Brushwork Essentials [Hardcover]

Mark Christopher Weber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002

Knowing how to use a brush properly is essential for effective oil painting. Brushwork Essentials shows artists everything they need to know to render a variety of elegant strokes, along with other exciting techniques like paint mixing and brush shaping. Weber makes mastering each technique easy. He provides detailed, easy-to-follow instructions, step-by-step demonstrations and complementary artwork that highlights each brushstroke as it appears on the canvas. Readers will also learn how to use different strokes to achieve specific effects, such as lighting, shadowing and more.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This unique book deals exclusively with oil brushwork. Painters learn how to render expressive form and texture using the myriad shapes and types of brushes available. Mixing and loading paint, cleaning and shaping brushes for maximum control, and picking the right paint for specific types of strokes are all covered. As Weber writes, the book's purpose is to show "how to use your brushes to make that rascally oil paint do your bidding." Weber uses his own award-winning, highly refined paintings to illustrate the book. Recommended for large collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Weber spells out the fundamental differences between smooth brushwork and the calm mood it can impart, and the rough texture of a scumbled or thickly painted surface expressing an energetic aura. Photographs show the exact premise behind each of Weber's lessons, from what the paint looks like when you vary the consistency with mediums or solvents, to mixing with a brush or cleaning your brushes to best maintain them. Illustrations are followed by images of finished paintings, reinforcing the specific points discussed. Weber writes with humor and confidence, keeping things lighthearted whether he is teaching the mechanics of holding a brush or a wet-into-wet application of paint on canvas. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; First edition (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581801688
• ISBN-13: 978-1581801682
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Arts & Photography > Painting > Oil Painting

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

143 of 145 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Me, the Missing Piece, June 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Brushwork Essentials (Hardcover)

In spite of an extensive drawing background (I actually majored in art) I somehow never really learned how to paint. I have long been able to "color in" ink drawings & create sort of expressionistic painting-like things...but even when I've been able to pull something off I've felt like some core knowledge was simply missing & always will be.

But this book has opened the door! He explains right away that this book has no intention of teaching everything about painting, but has been created solely to focus on the very practical issue of how to actually apply paint to a surface depending on your goal. In spite of all the instruction that is out there, there is mystery in the actual process of touching a brush to the canvas which is rarely discussed.

What brushes are out there and what EXACTLY does each one do? How does paint respond depending on how much you have thinned it? How do you physically mix paints? (there are different ways depending on what you are going for) How do you load the brushes with paint (again depending on what you want to achieve)? What angle do you hold the brush to create a smooth, blended effect & how for a rougher look? All this and much much more, including the one section less directly related to brushwork about light.

There is so much information in this book, practical and helpful. Mr. Weber has a clear respect for a wide range of approaches to paintings and also presents ones that he himself does not use.

The diagrams analyzing different brushstrokes in various paintings is very demystifying. You look at a fabulous painting & hone in very clearly on specifically how the petals of the daisies were actually physically done, or the flow of the water, or the striation (stratification? sorry, I can't remember the word) of the rocks.

Basically, the book leaves you with a crucial portion of the tools you will need in your art study & gives you a specific independence that almost all other sources neglect.

I suggest you go to a bookstore & look through this book just a bit - and if it is what you need you will know without a doubt. I am SO glad that I chanced upon it because for me it was the missing piece.

114 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, but limited and too basic., October 24, 2002

By 

The Artist "The Artist" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brushwork Essentials (Hardcover)

Considering there are not many (if any) books discussing brushwork, this book is nice to have. (The last book I read about this subject was published in the 1970s without color prints.)

The author starts out with how to buy good brushes, paints, mediums, then moves on to different paint consistency from very thick (good for impasto) to very thinned (with medium, good for wash). Next, the author discusses a handful of ways to pick up paint and apply paint on canvas, as well as mixing them either on palette or right on canvas. Nice pictures are used to show the angle of the brush and some paintings done by the artist, in which the techniques in point are indicated briefly.

Throughout the book, several full paintings are demonstrated briefly at the end of the book to show how these brush techniques were used by the artists.

I have no comments regarding the pictures presented in the book, but to say that they are nice. Almost all of them were done over a period of time, meticulously rendered.

A few things that I feel a bit misled. For instance, the introduction mentions the use of a palette knife (implying 'knifework', or so I thought). In fact, the book only covers how to mix paints with a knife, which is shamefully basic! (Any painter who bothers to buy palette knives to use should be able to figure that out for herself!)

Anothing that disappoints me is that since all the paintings were done realistically in the Flemish style (14th & 15th century or so), the use of the brushes to create 'mystified' EDGES such as those seen in other Alla Prima painters (my style) is completely missing, at least in the demostration aspect of the book. I am in no position to critique the author's artwork and style. (Also, there are no points to do that.) However, a book about brushwork should definitely include those.

Briefly, the book is good (for beginners, especially), but it seems too basic and limited.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a unique book for oil and acrylic painters, December 26, 2002

By 

Dave in Hagerstown "oriolesfan61" (Hagerstown, MD, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brushwork Essentials (Hardcover)

This book is fantastic! I have learned a few of the techniques through trial and error and others showed me why things weren't working for me. No oil book talks as much about HOW to paint with a brush. While primarily for oils, it is helpful for acrylics, too. Has great info on water-mixable oils, too.