Customer Reviews

Acrylic Painting For Dummies

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most of my painting experience is with watercolors. I've tried oils but, with a short attention span and even less patience, I found the long drying time of oils frustrating unless I was working wet-on-wet all the time (as in "Think Bob Ross"). Plus, cold weather's driven me inside where oil paint fumes drive the cats crazy. I won't mention what my wife thinks about the fumes. I bought this book more for the technical hints on the properties of acrylic paints than for the painting techniques (which as best as I can tell are comparable to the Dummies books on WC and Oils re: techniques which, in turn, compare favorably to most basic "How to Paint with . . ." books). This book met my expectations on the technical side and exceeded my expectations on the techniques side. In addition to helping me decide how to use the technical properties of acrylics to their best advantage, it also helped me figure out how to integrate my oil use and WC use in what the literature calls "mixed media." In short, there were some technical hints as well as technique hints that I could also use in my WC and oil works.

Fantastic book - not for dummies though. It has very in-depth instructions and it teaches you a lot of good techniques. I gave this book to my sister who is a novice and she loved it. Highly recommended.

Great book for novice painters like me. Really gave me a lot of great short cuts and also the basics with a sense of humour and fun.

I just love this book. I should be using it for a reference book, but I am reading it from cover to cover. I love it and I don't want to miss a thing. There is so much information written in an easy to follow fast moving text. Love it.

I probably have at least a dozen books on how to paint with acrylics but this one is more helpful and informative than all of the others put together. The instructions are simple to understand and easy to do but the effects are truly creative and varied. The organization is excellent, making it very easy to use. Everything is shown step by step, unlike so many books where you are given a couple of instructions followed by a completed picture...the kind that leave you clueless about the steps it took to get there. The techniques are broken down so that they are very easy to understand but that doesn't mean the effects look simple when finished. There's a multitude of techniques to try as well as demonstrations of brush techniques, kinds of paint mediums and various additives. There are art supplies I never even knew existed that can make very interesting effects. This book differs from others in the "Dummies" series in that there are many colored pictures and illustrations. This book is a pleasure to use.

Full disclosure: I haven't read this book, but we got it for my mother law for her birthday a few weeks ago. She's pretty crafty with a large library and she quilts, paints, and sews. So, she seems pretty discriminating -- and she loved it. She used Oil Painting Dummies to try her hand at that technique a while back, and she's had nothing but good things to say about both books.

I have just taken up painting with Acrylics and I have found this book to be my best source for the answers most of us beginners would have. The material is delivered in such a way that it is not intimidating to the reader. Highly Recommended

Having been away from drawing and oils and watercolors for over 20 years, I decided it was time to start again. I purchased 5 acrylic painting books which gave me inspiration to dive into acrylics. But none of those books actually prepared me for the dive. They are terrific books, but didn't give the basics like this book does.

I like it so much I purchased several for grandchildren and a daughter-in-law who is starting out with acrylics also.

acrylic paintings for dummies is the best information on acrylics i've yet seen. so good i ordered 2 books, one for me and other for my grandson who is an artist. excellent!

I don't consider myself an amateur painter but wanted to get some extra techniques on painting with acrylics. This book has about only a handful of photo examples of painting techniques that go step by step in the process. And to have only a handful of examples in a 304 page book is a huge disappointment.

Most of the photo examples shown in the book give the beginning process without the much needed middle in-between steps much to my annoyance. Another gripe is that the pictures are too small and don't show the details necessary to get an idea of what the author is describing in the text.

I feel like returning this book to Amazon but the hassle of the process is not worth it. I will probably end up just giving the book to my local library.