Customer Reviews

Keys to Painting - Fur & Feathers

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

 

 

Quick summary of the book topics: Chapter 1) how to draw some animals in pencil and charcoal Chapter 2) painting fur textures Chapter 3) painting feather textures Chapter 4) detail area focusing on such things as how a bird flies, how they grip a branch, tail fur and feathers, eyes, etc. Chapter 5) Painting Demonstrations

Although this book is advertised as "In All Mediums" and specifically mentions pastel in the jacket text by the editors, this is very misleading. If you are an acrylic, watercolor or colored pencil painter, this book is right up your alley. If you are a pastelist, think twice before you buy.

The book contains a some wonderful paintings, usually unrelated to the text, and several of them are in pastel. However, the *only* place they even talk or even *use* pastel is in the "Painting Demonstrations" chapter. The demonstration is called "How to Paint a Raccon in Pastel". The raccoon is 3/4 posed and half in his den -- you can only see the raccoon's head and part of his side!

Overall, it's a great book for acrylic, watercolor and colored pencil, and it can be used by painters in other mediums. However, if you are a pastelist and looking for a book that would either cover pastel thoroughly, or at least fairly (when compared to the time spent on the other mediums), forget it. Don't expect to find any pastel-oriented help here -- there isn't any worth speaking of.

This book is full of beautiful and inspiring pictures painted in many mediums including oils, acrylics and watercolours. although this book is a beautiful book i only gave it 4 stars because it doesnt really spend alot of time focusing on how to actually achieve the effects that the various pictures in the book portray.

If you are looking for a good book based on a wide variety of techniques, this book is a handbook. If you are looking for a book that showcases wonderful artwork by competent artists, this is a good book. If you are a painter who wants to learn how to paint feathers or fur, this is not a good book.

The preliminary chapters of this book are all about drawing. Having studied, art, yes, we need to learn to draw before we can learn to paint. But the title of this book is _Keys to PAINTING Fur and Feathers_.

There follows different ideas on how to capture light on white fur, how to paint patterns, and other useful techniques, but I do feel they could have been explained better.

And then we get back to the issue of painting. Pen and ink drawing is drawing, not painting. Colored pencil is drawing, not painting. Pastels are, well, pastels, not painting.

For the artist that likes to experiment in different mediums, this is an excellent resource book. For those that are into acrylics and watercolors, you'll find some nice things in here. But I think the title is very misleading, because much of the book does not focus on actual 'painting'.

I found this book disappointing in that I had ordered two other books in a similar vein at the same time, only to find, after delivery, that this book actually included much of the content of one of the others. It had not been clear to me at the time of purchase that this book was an edited collection of info from other authors/artists rather than independent and original info by this author. Its content would be fine as stand-along material, but in conjunction with the other books it was redundant to my needs. My other criticism is that, to some extent and in some places, this book fails to provide adequate instruction on the nitty-gritty of how to do what it suggests one should do in order to achieve the desired results. That said, it's good in that it offers examples of effects that can be achieved in a variety of artistic mediums.

This book is excellent for anyone who paints wildlife. It gives detailed illustrations of how to paint every type of fur and feathers in all mediums, can really recommend this book to any wildlife artist.