Oil Painting Techniques: Learn How to Create Dynamic Textures with the Versatile Painting Knife (Artist's Library Series, AL23) [Paperback]

William F. Powell (Author)

Book Description

The palette knife and painting knife are intriguing and expressive tools. Working in oil with a painting knife adds an element of texture and spontaneity to fine art that simply cannot be achieved with a paintbrush alone. Oil Painting Techniques addresses everything you want to know about painting with a knife, including the materials you will need to get started, as well as hand positions, paint mixing, and coverage techniques. Follow step-by-step instructions to create different textures and master numerous applications: thick and thin coverage, dot and sidestrokes, and much more. From painting thickly impasto style to using your knife to scrape away lines of paint, itÆs all right here in this comprehensive guide!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Serious Instruction for Serious Artists

That's what the Artist's Library series is all about! The books in this series will help you expand your creativity, overcome technical obstacles, and explore new media. Each 64-page paperback focuses on the materials and methods of a specific medium and provides step-by-step demonstrations, helpful tips, and plenty of encouragement.

The quality of instruction in this series is unsurpassed. Each book is written and illustrated by a professional artist who specializes in the particular medium and is uniquely qualified to guide the reader to a new level of expertise.

About the Author

Recognized as one of America's foremost colorists, William F. Powell has taught art classes and workshops for 35 years in various art media. Today he is an extremely popular author, and he attracts more admirers each year with the numerous titles he has produced for Walter Foster Publishing, including Color Mixing Recipes, which he originally conceptualized, designed, and illustrated himself.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Walter Foster (January 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560101261
• ISBN-13: 978-1560101260
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Painting
  • #76 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Arts & Photography > Art > Painting > General
  • #94 in Books > Arts & Photography > Painting > Oil Painting

More About the Author

William F. Powell is an internationally recognized artist and one of America’s foremost colorists. A native of Huntington, West Virginia, Bill studied at the Art Student’s Career School in New York; Harrow Technical College in Harrow, England; and the Louvre Free School of Art in Paris, France. He has been professionally involved in fine art, commercial art, and technical illustration for more than 45 years. His experience as an art instructor includes oil, watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, and pastel—with subjects ranging from landscapes to portraits and wildlife. He has also authored a number of art instruction books, including several popular Walter Foster titles. As a renowned master of color, Bill has conducted numerous "Color Mixing and Theory" workshops in Los Angeles and San Diego, California. His expertise in color theory also led him to author and illustrate an educational series of 11 articles entitled, "Color in Perspective" for Painting Magazine. Additionally he has been consulted for his color expertise on telescope and satellite images for national space programs, and he has served as a color and pigment consultant for several artist’s paint manufacturers. Bill's work also includes the creation of background sets for films, model making, animated cartoons, and animated films for computer mockup programs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short on actual techniques but provides a good start, March 5, 2005

By 

Michael (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oil Painting Techniques: Learn How to Create Dynamic Textures with the Versatile Painting Knife (Artist's Library Series, AL23) (Paperback)

I have mixed feelings on this book. On one hand it's small and very to the point, with lots of color photographs which explain things better than lots of words. On the other I think there is not enough coverage of the knife techniques and too much coverage of the demonstrations. For example there are no exercises for practicing the knife techniques, which is something I got out of another book "Learn to Paint With a Knife" that I found extremely helpful. The hardest part of learning to paint with a knife for me was to put down paint over wet paint. This book dedicates just a few sentances on the subject, which were not enough to help me at all. More than half the book is demonstrations, like "this is how to paint a rock" "this is how to paint a cloud" etc. I am sure it's good pratice to learn how to paint these but I feel it's a cookie-cutter approach and when the reader wants to paint something else, like a building or a still life for example he will be lost. Why do these books always use a mountain for the big demo at the end? In the end it just seemed a little too much like Bob Ross for me. Search google for the author and if you want to paint like him (he does very nice work, just not my style) then this book is for you. If not, I still recommend this book for the color photos and because it's not expensive.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another good Walter Foster title, April 24, 2011

By 

J. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Oil Painting Techniques: Learn How to Create Dynamic Textures with the Versatile Painting Knife (Artist's Library Series, AL23) (Paperback)

Walter Foster books are the "Readers' Digest" of painting instruction which is both a strength and a weakness; a weakness because of the brevity of material and a strength for the very same reason. While each volume in the "Artist Library Series" is only about 50 to 60 pages they tend to offer the beginning painter more of what they need than do the more erudite offerings from Watson-Guptill or North Light.

Each Walter Foster volume is authored by a working artist and offers technique relative to the specific title, a section on materials and a series of "lessons" in the form of demonstrations, which is the meat of each book. The books are credited as being for "beginning/intermediate" painters, but realistically they're really for beginners that have learned how to mix colors on their palette and have mastered the basics of applying paint to the support surface. What these students or aspiring painters need most is to paint simple projects repeatedly to acquire both competence and confidence; not have argumentative and conflicting information about what brand of oil paint is the "best" or whether one should always under-paint in values or line..... or the worst of all; why you must have a specific color on your palette. All of this nonsense is what makes up the bulk of way too many oil painting instruction books and, in my opinion, serves no good purpose for anyone still learning the craft.

This particular volume by William F. Powell is devoted to painting knife techniques, has a significant number of demonstrations in creating landscape elements and ends with 4 demos utilizing those techniques. It's not an exhaustion of the subject (no Walter Foster book is) but it does allow the reader/painter to develop skills with a variety of knives and I suspect each painter will come out the other end of this book feeling like they really learned how to do something, instead of just knowing more about what they don't know. I'd also recommend getting a copy of Bill Creevy's "The Oil Painting Book" which is dated but does have a section on palette knife technique. This is a style of painting that isn't well covered in the literature and while this book may not be all inclusive it at least provides a credible review of the specialty and offers the student painter a lot of options to explore more on their own.

For a brief background on Walter Foster see my review of Plein Air Painting in Oil (Artist's Library Series), a companion to this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important information for any aspiring painter, April 4, 2009

By 

Donald J. Lohr - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oil Painting Techniques: Learn How to Create Dynamic Textures with the Versatile Painting Knife (Artist's Library Series, AL23) (Paperback)

This book contains great information for the new artist. Painting with the knife was totally foreign to me until I read this book.