Customer Reviews

The Complete Oil Painter: The Essential Reference for Beginners to Professionals

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book shines among my collection of around 25 books on oil painting technique collected over the past few years during an intense period of self-teaching. I wish I had found Mr. Gorst's book sooner, because of the book's comparitively superior organization and its excellent and carefully chosen technical descriptions with many detailed photos. Included are concise but thorough descriptions and photos of diverse oil painting materials and techniques with insights into the whys and hows of various combinations depending on your desired final effect. Any admirer of the Masters will appreciate Mr Gorst's correlations between his descriptions of various painting techniques and his references to well-known artists who historically used such techniques masterfully. Rarely have I seen an almost side-by-side comparison of multiple, diverse painting processes, from delicate glazing through bold impasto, and the various and subtle combinations possible between. The writings are articulate, clear and concise, and I'm a tough editor. I think this book could be an excellent technical reference for an established artist (which I am not), and the book would be particularly useful to anyone who is still struggling to find his or her preferred technique through experimentation with the diverse materials and style options available.

Gorst does an excellent job in walking the beginner through what they need and need to know to get started. It's promoted as being suitable for professional artists (I presume professional oil painters) - I'm not sure that an experienced painter will find much of use here. The images are good, providing an array of styles available with this medium. The subjects he chooses for the step-by-step practices are of a level of competancy not usually found in a beginner's book. Typically I've found the examples in other books to be rather bland - if you can reproduce the examples in here then you'll certainly have some paintings worth hanging.
My library of art books is approaching something like 250 items, covering all sorts of media as well as art theory, appreciation, history etc. The one thing that has struck me while pulling that collection together is, for the most part, Watson-Guptill produce an excellent range of books. The WG range aims at getting the beginner to an intermediate level ASAP and produce some quality art in the process, as opposed to the standard amateurish twee fare that other publishers, namely North Light Books, have folks churn out.
An excellent introduction to the world of oil paints. 100% Recommend.

The author's deep understanding of art in general shows in this book, and in his work. His paintings are outstanding and his writing style is easy to read.
The book is laid out well, the photographs are excellent as its the overall quality; first rate.
Both the "nuts and bolts" and the techniques aspects are handled quite well. Nothing is gone into in very great detail.
However, each topic gets more than just a glossing over as I have unfortunately seen in so many other "Complete...." painting books.
Plus, Mr. Gorst manages to slip in just a little historical perspective without you minding it a bit.

I'm a self-thought artist and began oil painting at age 6 until I reached my early teens. I never gave up drawing though. I work as a graphic artist and also have work experience in the field of cartoon animation. Now in my early 30's, I decided to give a go at oil again but there were a few things in my art that bothered me. I thought of taking painting lessons, I looked around at the various schools in my area and gave up on that idea since it appeared obvious to me that all that these schools were offering me was to teach me "how to draw" from scratch, regardless of my advanced drawing skills - Instead I bought this book; "The Complete Oil Painter" by Brian Gorst and ".Problem Solving for Oil Painters: Recognizing What's Gone Wrong and How to Make It Right" (also a good book) which was recommended to me. Honestly, I thought that the later (Problem solving) would prove to be most useful but to my big surprise it was The Complete Oil Painter by Gorst - As a self-thought artist, I was simply lacking technique and knowledge of the medium. I didn't know what a ground colour was or how to varnish a painting! This book solved a lot of problems and answered a lot of questions instantly and it saved me hundreds of dollars in un-necessary painting lessons

Just wanted to say I found the book informative but not actually for a true beginner, a first timer who wanted to try painting in oils. The book used lots of words and terms of reference that were unfamiliar to me without first explaining what these terms and words actually meant.
Other than that I must admit I have learnt a lot from the book and would recommend it to someone with some familarity with the genre or a beginner with more brains than me perhaps.
Thanks

My instructor talked about this book in class and said it was a very helpful book to have. Being a novice, I took her advice and ordered one. It has been very helpful, with clear explanations concering color mixing and opaque and translucent color techniques. I can only recommend this book as a beginning oil painter, but have gotten great tips and my use of color combinations have greatly improved.

First let me say that the subject of oil painting in general is so vast that there is no way that a 120 page booklet, no matter how prettily laid out, can even begin to cover it.

That said, The Complete Oil Painter is a very good quick reference for absolute beginners and anyone who needs a primer for basic technical information, such as:
* How to stretch a canvas
* How to clean your brushes
* What is alla prima, or wet on wet, or scumbling in a few words or less.
* How to you varnish a painting, and how long do you let it dry?

For what it is, it is extremely useful. It is also very nicely organized and full of pretty eye candy pictures of brushes and nice full tubes of paint, etc etc etc. It has an index in the back, AND wonderfully, a glossary for all those folks who aren't used to art language.

It does not pretend to be Mayer's Materials and Methods book, the basic painter's reference. It does not give a deep course in brushwork. It does not really touch on the design or build of a painting. It is not a book for anyone who is a trained painter, unless one has a few gaps in one's knowledge from the days when you fell asleep in your Methods class. Ahem.

If you wish to teach yourself oils, and you don't care to know about things that you would learn in a drawing class, such as how to build a visual work, value, texture, design, space, etc etc etc, then this is an excellent book that can help you a great deal.

I learned more than a few things myself. Such as what happens to oils over time when you paint over an acrylic gesso or layer. Such as how to use rabbit skin glue to make a canvas covered board. What can I say, I ran out of Methods class the day we covered rabbit skin glue, because the stuff smells so abominable! There are quite a few nice tidbits that make this book worth purchasing. Thus the 4 stars. It is what it is, and it is a good reference in a limited sense for the beginner. But it is by NO means a COMPLETE reference.

As the first book I ever bought on painting with oil colours, I didn't know what to expect. Well, this book is really a great reference, covers everything - charecteristics of specific pigments, how to prime canvas and panels, which mediums do what.. and it has some very helpful demonstrations. What I was missing, is any word about glazing, which medium to use with oils (actuall ratio of distilled turpentine to linseed oil and so on), anything that someone that wants to be more of a pro would look for. But still, a great book.
Also, since the author uses water-soluble oils, it is a very good book for people that use those. He explains everything for those too.

This book is well organized, and offers practical information on the tools of oil painting, as well as organization and application.It does not give step by step lessons, nor does it suggest any particular style of oil painting. It is designed to aid the reader in whatever style or level. As a teacher of oil painting this is one of my most used books, and the one I recommend to my students.

This is a must have for beginning oil painters. It is well structured, it deals with all necessary aspects in a very concise manner and it is full of beautiful examples in full colour. An excellent reference.