11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
strapped for time but need a painting pronto ?, May 21, 2007
This review is from: How to Paint a Portrait in Oil DVD (DVD)
let me start by saying that this video may well be exactly what you are looking for ... as well as explain why it may not be ideal for you
if you are a beginner who wants to make a decent portrait (without investing much work or time to gain basic painting experience) and you have strong drawing skills (or even a projector) this video will show you how to put a picture together using what i call the ''coloring book method'' : make a detailed charcoal pencil drawing, fix the drawing and prepare a limited selection of colors. now pick the correct 'crayon' for a given shape and fill it with that color. repeat the last step until the ''patchwork of colors'' (his words) is finished
an additional warning for beginners : consider learning to sketch with paint rather than being sidetracked into building a new, separate skill such as drawing - unless you want to. i should also say that this is probably not a video which will take you up a notch in skill ... not that there's anything wrong with that ; Bill Alexander and Bob Ross have gotten many, many people started, after all. but the video stops short of teaching beginners automatic identification of areas where color and value changes can be anticipated, how to implement those nuances in paint, as well as many other basic portrait skills
for an advanced beginner or intermediate painter, given the above, this video will probably not help you advance in skill either, as the method (''trick'' is probably more accurate than ''technique'') demonstrated is simply too formulaic (take a look at the cover photo and tell me your opinion of how well this ''technique'' works)
what this video does, it does well : if you need to make an oil portrait and have no time to waste learning how to make informed color choices or develop sketching skills with oils and brush, this sure-fire method is perfect. otherwise you should be reminded that bad habits are easy to pick up and difficult, if not impossible, to break later
at least you now know how to decide if this video is worth your time
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