Product Description
Each book in the Art School series explains all the materials, techniques , methods and contains inspirational and practical projects, expert ideas and approaches, clear instructions and examples and at-a-glance, step-by-step images that every artist will value. This book is divided into two practical sections, and starts with a full catalogue of materials and equipment, and includes a comprehensive techniques section which covers such areas as mixing pastels, using charcoal, layering a textured ground, sgraffito and much more.It shows clearly how to do all the basic setting up and preparation, and takes the reader through all the primary techniques, with step-by-step practical projects. Throughout, lively and inspirational works by contemporary artists illustrate the skills in action, and provide a constant source of inspiration.The book contains 175 color images including an inspirational gallery, and the book is filled with practical guidance on how to treat classical subjects such as Landscapes, Flowers, Faces and Figures. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is part of a series which aims to provide inspirational help to all aspiring artists in various mediums. Each book is written by an acknowledged expert and includes easy to follow techniques, tips on materials, suggestions for experimentation, and exercises to develop confidence and skills. This step-by-step practical guide to pastel techniques shows how its special qualities can be used to the full, offering inspiration for the more experienced artist and a start for the beginner. Pastel is a versatile medium which can achieve the subtlest gradations of colour and yet still respond to the most vigorous of handling. Lionel Aggett is a contributor to the "Artist's and Illustrator's Magazine". ... Read more

Product Description
Children will find everything they need to master a new art medium with these easy-to-follow art books. Each title includes a practice pad and the tools required to learn a variety of artistic techniques. ... Read more

Product Description
When kids open the heavy board covers of this miniature portfolio theyÂ'll find a small, information-packed, spiral-bound instruction book attached to its inside front cover and a pad of art paper fastened to the back cover. The instruction book demonstrates the basics of pastel sketching. Attached to the portfolioÂ's inner spine is a box of pastel chalks in various colors for making illustrations.HereÂ's a great take-along activity kit to keep children creatively occupied on car trips or for quiet-time fun. ... Read more

Product Description
The latest entry in the successful Serious Beginner Series. Now the world's leading authority on oil pastel demonstrates, step by step, how you can become a master of this increasingly popular medium!Oil pastels are easy and flexible to work with, offering artists a virtually unlimited treasury of creative potential. They're also considered a safe alternative to soft pastels. Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner shows both new and veteran artists how to make the most of this fabulous medium. Lessons progress simply and clearly from easy subjects and techniques to the more difficult and complex. First, artists learn how to use oil pastels to create traditional paintings in still life, landscape, and portraiture. Then, they'll discover 12 special, experimental techniques that push the medium of oil pastel to its limits-including impasto, etching, washes, and monoprint; stencil and screen techniques; and even methods for combining oil pastel with soft pastel and mixed media.Whether one is an an amateur artist or experienced veteran, Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner is the ideal one-stop source for mastering of this popular medium. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Belongs in every oil pastel painter's collection
A great book and one that the oil pastel painter will refer to often. Quite advanced information and perhaps not the ideal text for the beginner. Discussion on several aspects including pastel quality, brands, supports, techniques, framing, etc etc. Definitely glad to have this one.

new obsession
exploring this exciting book will be challenging for me to learn to use oil pastels. application has created a quandry for me. with the knowledge "in oil pastel for the beginner." and the little i know i am expecting to achieve another medium. i also purchased a copy for my friend so to-gether we can explore. thanking you,margaret mcguinness

Oil Pastel for the Seriouse Beginner John Elliott
This is a wonderful book.Anyone would benefit from having this in his/her
library.I teach and I recommend it to my students.

Excellent book from the pioneer of Oil Pastels in the USA
An outstanding book on the subject. I've been to Elliot's workshops in the Southwest USA and West Coast and his talent is undeniable. This book has a ton of great illustrations and also mentions a lot of the more esoteric techniques for oil pastels such as heat painting. To be honest, this probably would have been better had it been more comprehensive / longer, but it's clearly the best book on oil pastels out on the market today. Timeless info, and appeals to beginners or advanced painters / artists.

Good Oil Pastel book
I am a beginner for oil pastel but I do have expirence with other mediums. So the book is right for me.
All three types of oil pastel brands John mentioned can be found in Jerry's. I actually brought Cray-Pas.

Althrough John mentioned oil pastel techniques in his book, but there are more that he did not address. That is why I gave the book 4 start. I found out other techniques through search of internet. It would be nice to have all techniques in a book as quick reference.

There are step by step illustration about how to use oil pastel in the book for still life, landscaping, and figure painting. Apparently, John's works suggest that he is accompalished figure painting artist. No so much for landscaping.

So far, this book is the only book available that is devoted to oil pastel. The rest of the pastel books are all focus on soft pastel which techniques do not apply to oil pastel easily. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

A must for the Pastel Oil Painter
I have most of the available texts on oil pastel painting and I think this very useful. There is not a great deal of space devoted to what oil pastel is and specific techniques, but you can find that information easily online. What is useful is the step by step progressions of paintings including a seascape, portrait and glass bottles. I would not follow all the procedures mentioned and have other approaches that I use, but this is definitely valuable for those learning the medium. Not a complete guide but none of the books are.

SAVE YOUR MONEY
I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE A MORE IN DEPTH STUDY OF OIL PASTELS.IT IS NOT.THE PRESENTATION IS AVERAGE, AT BEST, AND THE PICTURE QUALITY IS LACKING.VERY DISAPPOINTING. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND PURCHASE "OIL PASTEL FOR THE SERIOUS BEGINNER". ... Read more

Product Description
This first ever published collection honors the best artists from around the world working in pastels. Selected from hundreds of entries, the 250 images presented in these pages represent the finest artists and the finest work covering a wide range of styles, techniques, and subjects including landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and abstracts. Stunning and inspirational, this collection is an essential addition to every artists library and a beautiful gift for any aspiring artist or appreciator of fine art.Constance Flavell Pratt was born in Rockland, Massachusetts, and graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art. Her work has been featured at the South Shore Art Center Gallery and the Copley Society of Boston, where she received the prize for Best Work on Paper. Other awards include: Best Portrait from the Pastel Society of America, the Hudson Valley Art Associations Portrait Award, and numerous prizes at the Springfield Art League, and other art shows. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Best of Pastel
Great service.The book arrived in Sydney Australia promptly and I was delighted to see that it was brand new.

Not as good as Best of Pastel 2
Sorry to disagree but this volume has almost no figure works and has little if any explanation of the paintings and drawings. The next volume has figures and helpful explanations and background.

nice format
This is a nice small book: however, if readers have Best of Pastels andPastels 2, it the same examples of pastels from these two books.

A wonderful grouping of contemporary pastelists
This is a richly illustrated book of some of the best contemporary pastelists working today. The introduction by Flora Giffuni (founder of the Pastel Society of America) re-affirms for the reader that pastel is,indeed, a glorious medium, as do the many fine examples illustratedthroughout the book. The full color reproductions are of very good quality,nicely demonstrating the vivacious qualities of this fabulous yet oftenmisunderstood medium. Each reproduction is accompanied by the title anddimensions of the work, the artist's name, and the support used. Futureeditions would benefit from artists' statements (as is the case in"The best of Pastel 2"), as well as the types of pastels used byeach individual artist. One minor criticism is that there are often fourreproductions to a spread, which of course can distract from eachindividual piece (the 2nd edition eliminates that problem by placing oneimage to a page). The directory of artists in the back of the book is alsoa nice addition. This book is highly recommended to both the devoutpastelist and those who are unfamiliar with the medium. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of 100 colour plates of Kahn's pastels accompanied by essays by the artist, which offer a glimpse into the way the artist thinks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Inspiring Book!
This book is inspiring to any artist even if you do not use pastels.It's not the usual nuts and bolts kind of book.Instead, it concentrates on thinking outside the usual boxes while thinking about the usual principles of art such as composition, etc.The artist analyzes his own paintings, early through later, which helps a beginning artist realize that artwork does grow and change.I like how Kahn points out music, dance, and poetry as inspiration as well as using quotes from people like Rainer Maria Rilke or Frank Lloyd Wright. A really inspiring book I will use again and again!

Caveat Emptor
Though I greatly appreciate the beauty of Wolf Kahn's color work, I attended a Wolf Kahn workshop and found he was not a very good teacher.In response to a question on learning about color, he stated that it is impossible to teach how to use color. Despite his background with Hans Hoffman, he was unable or not willing to articulate his knowledge on color, but he does like to talk about pastel.

The great Wolf Kahn
Thank you for the prompt service in receiving my book.It was just what I ordered.

a pleasure to the eye
This book is a visual delight with clear crisp images. As a teacher, it is a very user friendly book
with students able to see the intricate marks and the layering that Wolf Kahn has used in his work.
For anyone interested in pastel techniques this is a great book.

Excellent Book but I'd Recommend Buying it from A Different Vendor
The book itself is excellent. Wolf Kahn writes beautifully and I love to hear what he thinks about his art -- this is so helpful to me as an artist struggling with many of the same issues in my own work. However, this is the SECOND book I've purchased from Amazon recently that was clearly USED (pages bent, cover scuffed & torn)when I purchased what was supposed to be a NEW book. This is inexcusable. I don't have the time to repackage and return it, so I just accepted it, but I am so dissapointed in Amazon. Had I chosed to purchase a used book I would have saved a lot of money and it would have been in the same (or better) condition. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Here, for the first time, is an entire book devoted to oil pastel. This versatile medium is economical, fast, and easy to transport. The book deals with basic and innovative oil pastel techniques, and is illustrated vividly by guest artists working in diverse styles and subject matter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Best book out there on oil pastels!
I have many books in my collection about oil pastels and I have learned more techniques from this book, over the others.

Excellent reference for oil pastel technique
Published instruction specifically on technique in oil pastel is pretty hard to find.This book provides excellent instruction on all the basics, plus many reproductions of artist's works in oil pastel which nicely illustrate the breadth of capability of the medium.One minor weak point of the book is that the information on different brands of pastel may be a bit dated (I am no expert here, but that is my impression).

As far as I am aware, this is the best of an admittedly small field.Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning how to use this medium.

Better condition than I expected
Received the book in excellent condition and very quickly.I would buy from them again

Oil Pastel: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist by Kenneth D. Leslie
An excellent book - one of the few on Oil Pastels written.Detailed and insightful.

Good range of information on oil pastels
This is one of only a few books on oil pastel available, and unfortunately it is out of print.I haven't yet seen the other (by John Elliot), so I can't compare which is better.

Leslie starts with an overview of oil pastels.He describes the qualities of thedifferent brands (unfortunately Arc-en-Ciel brand doesn't seem to exist anymore, they look like they would have been fun).He also shows the results of an informal lightfastness test he conducted of the brands.

Leslie covers color, markmaking, mixing oil pastel with other media, and general "image directions": still life, landscape, figure/portrait, invention, and abstraction.He describes several ways to make fine lines, and shows ways to fix mistakes.It has a great variety of information on techniques useful for an artist just starting to use oil pastels. You are not going to read this book and find you have a technique down pat, because like all other art media, there is no one correct technique.Finding what works for your own art is a matter of trying things.

Leslie obviously knows what he is doing but I don't always like his art - I find it too purposefully childlike.However, there is a great variety of artwork illustrating this book, from realism to abstraction, showing quite a range of what can be done with the medium.

One useful thing in this book is a recipe for making your own oil pastels - I can't find another anywhere.Since Leslie uses stand oil in his recipe (a drying oil), this might more accurately be called an oil stick recipe.

I believe Leslie's information on the chemistry and permanence of the medium is outdated and/or incorrect.He claims that the oil in oil pastels is a mixture of siccative (drying) and nondrying oils.In the section on permanence, he calls the siccative oils "more dependable", but siccative oils oxidize (and eventually ruin) unprotected paper.Everything else I've read claims oil pastels are made with "inert" nondrying oil that shouldn't damage paper, though I can find no definitive answer to this.

I got my copy through interlibrary loan,read it through and copied down the useful information.I've been using oil pastel for a while so I don't feel the need to buy my own copy.If you are very interested in using oil pastels and can't borrow a copy, it is a worthwhile purchase.
... Read more

Product Description
Demonstrates the techniques needed to paint landscapes awash with light and colour. The text includes advice on: supports and materials available to pastellists; marks and techniques which can convey an impression of light; and weather, geography, time of day and season, all of which affect light. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

No book better
This is the greates art book I ever read, the pictures of the painting is really clear and the painting is something special, This book will developed your skills queckly, its not just for whome like to paint on pastel, who like to paint on oil will find it provide them with wonderful color groups, highly recommended.

The best book on painting pastel landscapes.
Mr. Aggett shows how he paints with his unison pastels huge vistas. He explains his methods very clearly & his demonstrations are broken down in sections so it makes it easy to follow. I often take this book with me when I am painting on location to help me set up my palette of pastels & easel with paper. Every landscape painter should have this book in their collection. ... Read more

Product Description
Aimed at the beginner to the intermediate-level artist, the 25 specially-designed exercises featured in the book cover a graduated series of basic drawing techniques, so following them will help to develop all the key skills such as line drawing, adding tone, measuring systems, perspective, blending, masking and sgraffito. ... Read more