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160 of 163 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last! The book on acrylics I've dreamed of finding!, April 27, 2007
This review is from: Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium (Spiral-bound)
As a watercolor painter for 20 years and now trying to learn to paint with acrylics, I'd read every book I could find but they often contradicted each other or had out of date information or demonstrated really ugly painting. This book is THE acrylic bible, written by a master artist and teacher. It's full of helpful tips and specific detailed information about how to achieve any technique that can be done with oil or watercolor in acrylic, along with things that you can only do with acrylics.
My goal is to be able to use acrylics more like oils and this book explains how it's done. Each technique includes "recipes" for how much of what mediums or additives to use to achieve the goals. The sample art work is superb and the writing is better and more clear than any art how to book I've read (and I have a huge library of them). I just can't say enough about how happy I am with this book and how much I appreciate the author's generous sharing of detailed, specific information.
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115 of 117 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best presentation I have seen, June 5, 2007
This review is from: Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium (Spiral-bound)
Have you ever looked at an acrylic painting and wondered, "How on earth did they get that effect?" You may well find your answer in "Acrylic Revolution" by Nancy Reyner. This book is the best I've seen on acrylic technique, not only for its generous supply of photographs, but for its set-out and its excellent cross referencing.
There are 104 techniques and tips in the book, each taking up a full page that is set out with a short explanation of the technique, a list of materials, and four or five photographs showing the step by step process, with explanatory captions. There is also an ideas box giving extra tips.
What I like especially is the gallery: artwork by other artists as well as Reyner are cross-referenced to specific techniques. For example, an abstract by Patricia Brady has references (by number) to ten of the techniques in the book.
The 104 techniques are divided into ten sections that include spatial effects, texture, transfers, collage/mixed media, innovative stenciling /line work, and simulating other mediums. In other sections Reyner covers just about every question you might have about the acrylic medium and its applications. Two creative sections are "You can paint on anything" and "You can paint with anything." The text is very readable.
"Acrylic Revolution" by Nancy Reyner and "The New Acrylics" by Rheni Tauchid (which is more about the chemical characteristics of acrylics)are the two books I find essential for work in this medium.
I recommend taking a look at Nancy Reyner's website where there is a gallery of her work. It's impressive.
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59 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good reference book on acrylic paints with some good techniques, July 14, 2007
This review is from: Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium (Spiral-bound)
It is not just a technique book. It has some good reference material in there that you will refer back to time and time again when needed. The techniques have simple instructions with pictures. It is definitely a Golden book since she is a Golden artist. If you use Golden products and would like to use different Golden products more, then this book will give you that. The information and techniques given can be done with any good acrylic paint - not matter what brand.
I think it is a very good book for beginner to intermediate acrylic artists. I use acrylics a lot but don't know as much as I should about their properties. I know less about watercolors but use them. I know nothing about oils. I do not know if an accomplished or very advanced acrylic artist would glean that much from this book. I do a lot with acrylics and I learned some things from it. I know a lot more about acrylics now that will be stored in the back of my head with a ton of other information.
There is some really good information on starting on page 8 in the book called essential acrylic tips. There was some stuff in there that I did not know that is very useful. I also liked how they went into surfaces that you can paint on with acrylics and how to prep them. I am not good with the prepping thing.
There are some simple techniques for you to try. I like that each one has step-by-step picts with it. It also gives you alternatives to try. I liked the section on metallic underpainting with micaceous iron oxide. I have used it before but not like this. Interesting.
There are collage art examples. This book is not directed towards fine artists even though there are some fine art examples. The book is specific to acrylic use not matter who the artist is. There is a small section on assemblage. The pictures are a decent size so you can see the color and textures well.
The book tells you how you can get your look to be more opaque, get rid of brush strokes, how to make soft and hard edges, how to do basic transfers with gel mediums, how to simulate watercolor, do faux encaustic, go from opaque to transparent and the other way around, faux metallic, marbleized skins (I liked this one), marbleized painting layers (this one is one I am going to try), and different finishes. Was that a long, run-on sentence! An "F" on grammar for me. Sorry, I will tuck the teacher part of me away until the end of August (which is coming up wayyyyyy too soon). At the end, the book tells you how to do some pours and there is a short gallery. I would have liked to have seen more art here. What is nice about this gallery is that they give you page numbers so you can find the techniques they used in the gallery pieces.
Overall, I think this is a good reference book for acrylic artists. I will need to sit down with a cup of tea and go over it more thoroughly.
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