The North Light Book of Acrylic Painting Techniques [Paperback]

Earl Grenville Killeen (Author), Lea Raechel Killeen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1998

Those who love the adaptability of acrylic but have trouble working with its unique properties will be enlightened and inspired by this book''s instruction. Over 100 diverse compositions by 23 artists are featured.'

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; Reprint edition (February 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891348972
• ISBN-13: 978-0891348979
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #483,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good display of acrylic painting styles, June 2, 2000

By 

hamsterdance (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The North Light Book of Acrylic Painting Techniques (Paperback)

If you have ever read any articles from The Artists Magazine then you will be familiar with the style of demonstrations of acrylic painting that this book offers. It is quite good at showing a diversity of painting styles - from airbrush photo-realistic to very thick impasto and impressionistic.

The book examines 23 different acrylic artists and shows some photos of each one making a painting in their unique style. I loved this book for the sheer number and quality of styles it displayed. The chapters ranged from discussions of the paints to the various mediums to airbrushing to abstract work.

For inspiration and over-all examinations of how-to in painting in acrylic this is a good book. It does, however, have one major flaw. Just like the magazine it doesn't give detailed instructions on EXACTLY how to practice any of these techniques.

For example, in my acrylic painting I am trying to learn how to blend. I know it is possible. I've seen plenty of other acrylic paintings that show excellent blending. I bought this book with the hope that it would show me how they got those blends. Nope. Blending only gets a page and a half in the entire book. You get statements such as "For blending colors, Kooluris Dobbs finds that her fingers work very well."

Well Ok. So fingers work well - so show me a photo or two of her ACTUALLY blending like this. But the book never does. And it uses generalized statements like the one above for practically every other technique mentioned as well. So if you are looking for a book that gives actual detailed step-by-step instructions for a technique this book won't do it. In spite of this flaw the rest of the book was so good and so inspiring I gave it a 4 when otherwise I would've given it a 3 (seeing as I find the over-generalization in a book that purports to be about acrylic techniques as a fairly big shortcoming).

I still think this book is worth getting despite the drawbacks. Everything else about it was high quality and the many beautiful paintings are inspiring in and of itself. If you paint with acrylics this is a good book to have on your reference shelf.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific resource, April 11, 2001

By 

Christopher (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The North Light Book of Acrylic Painting Techniques (Paperback)

This book gives a wealth of information on different techniques, materials, and styles. The step-by-step lessons do a great job of showing how the work evolves, and how that evolution varies according to the style chosen by the artist. Just as important, at least to me, is that there are so many color photographs of so many really good paintings. Often, books like this have mostly mediocre work. This is a book am I sure to revisit a lot.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for your next acylics book, January 4, 2011

By 

Robert R. Bryan (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The North Light Book of Acrylic Painting Techniques (Hardcover)

I would rate this a more of an intermediate techniques book. I bought three books, but found that "The Acrylics Book" by Barclay Sheaks (excellent for "how-to techniques") and "The Acrlyics Book of Styles and Techniques" (how-to from seven different artists) were a better pair (get both) for me as a beginning painter. I think that this book will be more useful to me as I master the techniques in the other two books.