Customer Reviews

The Acrylics Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent guide to acrylic painting. It offers in depth background information as well as numerous step-by-step technique demonstrations. There are also many great example paintings throughout the book.

The book starts out with an overview of nine different paint brands including their characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. It then covers mediums, varnishes, modeling paste and gesso as well as supports, grounds, brushes, knives and other tools. Other background information such as selecting a color pallet, protecting finished works and caring for tools is here as well. There are even demonstrations on stretching and priming a canvas as well as preparing panels.

Basic concepts such as mixing paint, blending with both soft and hard edges, layering, scraping and spraying are covered next. Demonstrations include mixing paints on the pallet and creating a hard edge with masking tape. Color characteristics and relationships are also discussed.

Acrylic painting techniques follow, starting with a discussion of how to plan a painting and draw a preliminary sketch. You will find out how to use acrylics to mimic other styles of painting such as watercolor, opaque watercolor, oil painting and egg tempera. There is further instruction on how to combine techniques, paint on a wet canvas, create a collage, work with a gel medium and make a relief painting. Using acrylics with other media and in craft applications is also explored. Brief demonstrations show how they can be used with pencil and wash, colored pencil, lithography crayon, pastels and oil pastels.

There is a good list of suppliers and a detailed index. I recommend this book for acrylic painter of all levels because of its excellent coverage of both materials and a wide range of techniques.

This is a great book on acrylic painting whether you are a beginner or an accomplished painter, one of the best I have found, and I am quite a collector of "how to" books as I am basically a self taught painter. It includes many easy step by step lessons using the techniques used by the author to paint realistic looking pictures, or, techniques to use for any style painting you prefer. Painting in acrylics is not that easy to do because they dry so fast but the instructions in this book help you learn how to get professional looking results in a short period of time. I find this book to be user friendly and much more informative than most of the books out there on acrylic painting. And, it doesn't spend half the book talking about brushes, paper, etc. It is a technique orientated instructional book. I like this book so much I have given it to friends as a present. 5 stars!

This book is really quite excellent. Using clear, concise and friendly language Mr. Shears starts with a short but invaluable description of what's out there as far as paints, brushes, etc., comnpares them and suggests what you need to get started. After spending an hour in the brushes aisle frozen from indecision and sensory overload, it was a huge help to have someone say 'Buy, this and this to get started.'

The chapters are well defined and the pictures are generously distributed. My only criticism (hence 4 out of 5 stars) is that it would have been nice to see a more diverse representation of artwork. I understand the book may be somewhat of a platform for Mr. Shears, but i would have benefitted and enjoyed seeing different styles represented. There are a few, but the majority is Mr. Shears own work.

That aside, after looking at MANY books on the subject, i wholeheartdly endorse this one.

I found this book just as I was beginning to paint. It helped me confirm that it was acrylics, rather than some other medium, that I wanted to use; and it gave me great instruction to get me going. I have subsequently read other painting-technique books (some excellent, others not) and I still think that, as a general discussion of acrylics, this book is perhaps the best I've seen. It has beautiful paintings as examples of what can be accomplished in acrylics.

I was probably a bit stingy in giving only 4 stars, but I feel that, on a very few points, there might have been more detail or elaboration. Still, overall, I know of no better book for anyone new to acrylics--indeed it continues to be a favorite of mine. I recommend this book together with the website of Golden Acrylics; those two resources might be all you will need to educate yourself about the use and manipulation of acrylic paints and acrylic mediums.

Description, title and reviews led me to believe this book was about techniques and how to perform them. After looking over the book I was dissapointed to discover the main emphasis though is to explain what a certain technique is, as opposed to how you perform a certain technique. In other words the demonstrations are few and very limited.

Very informative with regard to brands of paints, brushes, mediums, and surfaces. Has recommendations for your beginning palate, brush set, etc. Expands on technique with demonstrations. REALLY like this book and glad I bought it.

I recommend this for the beginner level acrylic painter. What you need to know to get started with a lot of great product information.

This book gives a really good intro into acrylics for beginners. I've dabbled in acrylics, but the info in this book gave me the why as well as the how to different techniques. It's absolutely a beginner's book, but very thorough on the basics.

As a beginning artist, I decided to start with acrylics. This book was written by a master painter whose love for art and painting really shows throughout the book. Almost all of the painting illustrations throughout the book are his own works. As a true artist, he has tried different ways of working with acrylics, and has incorporated that into this book.

The bulk of the book contains descriptions of different painting techniques and there is also an introduction section that guides you through what you need to get started.

I found that the way the material in this book was presented, and the author's own paintings to be quite inspirational.

I ordered this along with three other art books, and this one was by far the most formal, probably boardering stodgy. But, once I got into it, it was full of great information, I especially liked the information concerning the different types of materials produced by different companies. I had always used Liquitex (just got stuck in my ways), so it was a nice change to explore the different brands, and knowing facts, with an expert's opinions about them beforehand really helped. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to those that a bit of experience in the acrylic world, but even if this is the first acrylic book you read, it would be worth it.