Artist's Photo Reference: Buildings & Barns (Artist's Photo Reference Series) [Hardcover]

Gary Greene (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2001 | Series: Artist's Photo Reference

Every artist faces the difficulty of finding and taking good reference photos. In this book, photographer and artist Gary Greene captures an incredible range of architectural subjects, enabling artists to incorporate them into their own work while saving time and money. They'll find a variety of homes, store fronts, railroad stations, barns, school houses, sheds, churches, bridges, towers, gazebos, and more - with hundreds of detailed photos that capture the spirit and character of these subjects, ranging from weathered and rustic to unusual and charming. Six step-by-step demonstrations show artists how to incorporate the featured reference photos into their own work. Each demo focuses on a different medium, including oil, pastel, colored pencil, watercolor, acrylic and mixed media.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Accomplished artist and photographer Gary Greene has collected a comprehensive gallery of color photographs of barns, houses, buildings, churches, bridges, and other landmarks and architectural details in Artist's Photo Reference: Buildings & Barns. The intense, rich saturation of the structures is captured in bright natural light and through views designed to work within and complement landscape composition. The book, which forms a unique pictorial record of a vanishing America, is flush with variations on general themes, such as classical revival, Tudor, and southwestern in the "Houses" section. Each reference section contains a complete step-by-step demonstration by contributing artists employing various media, such as a pastel composition of a stately white farmhouse set between a dreamy blue April sky and riotous red and yellow tulips, or an imposing Victorian mansion whose complex architectural details are precisely delineated in ink, watercolor, and colored pencil. Greene also describes how to go into the field and make your own reference photos without spending a great deal of money. This book will appeal to artists who enjoy painting and drawing rural scenes or who wish to infuse a bit of idealistic realism into their landscape compositions. --Mary Ribesky

From Library Journal

Many artists take reference photos before setting brush to canvas. The "Artist's Photo Reference" series seeks to provide a broad archive of photos for those times when an artist wants to paint the sea while in the Midwest or paint a bluebird in the dead of winter. Greene has added two invaluable volumes to the series, which already boasts his Flowers (1998) and Bart Rulon's Birds (LJ 3/15/99). Each contains hundreds of high-quality photos (Buildings and Barns, for example, covers young and old barns, houses from Tudor through the late 20th century, storefronts, mills, schools, railroad and gas stations, churches, and waterfront buildings) and between four and six demonstrations in a variety of media. These highly recommended books are examples of a great idea, beautifully executed.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (February 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581800010
• ISBN-13: 978-1581800012
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,106,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Artists Visual Reference, September 9, 2004

By 

Serene (Marina, CA, United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Artists Photo Reference Buildings (Paperback)

Artist's Photo reference is a compilation of over 400 photos of architecture from barns to wharves which artists can use for painting or other graphic illustration. Included are 6 painting demos and examples of techniques to use when creating your very own masterpiece. I particularly liked it that the author addresses copyright issues and how to make photo collages to create your own graphic aids. This is a must for artists who like to use photos for more photo-realistic paintings and who do not have access to their subjects.

If you like this one, make sure to check out the other books in the series: Artist's Photo Reference: Birds, Artist's Photo Reference: Flowers, and Artist Photo REference: Landscapes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book to have if you're an artist, June 4, 2007

By 

I. Trejos (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Artists Photo Reference Buildings (Paperback)

I have almost all of the photo reference picture books with the exception of Boats and Nautical scenes. I consider this book a very good one, because it gives you a wide variety of subjects to choose from, arranged in groups. For example, he will have photos of weathered barns, of houses of different periods, etc. Browsing through the photo reference books I'm sure of finding something that will inspire me. The advantage of these photos is that they were taken by an artist, with artists in mind and that makes a big difference when using them as subjects for a work of art.