists of an artist s works.