Product Description
Covering the three most popular types of painting: watercolours, acrylics and oils, this comprehensive step-by-step guide provides basic information on materials and techniques as well as an exciting series of demonstrations aimed at complete beginners. The unique approach of this book is so simple that the reader can start immediately on original and exciting projects. Each section has practical information on materials and equipment and includes a gallery of work by other artists to inspire the beginner. The projects cover all types of subjects, including landscapes, still life, people, flowers, animals and buildings. Within each section the demonstrations provide instruction in a whole range of different techniques from the basic brushstrokes to using resist and painting with a knife. Filled with stunning artworks and inspiring projects, this book will help beginners to achieve immediate and impressive results with a minimum of practice. ... Read more

Product Description
Walter Foster's classic How to Draw and Paint series provides aspiring artists with an exceptional array of art instruction books featuring all subject areas and media. Each title includes easy step-by-step exercises as well as finished illustrations or paintings that will inspire artistic talent in anyone.

Packed with practical information, helpful tips, and fundamental techniques, the How to Draw and Paint series offers a complete library of resources to which artists of all skill levels can refer again and again.

What you'll learn from this book ...

• The step-by-step process of painting landscapes in acrylic or oil, from the initial sketch to the final details

• Color use and brush techniques for painting clouds, trees, roads, and more

• Techniques for painting a variety of landscape elements, including barrels, windmills, wagons, barns, buckets, and fences

• Tips for creating specific moods, seasons, and times of day

• How to arrange the elements and change the light source to make your composition more appealing

• Hints on artistic license and using references for inspiration ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

get out and see it for yourself
don't sit in the house and look at pictures
get out into life
see it
feel it
be apart of
then you can create ... Read more

Product Description
Concentrating on quick studies allows painters to get to the essence of painting. In this book, Craig Nelson lists and explains the nine advantages to doing quick studies: editing, brush confidence, painting new subjects, composition exploration, colour exploration, exploring various lighting effects, trial before a larger painting, basic practice, and recreation. The nine purposes for quick studies are the organising structure for this book, with explanations, examples and step-by-steps provided for each purpose. Nelson begins by introducing the idea behind the quick studies, the materials needed, and the step-by-step process for the 25, 40 and one-hour paintings. After this, the nine purposes are practiced with step-by-step demos. Oil painters, acrylic painters and painters in any opaque medium who want to build their confidence and paint faster and better will want to have this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Have bought this book 3 times!
I keep lending it out and they keep it!
This book helps you understand the process of becoming a better painter and then shows you how.
I have a BFA in painting and have applied the concepts with exciting results.
I review the book several times a year for inspiration...usually before a vacation or three day weekend.
I have shared with beginner painters and they get the process and techniques too.
Not lending this copy out, they can visit the library.

6o Minutes to Better Painting
Good instructions to improve ones painting by doing quick painting studies at 60 minutes or less. It challenges one to skip the details and it teaches you better brush strokes.

Fast track to improvement
This book will really help you sharpen your skills by removing your fear of a blank canvas and getting you started on real paint slinging. The idea of doing quick studies is similar to the "painting a day" practice for painters to go on the fast track to improvement.

I have been mystified by brushwork despite having read books devoted entirely to that topic. Here I finally saw the "why" of the adage to use the biggest brush you can to paint as much of your work as possible. The brushwork becomes intrinsic to the creation of form and light and gives paintings a spontaneity often missing in beginner works. You can clearly see this in the painting examples given in the book. The author even takes pains to describe which size brush he used for each section of the painting.

Another tip I've found invaluable was to start each study with a two value blocking in of the lightest light and darkest dark of each shape. This REALLY helped me to improve my value contrast overall. This book is a gem among painting books and is applicable to oils or acrylics. Sure there are some grammatical errors in the text, but the content is very good.

somewhat helpful
I thought this book to be somewhat helpful but really didn't learn anything profoundly new. I loved a few of the paintings but overall other than reinforcing the theme of painting everyday it didn't excite me. It's an alright beginner's or entrance level intermediate artist's manual but there are better oil painting books for beginner's or the advanced intermediate artist such as Bill Creevy's book, Vicki McMurty's or Kevin MacPherson's. I found them to be more beneficial and cover more artistic ground in the areas of color theory and painting structure.

Fast Food Art
Fast Food Art

There is something disturbing to me about the premise of this book.The whole idea that a painting is under a time limit seems counter to all that is art.Whether a painting took 5 minutes, 15 minutes or an hour seems totally irrelevant to me.Even in trying to achieve a spontaneous quality in a painting, a much better painter than the author once said: "a painting should look loose but not be painted loosely".This is a bit of advice I believe the author of this book could benefit from.

To be fair this painting book could be a good way for a beginning painter to loose the fear of paint as has been previously stated.However in trying to rush a painting in just a few minutes, its not too far within the realm of possibilities to imagine that a beginning artist might be so discouraged from his or hers hurried results, that they may quit painting altogether.

As far as the examples of painting in the book itself, the results are inconsistent.Some were good but some were very weak.What do I mean by weak?I am referring to bad drawing, bad color harmony and bad values and edge control.I would site pages 37, 62, 63, 88 as examples of some of the weaker paintings.The author does display good skill in some of the quick studies but I get the feeling he does not know when his painting is good or when his painting is bad.He simply accepts every painting he completes as good.One of the factors that determines a great artist is an artist's taste; being able to determine what is a good painting and what is a bad painting.In addition his paintings are devoid of emotion, and isn't emotion perhaps the most important factor in art?If he took more time in his drawing, values and edges as well as his intent, the results would be better.How much time?As much as the artist feels he needs to do the job right.The painting would still have the spontaneous quality the artist is trying to achieve but look better and nobody would care if it took 5 minutes or an 5 hours.Just that it was a good painting.

Collectors of art are certainly not concerned with how much time it took an artist to complete a painting.If anything, a collector will be discouraged to hear that the painting they purchased was completed in one or two hours.They want to hear that the artist spent countless hours on their craft.They want to feel that the artist poured their heart and soul into the painting, not that they "churned" out the painting in one hour and slapped a frame on it.Producing dozens or even hundreds of paintings within a short time can only result in something trivial, nothing that has any real substance.

So in conclusion I've coined the words "fast food" to describe the approach this book takes.Like fast food, the resulting painting may at first seem good but over time it will only leave a bad taste in your mouth.
... Read more

Product Description
This reference book for art students, teachers, and professionals presents examples of finished paintings, as well as color charts that demonstrate color mixing as it applies to watercolors, acrylics, and oils. Students learn how to choose and mix colors to produce the maximum color range from the minimum number of paints. The book starts with a comprehensive, illustrated explanation of color theory, demonstrated with reference to the color wheel of primary and secondary colors. In separate sections that follow, the authors—each an expert in different paint media—show how to approach watercolors, acrylics, and oils. In addition to color charts, the book presents reproductions of gallery paintings in all three media to show how various hues are created and used. Still life illustrations, each with a detailed analysis of its color make-up, enable students to put theory into practice. Hundreds of color illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

So useful!
This is a really useful book on mixing color. It has a section for acrylics, oil and watercolor. Only the oil section is of interest to me but those few pages are packed with enough on mixing 2 colors to get a 3rd that it's fine.

Great resource for beginner painting
I've purchased four different books to help with color mixing oil paints and this is my favorite.It gives multiple recipes to achieve the colors and tones needed for painting, is easy to read and understand, and also shows examples of colors in still lifes and actual paintings. I keep this close by for reference as I'm painting. It's a very useful book.

A tool for any artist
This is the best color mixing book I have come across.I have purchased several and this one is far superior. The inromation is clear and the examples are very helpful.

Easy
Great book. Easy to understand.Will say you a lot of time and paint. Definitely worth it.

Looks nice - until you really sit down to learn something
It looked great in the store. But It showed paint colors on the side that pointed to colors in real photos that occationally mismatched??? That's pretty much it! I did not learn anything? I exchanged the book. ... Read more

Product Description
An ideal introduction to all three skillsfor beginners and its comprehensive enough to include excerises and projects that will challenge a more experience artist. ... Read more

Product Description
A complete guide to artists' techniques and materials. Sections on drawing, watercolour, oil, acrylic and pasterl. Perfect both for the beginner and more advanced artist. Includes up-to-date information on all the latest techniques, materials and equipment. Packed with practical guidance no how to treat the classical subjects - portraits, figures, buildings, landscapes and flowers - in the most popular mediums. At-a-glance, step-by-step photographs show clearly how to achieve successful results. A comprehensive artists' manual which includes examples of many different styles and treatments. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Goodwill is an Excellent Supplier
I ordered this book that was exactly the same price as the S&H cost and it was worth every penny.The book is in new condition, was shipped promptly and I was contacted with shipping data.Couldn't be better service.I trust them. ... Read more

Product Description
Features the work of many bestselling North Light Books authors

*No other current book focuses entirely on representing weather in landscape painting
*Strong crossover potential for three popular media: oil, acrylic, and watercolor
*Subject matter appeals to artists of all levels

The most dramatic landscapes come to life because of the artist’s ability to render the weather.Whether it’s painting a crisp autumn day or an overcast morning before a storm, Painting the Elements provides all the step-by-step instructions painters need to portray accurately a wide variety of climates and conditions.Detailed directions show how to capture the time of day with the blazing sun or the affects of weather on various subjects, such as a panda in mist or a grizzly on a snowy tundra.Over 25 projects showcase the work of NorthLight Book’s bestselling authors, allowing readers to learn multiple styles and approaches to this necessary topic.

Compiled by Kelly Messerly and Pam Wissman, editors of NorthLight Books, this book features work from bestselling authors such as Sean Dye (Painting with Water Soluble Oils), Craig Nelson (60 Minutes to Better Painting), Hugh Greer (Acrylic Landscape Painting Techniques), and many others." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

general pointers and reminders for viewing paintings in the book
The book shows detailed paintings and points out the highlights of them and what to be aware of when painting such scenes in fog, rain, overcast, etc. As for the illustrations of rain, I never saw the rain effect at all. Those paintings just looked foggy. There are a few of exotic animals in different weather elements, with the pointers to notice this or that in the finished works. One was of a white tiger in a misty atmosphere (supposed to be a heavy rain) and the point was that the painting worked because that atmosphere created a mood, otherwise the scene with the white tiger in it would have been mundane without that mist (rain) effect, I guess because the white tiger and the grayed atmosphere went together well. Does this help anyone without a white tiger lying around? Another example is of a cougar laying in the snow in shadow, the book says the painting works because it points up the snow in the light and that was the intent of the painter.The cougar would dominate the scene if not in shadow, and then the light area would have been less dominate. If you don't want the subject matter (a strong one--a cougar) to dominate and want to point up the light, here is a really good tip you can use! The book basically tells you why these particular paintings work. Find subjects I guess that mirror the situations of the book. Book generalizes on the basics,design, color, etc., ...shape (for example), make them irregular, different sizes; value, use greatest contrast in focal point-----all the basics, just mentioned, and not really illustrated in any creative or interesting way. Some of the stuff in the book, also,I have seen elsewhere in other books.Pointer's include to adjust colors for the time of the day. If you are looking at a scene, doesn't that come automatically? Don't you see the colors in front of you? To be fair, if one is making up their own landscape from their head, this information could be useful.One of the main feature of the book is to remind one of the basics in a very brief manner. Beginners, would need more explanation.The book shows what should be appreciated as one is looking at someone else's paintings, and why they work. Maybe that approach works for some and they can apply the tips and pointers totheir works, if faced with similar painting situations, and they happen to remember what the book said when such an event (ever) occurs. But doesn't each scene and subject present itself in its own unique way and dictate their own solutions,( based on knowledge of fundamentals, intuition, whatever) and not from looking for things that could relate to the tips and pointers from the paintings in the book?This books approach seems convoluted to me for painting instruction. Maybe a better title would have been Viewing Paintings of the Elements: etc., or How to View Paintings of the Elements, etc. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most common problems amateur painters face is not knowing what to paint. This highly illustrated guide shows artists how to recognize a good subject. ... Read more

Product Description
Painting Wildlife Textures Step by Step is full of easy-to-follow demonstrations. You will learn how to create dozens of specific wildlife textures, including: fur, feathers, scales, eyes, ears, bills and muzzles, tails and feet, antlers and horns, and white and black subjects. Demonstrations are painted in acrylics, watercolor and oil, great for artists of all mediums. The short, vignette step by steps will be helpful no matter your experience level: beginners can practice the various features of animals before moving on to a full painting, and experienced painters learn how to add details that take their paintings to the next level. You'll benefit from Rod Lawrence?s years of award-winning wildlife painting experience. ... Read more

Product Description
Harrison presents a complete guide to all th e materials and techniques any newcomer to the medium will n eed, including mixing the paints, the use of colour and meth ods such as knife painting, brushwork, underpainting and gla zing. ' ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Over 700 color photos & artwork. 9 x 11 5/8. ... Read more

Product Description
Capture the Charm and Tranquility of the Country

Nothing pleases the eye and stirs the senses quite like landscape paintings. Now you can experience the joy and satisfaction of painting your own charming country scenes with this complete step-by-step guide.

Inside you'll find 10 start-to-finish painting demonstrations that empower you to paint a range of realistic pastoral scenes, from dancing waterfalls and mountain pines to fragrant fields and rolling farmland.

Instruction includes:

• Five step-by-step demonstrations in acrylic and five step-by-step demonstrations in oil with a conversion chart for using either medium successfully for any project
• Beginner-friendly introductory chapters that cover the basics of capturing light, value, color and texture
• In-depth guidance for learning how to create dynamic compositions using your own photos and references
• Subjects spanning a variety of seasons and country vistas

Customer Reviews (1)

great detail
This is one of many books I have aquired in the last few months.This one is pretty cool landscapes.....I love how they show you how to acheive the looks...I learned several new techniques here. Very informative. ... Read more

Product Description
Learn to build confidence and skill level with simple practice exercises step-by step photographic instructions are amazingly easy to follow and copy. ... Read more

Product Description
This guide opens with a quick overview of the history of figure painting and provides handy tips on handling lighting, poses and proportions. The book continues by reviewing four artists, with very diferent styles, as they paint a figure step-by-step. This book is aimed at beginner and intermediate level artists in this field. Previous books by this author include "Oil Painting", "Watercolor" and "Drawing". ... Read more

Product Description
Complete step-by-step course in painting techniques from getting started to achieving excellence, with over 1600 color photographs. ... Read more