Customer Reviews

First Steps Painting Acrylics (First Step Series)

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

 

 

If you can only purchase one book on acrylic painting, this is the one to have. The author covers every aspect of painting from landscape (trees, leaves, bushes, rocks, etc.) to portrait painting. She covers the types of brushes and how they are used. This book has everything I was looking for and more. There are some nice illustrations to follow. I'm so glad I purchased it!

This book like so many so-called beginner's acrylics books follows the usual pattern: a chapter on materials (this book's section is rather sketchy) and then an immediate huge jump into technique. Right after the sketchy materials section the author devotes a chapter on composition before getting into technique. The technique chapter is not very helpful; it shows you a catalog of the results of various techniques but provides no real help in how to achieve them. On the plus side the paintings shown (and there are lots of them) are appealing to me; however, I after reading the book I wouldn't have the slightest chance of even making a faint resemblance of them.

As my growing collection of unsatisfactory "beginner's" acrylics shows (the nearest big bookstore is almost three hours away) there is a huge difference between a gifted artist and a gifted art teacher, though in fairness what is probably lacking are gifted art instruction authors. When writing these books they apparently don't have any reader feedback (why not?) who could slow them down by asking questions like how do I thin the paint, how thing should it be, what's the best way to mix colors, how do I clean the brushes, how do I keep the paint from drying out on my palette or my painting, etc., etc., etc.

The only painting book I've found so far which can truly claim to be a beginner's book is Jack Reid's "Watercolor Basics: Let's Get Started". That book is full of exercise paintings that let the reader learn a technique on a simple painting; the paintings are simple enough so that the beginner doesn't get lost in the detail yet have some artistic character.

Not a lot of information in this book (i.e. 'tiny lines must be drawn with an inky or soupy like substance'. However the book does not tells you how to get this substance. Water, a medium or what and how much?).

Much book space has been spent on showing paintings.

It is First Steps but I was looking for something more. None of the completed paintings were of my interest which is just as well as there are not steps to follow to achieve the end result. It does contain some very good information for the raw beginner but I have all the info I need. I need more step by step to achieve.

I purchased three books about acrylic painting and find this book to have the best instruction and information of the three. I would reccommend this book.

I like this instructional book very much. It has a lot of information about the products needed to paint with acrylics and good ideas too. I just wish I had more time to use the book! I'm soon starting a new art class, Life Drawing. Perhaps I will be able to use some of my new knowledge to create a masterpiece!

I love this book. It is very good for the beginner-----and I mean for someone who has never picked up a brush. I have really enjoyed it.