Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner: Basic Lessons in Becoming a Good Painter [Paperback]

John Elliot (Author)

Book Description

Series: Serious beginner | Publication Date: October 1, 2002

Oil pastels offer artists a virtually unlimited treasury of creative potential. They’re also considered a safe alternative to soft pastels. Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner shows both new and veteran artists how to make the most of this fabulous medium.

Lessons progress simply and clearly from easy subjects and techniques to the more difficult and complex. First, artists learn how to use oil pastels to create traditional paintings in still life, landscape, and portraiture. Then, they’ll discover 12 experimental techniques that push the medium of oil pastel to its limits—including impasto, etching, washes, and monoprint; stencil and screen techniques; and even methods for combining oil pastel with soft pastel and mixed media.

Whether one is an an amateur artist or experienced veteran, Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner is the ideal one-stop source for mastering this popular medium.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Elliot wrote the first-ever article on how to use oil pastels for American Artist magazine in 1983. He has work in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian/ National Collection of Fine Arts. His commissions include works for Ronald Reagan and Katharine Hepburn. He lives in Upper Nyack, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823033112
• ISBN-13: 978-0823033119
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.5 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Pastel

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Figurative Sculptor, January 23, 2003

By 

Gary Oblock "bronzedreamer" (Santa Clara, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner: Basic Lessons in Becoming a Good Painter (Paperback)

As a figurative sculptor I know how to draw and I have been perusing various art books looking for an interesting new medium in which to draw. This book managed to convince me that oil pastels are just the thing.

John Elliot has included sufficient information in this book to allow an artist to work in this medium. This book contains a lot of practical advice on materials and oil pastel techniques. To integrate this information it contains six illustrated demonstrations that walk though a drawing from its beginning to its completion. In addition the book is well laid out and contains extremely numerous photographic illustrations.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good introduction to oil pastels, September 15, 2006

By 

Srinivasan Nenmeli Krishna "nksrinivasan" (Palo Alto CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner: Basic Lessons in Becoming a Good Painter (Paperback)

The author is a pioneer and talented artist in oil pastel.He gives very valuable info about this medium--a long forgotten and underrated, even though promoted by Pablo Picasso...The book ,however, is 'sketchy' in details and techniques.The illustrations and art work are excellent, but somewhat repetitive...A good introductory book for enthusiasts of oil pastels and beginners, till a better book is written by someone else---after this medium becomes better used and established in the fine art world.Soft pastels have been with us for many decades, thanks to Degas and Mary Cassatt...Oil pastels are still to be pushed by great masters....Fortunately oil pastels are available at various price ranges for students and professionals...One learns more by trying different brands rather that sticking to just a few brands---Holbein or Sennelier...
With increasing concern for toxic dust particles from Soft pastels, oil pastels would be more widely used and this book would serve the newcomers well.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK but not enlightening, February 1, 2004

By 

"wombat_man" (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner: Basic Lessons in Becoming a Good Painter (Paperback)

Oil pastel is a very difficult medium to master and I bought this book looking for some kind of enlightenment that would help me become accomplished in the medium. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was rather disappointed.

The book provides a wealth of examples of work of the artist intermingled with oil-pastel-evangelist preaching and information on techniques used. However even the step-by-steps didn't really help me to get from one step to the next and I was left kind of bewildered where I started.

This is the only book on the market that deals exclusively with oil pastels. This is the reason I bought it and as such, it is probably worth buying. However don't expect enlightenment.