Customer Reviews

Oils: Step-by-Step Art School

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

 

 

I am really enjoying this book. First she explains basic materials, and doesn't go into all the advanced materials that aren't useful for beginners. This is good because other books overwhelm the beginner with material they don't need. Then she explains color theory in a way that was very easy to understand. Many books skimp on this but her concise explanation and examples were great. Finally the step-by-step examples are good. There are more steps than in most books, which I really liked. Unfortunately there are never enough steps though and beginners often get lost. But to have all the steps would make the book 1,000 pages. So I think the author did the best possible in a book this size. I've compared this book with a few others and I really believe it is the best.

I thought this book was a very good general introduction to oil painting. It covers everything from materials to techniques, and has a step by step guide to creating quite a few oil paintings (as a means of practicing or learning about painting techniques). I learned quite a bit about using different sorts of techniques and it was beneficial to see them put into practice in the exercises in the book. If you are thinking about taking up oil painting, this is a good book to use to get started! My only criticism is that some of the 'step by step' paintings did not show some of the steps that I would have found interesting and informative, but overall I recommend this book.

I began painting with the guide of this book. It's really a good help when you don't know nothing about oils and you want to start painting without a teacher. It tells you step by step what to do, the colours to use, the brushes and lots of other tips.

Like others in the step-by-step art book series, this book boils down the basics, and presents with a range of painting styles. Admittedly, there's a lot of useful information that's not in this book. Some artists may not agree with some of the suggestions, and the demo paintings are also rather simplistic or abstract, but there's a reason why there are books for beginners, intermediate, advanced, and for various specialties. This one's for beginners, and is a good one at that. There's probably more than enough here to for a new painter. It's a fairly quick read, but it clearly explains and demonstrates several helpful techniques that other beginner books gloss over or skip completely (glazing, drybrush, scrafitto, etc.). If you want more suggestions on other art books, check my other reviews.