Customer Reviews

Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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trying to learn to paint with acrylics, I'd read every book I could find but they often contradicted each other or had out of date information or demonstrated really ugly painting.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.

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.

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.

i have so many technique books but this one takes the cake! not only is it beautifully laid out, it is fun to read and very inspiring! i love this book and highly recommend it to anyone involved in any type of art whether acrylic or whatever. great eye candy too!

This book is a terrific compendium of techniques and information on Golden acrylic paints and mediums. The author is a part of Golden's "practicing artist's" program. Some of the techniques are described elsewhere by other authors (e.g., using sprayed water or alcohol to create texture, mixing interference colors with black to increase the effect), but as a fan of Golden acrylics, I learned much useful information which I put to immediate use in my painting. For example, I used Reyner's advice on mixing fluid metallic acrylics (stainless steel and micaceous iron oxide) with "modern" transparent colors (see p . 110) to solve a value and texture problem in my recent work "Tiles Series V, No. 1" (see image on my web site).

I also used Reyner's suggestion to apply several isolation coats to create depth & luster - she advises using soft gel mixed 3:2 with water (p. 105, 113). In addition to brushing this on, Reyner gives suggestions for pouring (pp. 115, 116) and spraying (p. 74) an isolation or final coat of clear medium. I used such isolation coats in the aforementioned "Tiles" work, as well as two recent landscapes (see e.g. the work on my home page). Some of my additional favorites from the book are:

* I often use tape to create edges In my "Tiles" series. Prior to reading Reyner's book I had used matte gel medium to create a clean edge, but this doesn't work well with applications where I am trying to achieve an overall glossy finish. Reyner suggests using GAC 500 when taping edges (p. 82).

* Reyner also suggests ways to make the surface smooth & "brushless" (p. 92) which is always an issue with isolation coats and final varnishes.

Some of the tricks I haven't yet tried but intend to use:

* Using clear tar gel in various interesting ways (pp. 93, 111 - 112)

* Using Golden polymer medium as a resist (p. 41)

* Using crackle paste to create a "fresco" effect (p. 64)

* Using Golden light molding paste (instead of white paint) to tint colors (p. 96)

* To create an opaque look with transparent paint, first apply a tint of the color, then glaze the undiluted color over the tint (p. 98)

* Applying Absorbent Ground to a painting in progress to correct mistakes (p. 101)

* Applying gels to create textures on ink jet prints (p. 114)

* Using Interference acrylics mixed with traditional colors (there is also an article on this on the Daniel Smith website) - Reyner notes that the modern transparent pigments work best and that adding gloss gels increases the effect (p. 108).

Reyner includes several inspiring sample paintings (e.g., p. 41, 110, 120). My only criticism is that there are not enough illustrations for all the techniques she includes and the images of the sample art works are too small to see the detail. Overall, however, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in experimenting with acrylic techniques and mediums. If you use Golden products, the book is a must read.

This is a very straightforward, well-presented book on the versatility of acrylic paint and acrylic mediums.
The techniques are documented with excellent photos and easy-to-follow steps.
There is lots of up-to-date information on acrylic mediums and how to use them in your paintings.
Nancy Reyner also teaches classes around the nation; I am looking forward to enrolling in one of them.
A friend has taken one of her classes and says she is a superb teacher. Visit her website for more workshop/class information.

I opened this book and jumped for joy because of all of the techniques in this book. There are recipes for everything you could possibly imagine, including faux encaustic techniques which I have been trying to produce on my own - now I know how to do it without bubbles! If you like experimenting with new techniques then this book will inspire and help you to do it. This is not a beginning how to paint book - it is a marvelous recipe book for you to experiment with acrylics in your own studio.

I like the way this book is spiral bound with glossy pages (visually appealing) but it isn't going to help a beginning painter. Basically the book gives you over 100 ways to do different things with acrylic paints (other than paint a landscape, portrait or still life). Examples: pressing shapes into the surface, crackle effects, using sponges, gluing objects or paper onto surface, using stickers, creating ripped edges, adding textures, using toothbrushes or feathers to paint, painting on silk of metal, etc. I should have paid better attention to the subtitle, "New tricks & techniques." I don't need new tricks, I need to learn the old ones first! I am returning this book and still looking for a book that will teach me ways to paint portraits and/or landscapes with my acrylics.

This book is in a great format, well set out and spiral bound so it lays flat. I found there are a lot of interesting techniques in it, but the examples shown, well a lot of them look very amateurish, not what I was expecting. It seems like at lot are aimed at more of a craft finish, not fine art painting. There are some really nice paintings in the gallery and they have reference to what techniques have been used in the book so that is useful. I spent a lot of time looking at reviews on Amazon before I bought this book so am a little disappointed as it isn't quite what I was looking for. On the other hand there are a lot of ideas to try out as long as you are not at a beginner level you will be able to apply them to your own choice of colour and design.

Nancy,is is the most comprehensive, complete, photographic book on acrylic techniques I have ever seen. I can't wait to do some of the projects and try out some new products. You truly are a Godsend... I have been looking for a book like this for a long time! A+++++ Write more books!! My best to you. Highly recommended, gorgeous pictures too! And what a great price... spiral bound so you can do the projects... incredibly wonderful!