3 comments about Oil Portraits Step by Step.

1. Really great reference - breaks down how to sketch noses, eyes, etc. and shows some step by step portraits - each with different skin tones and hair colors. This also breaks down the relationship of nose, eye, etc if the face is turned.



2. Easy to follow, showing the same steps for different types of people ie redhead, blond male and female, different lighting. I found the book useful for basics.



3. This book is a good beginners book for learning the basics of portrait painting.

No comments about Wildlife Painting Techniques of Modern Masters (Practical Art Books).

1 comments about Watercolor and Collage Workshop: Make Better Paintings Through Mastery of Collage Techniques.

1. This book delves into the fascinating technique of adding collage elements to watercolor paintings. Basically, this is adding bits of paper of various shapes, textures & colors to the surface to enhance the painting over them.

   Experimentation to develop a personal style is stressed here. Basic principles of texture, layering, contrast and color are explored first. Then you see how these elements are incorporated into finished paintings.

   The author is an accomplished master of this technique. Many examples of his work are shown in progress & completed. He emphasizes throughout how artists of any level in any medium can apply these concepts to their work.

   Whether or not you decide to emulate Brommer's work, this book is a great springboard of ideas and ways of looking at the painting process. It is filled with solid and helpful ideas.

3 comments about Children And Painting.

1. Every elementary art teacher I know has this book. I have taught for 9 years, and I learned things from this book! It has great tips and ideas for running a creative, yet organized, art class. The projects look great. Her clay book is also helpful!



2. I am professional artist and my primary medium is painting. I also hold an MFA in Painting and Drawing and I have been teaching art to adults and children for 20 years now. This book is the best resource I have seen on teaching painting to children. I have actually used one of the exercises on texture with my adult students and adapted it to charcoal and acrylics. I want to encourage any elementary classroom teacher who wants to teach painting to students to buy this book! Please don't be afraid of paint and the mess as the benefits far outweigh the effort. The author understands the process and techniques of painting and her easy-to-follow her exercises will ensure satisfaction, fun and success.
   
   The book will give detailed information on setting up your classroom for painting, specific suggestions on which paints and brushes and papers will work best, materials to gather for study observation and motivation. In my years of training classroom teachers to build an art curriculum and I came to understand the frustrations of classroom teachers not knowing which brushes to use for which type of paint, not understanding how to build and layer a painting, how to guide students through the difficult parts and motivate them to keep working. This book demystifies all that and more. It is full of specific lesson plans to help you plan a sequential curriculum and teach your students basic visual literacy and the deep satisfaction of creating and expressing.



3. This is one of the most practical and teacher-friendly books I have ever purchased. I teach art at an elementary school and my students have loved using the techniques and projects from this book!

   Topal provides excellent examples throughout including lovely color reproductions of both children's and professional artwork. Her explanations are clear and the materials list is not extravagant for most of the projects.

   Every regular classroom teacher would benefit from the beautifully layed out art elements and principles in this book. At the very least it would be worth having as a resource in a school library. This book is a keeper!

No comments about How to Make a Painting/Planning, Procedures, and Techniques in Watercolor.

No comments about Frames & Framing (Ashmolean Handbooks).

2 comments about The Spitz Master: A Parisian Book of Hours (Getty Museum Studies on Art).

1. I am a definately a layman when it comes to Art History. A friend gave me this book for Christmas, and shortly thereafter a horrible snow storm left us with nothing to do but read The Spitz Master. What a blessing it was to spend hours inside learning about Art History and looking at some phenominal illustrations. As an adult it is nice to read a book with pictures.
   
   As a college student I was skeptical about taking an Art History class. I thought it would be a better use of time studing dead languages and postmodern interpretation of American History. Amidst my confusion an old, very old, exceptionally old, wise Art History professor tried convincing me to take his class. Unfortunately I didn't take his class in order to pursue what I thought was an education. It wasn't until engaging in the Spitz Master that I came to the realization taking dead languages and studying American history through the eyes of deconstructionalist, at that a deconstructionalist feminist was a waste of time. Thank God for Dr. Gregory Clark's book. It has changed my confused life and given me hope, and it is my hope that this book will change the lives the confused undergraduates he teaches. Thank you Greg Clark your work is an inspiration to us all, even monks in Norcia.



2. The Spitz Master: A Parisian Book Of Hours examines a classic work of literary art, created in Paris around 1420 by a team of illuminators including one inventive soul now called "The Spitz Master". Art history professor and scholar Gregory T. Clark informatively introduces and provides a "reader friendly" examination of the history and significance of this work, while black-and-white as well as color photographs showcase pages drawn from the classic work in all their individual and collective glory. The Spitz Master is especially recommended for academic Art History collections.

5 comments about Painting What You Want to See.

1. May be the author wished to speak about painting in general, but the pictures shown are mainly watercolors. So if you are interested in oils... Moreover Reid's oil paintings seem to me like watercolor ones, and his oils are not specially beautiful.
   
   Another important fact about this book is Reid's painting philosophy: "I know I see a spot of (let's say) white color there, but I know the local color of this object is (let's say) blue, so I paint it blue". In my opinion he just paints the tones and values he wants, with no relationship to reality. This is the way the title of this book should be interpreted.
   
   The paintings shown on the book are beautiful (I mean I like them), the explanations are clear (for me) and the examples are illustrative (I find them so). But I don't like the way he changes the light and atmosphere of scenes.



2. This is a good book, but other books by Reid are more informative.



3. "Painting What You Want To See" covers a slew of topics of tremendous importance to improving your artwork that are slighted by most authors and most teachers. These topics include the understanding the propper proportion of light & dark values, the importance of distinct colors, how to get better looking colors (e.g., lights, darks, greens, skin tones), why some edges should be blurred and which ones, how to (and not to) arrange objects in a painting, how to tie objects together into a cohesive whole, the relative importance (or lack thereof) of propper perspective, techniques for better looking shadows, the importance of sketches, and many more topics. For each topic, the author includes one or more generally worded exercises that will help the reader practice the technique. These are not those awful step-by-step-reproduce-my-painting-exactly sort of exercises, either, but well thought out tasks that will help you see the importance of the technique in your own work. There is a very nice section at the end which demonstrates common problems and how to fix them. I only wish this section were longer.
   
   Although the book focuses on watercolor and oil, most of the lessons are applicable to all mediums. Many of the demonstration pictures are sketches suitable to the lesson at hand, not final works, so don't expect every drawing to be "amazing". Many of the paintings focus on people, and several the topics covered are of particular value to figure painters. I would highly recommend this book to any artist.



4. ...much as you would expect from Charles Reid. For me, this book seems less focused than some of his earlier output -- such as his portrait & figure painting books and his portait video -- and less compelling, as was his floral book, although I suspect they might both appeal more to a female viewer/reader. It is also possible that there is a certain amount of repetition/overlap/familiarity about the book. That said, the color and quality of the images are admittedly wonderful and superior to the mainly mono-tone portrait book mentioned previously.



5. There are 46 lessons and assignments in this book, critiques included. Reid covers not only painting but, more important, seeing.

   Reid begins by reviewing the basics: Contour drawing, value scales, seeing shapes, adding values to drawings. Then he goes into detail in working with values, handling color, directing the eye, composing with color, and interpreting light. The last two sections of the book deal with critiques, solutions and learning from the masters. There's also a useful bibliography that's divided into books about painting and those on drawing. Then there's a list of artists whose work the student should study to gain insight into different techniques.

   This book is a fresh look at working in watercolors and oils. I'd recommend it to photographers, too. These ideas and information could be easily translated to the film medium.

   All that said, it's a gorgeous coffeetable book, too.

4 comments about Kinuko Craft Drawings and Paintings: v. 1.

1. The first Kinuko Craft painting I saw was on the cover of Patricia McKillip's novel, The Tower At Stony Wood. I admit that I bought that book just for the cover. I've since enjoyed many of McKillip's books & have come to adore Kinuko Craft's work. I cannot get over the amount of gorgeous detail that she puts into each piece. When I found out about this book, I knew that I had to have it, so it was the first item on my Christmas list, this year.
   The dustjacket for the hardcover edition features the cover of McKillip's novel, Od Magic. Beneath the dustjacket, the actual cover of the book features part of "Das Rheingold." There is a foreword by Patricia McKillip and a narrative by Craft, in which she describes her life and how she came about doing this work.
   The art, itself, is beautiful to say the least. The colors are vivid with the exception of a few black & white drawings. There is a list, in the back of the book, that gives the title of each piece, the year it was created, its medium, & its page number.
   This is an amazing book. I recommend this, not only for fantasy art lovers, but for anyone that enjoys fine art. You won't be disappointed.



2. Make no mistake, Kinuko Craft is a master artist. Her layered work in several media is just unique and brilliant. If I had to evoke other artists to describe her to a stranger, I might say, think of Susan Seddon Boulet and Sulamith Wulfing, and add in Renaissance style and stained glass window brilliance, and you begin to have a sense of what Craft is like.
   
   I was so happy to find this book. I have enjoyed Craft's work on book covers and calendars and craved something more substantial. Here we have text with her thoughts on her work and on the process of art in general, and advice to aspiring artists. But there is just not enough text. I was left feeling like there should have been more writing.
   
   The art! Of course, that is why we splurge on these books, isn't it? And the art is gorgeous, the backgrounds and format pretty and interesting. But... and a thousand times BUT! some of the best pieces were spread across two pages, leaving the center lost in the binding area! Quel horreur! I do not see why they did not make gatefolds for the larger pieces.
   
   So... in summary... It's a start at compiling Kinuko Craft's work and artistic thoughts, but we really need a proper compendium, updated every five to ten years!



3. Kinuko Craft is in the first rank of painters; and this oversized, magnificently illustrated collection of paintings, drawings, and inspirational text is a testament to her skill and craft. Published by Imaginosis, a company founded by Robert Gould (an artist and publisher who made his mark in the world long before he began Imaginosis), this book is a bargain at $25. Given Kinuko's prolificity--she's done thousands of pieces of art--the problem was not what to put in but what to leave out. Obviously, what's called for here--hope you're listening, Bob--is a oversized, coffee table book on the order of a Wyeth, Parrish, or Whelan retrospective. A larger trim size. Fold-outs. 300 pages. Like Wrightson's A LOOK BACK. (And a winning lottery ticket to pay the printing bill.) Kinuko certainly deserves it, and her luminous work certainly deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.
   
   Bob Gould's book design--a departure from the usual, static negative space in most artbooks--is enchanting: When overdone, the use of borders, colorful backgrounds, and frames can overwhelm pieces of art; but if done carefully, with the full knowledge that the art is what must be properly exhibited and accented, the art stands out. Bob's use of gold ink throughout the book, as a highlight, is an appropriate accent, since gold is the color I associate most with Kinuko's art. Form follows function in this book as the art is front and center, and everything supports their presentations.
   
   I could go on and on about the paintings--the detail, the composition, the exquisite painterly aspects--and the delicate pencil sketches as well (I love the portrait of the girl on page 39), but I'm not an art critic: I'm an art appreciator. But what caught me by surprise, caught my breath, is Kinuko's prose, which is inspiring: Her message that an artist should find his or her own way and not be dissuaded by critics is one that is said far too seldom these days: I sometimes wonder how many artists, writers, musicians, sculptors, and other creative souls had their wings clipped, so to speak, by others who took a special delight in telling them: "No, you can't do it." By this they really mean: "No, I can't do it. And if I can't do it, I don't want you to think you can do it, either." A book of her art is a visual cornucopia, but the intimate glimpses into her life and the carefully chosen words that should resonate especially with artists just starting out on their careers make this book more than a showcase of visual delight: The words matter and aspiring creators should listen, and heed, what she has to say. She knows whereof she speaks.
   
   Obviously, Kinuko, again and again, delights, surprises, and inspires with this collection of art. This is a book I've already bought in multiple copies of to give to friends, especially to young artists starting out, wondering what to do, what to think. Well, here's what you should do: Listen to someone who has gone down that road as Kinuko has done, and listen carefully to what she has to say. What she is saying is that you must please yourself with your work first, and listen to yourself instead of letting others tell you what you can and cannot do, and challenge yourself with your art because that's when you grow an an artist.
   
   This is a rare and wonderful book which contains rare and wonderful artwork by a rare and wonderful artist. If it's out of print in hardback, be sure to get it in the trade paperback edition. You'll want to add this to your permanent collection.



4. I was so excited to see that FINALLY an art book would be coming out for Kinuko Craft. I have loved her work for years and have every one of her stunning picture books. Unfortunately, this book has some areas that are flawed.
   It appears that the publisher did not have access to some of the originals. Quite a few paintings are obviously scanned from another source and you will go from crystal clear brush strokes in one painting, turn the page and have a muddy scan. And, some of those are her best, too. Then you will have a full spread painting in it's entirety, then another that has obviously been cropped. Aggh! The most painful example is the Atrix Wolfe panel. Just breathtaking and a full 2 pages. Then for the even better book cover, Odd Magic, it's only one page, cut in half. Why did they do that? They need a layout artist, badly. The text can be moved, you know. So the whole painting can be shown. I guess they only felt like scanning the front cover of the book.
   Maybe it's just because a mainstream publisher didn't print this. It's some small time company and it shows. Where was Paper Tiger or Bantam - a large company with a bigger budget that would have done justice to her works? What a shame this excellent artist is essentially overlooked. For the best way to collect most of her work, just get the children's books. You won't be sorry!

5 comments about Formulas for Painters.

1. I purchased this book for an artist friend as a gift and he reported that
   it was a unique reference source for practical art materials usage and
   a valuable asset to his art library.



2. Very useful compendium of formulas for painters, Mediums, Varnishes, etc.
   Every painter knows that is a reference!
   I highly recommend it.



3. Formulas For Painters
   
   Love, love, love this book. It's got basic recipes for everything from sizing to varnish. If you've wondered about anything from wax to egg tempera, even fresco and of course the vital oil painting formulas. Great stuff. I love the retouch varnish - I use it all the time. If you are a painter that works with the real, old ingredients, and avoid the new crazy products, this is a great help.



4. Great little book for painters with tons of information. Tremendous value for price. Would not want to be without it on my shelf of reference books for oil and acrylic painters.



5. This is the manual that all others are compared to and remains the gold standard for basic instuction on painting materials.