How to Paint Like the Impressionists [Hardcover]

Susie Hodge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2004

This superbly illustrated, practical book assesses the techniques and styles of the great masters of Impressionism and shows how their methods can be used and adapted by modern artists. Impressionism has captured the imagination of people the world over since the first exhibition in Paris in 1874, and nowadays Impressionist exhibitions are always massively over-subscribed. Artists have long sought to understand how and why the Impressionists created their paintings and how their techniques might be replicated today. This book aims to reveal the answers to these questions. There are sections on the main techniques -- pointillism, two-dimensional brushwork, using slabs of colour and palette knife application -- and on how the Impressionists used colour so effectively. Numerous practical step-by-step demonstrations and fascinating deconstructions of major Impressionist paintings are included, to enable the modern painter to re-create the style of the following artists: Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cassatt, Degas, Cezanne, Seurat and Van Gogh.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susie Hodge writes for the V & A, Tate and Royal Academy, and for several UK and international book publishers. She has an MA in Art History from the University of London and lectures to teachers at the Royal Academy. She teaches Art & Design, Photography and Art History.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007165773
• ISBN-13: 978-0007165773
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,212,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok for copying but not enough to learn the techniques, March 5, 2005

By 

Michael (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Paint Like the Impressionists: A Practical Guide to Re-Creating Your Own Impressionist Paintings (Paperback)

I love impressionist paintings so I purchased this book to learn how to paint like the impressionists. The book's goal is quite ambitious. Teaching you how to paint like each of the impressionist masters in less than 150 pages just isn't possible. But the author does as good as a job as possible in this setting. The book is evenly devided amongst the artists, so you can get a feel for the differences of each artists. Instead of copying an entire painting, which would be much more challenging, she focuses on a small area of the painting. This actually makes sense to explain the techniques.

The shortcomings of this book in my opinion are that I felt the book was more about copying the impressionist paintings rather than learning their techniques. In many cases the copies were pretty good but close examination showed completely different textures and it's obvious the technique was in fact quite different. In other cases the copy wasn't very close to the original.

I've also read "Paint With the Impressionists" and the author took a different approach: He painted original scenes in the styles of the various impressionists. I think that one gives a little more insight to their technique.

I think a better title for this book would be "How to copy impressionist paintings". Overall if you want to learn about the impressionists and need some guideance in copying their paintings, this is not a bad book. However if you do some studying on your own, and have access to a museum to study some original paintings I think you can do equally well without this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressionistic art., December 9, 2009

By 

Jason Mark Alster M.Sc "Millenium man" (Wethersfield , CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Paint Like the Impressionists: A Practical Guide to Re-Creating Your Own Impressionist Paintings (Paperback)

What I liked about the book is that it takes up the subject matter of how to paint a painting an Impressionist made. If anything , reading this book, if not doing any techniques, still allowed me to understand better the impressionistic paintings I will see at art museums. Susie takes a look at about 9 impressionists as well as
Japanese art the impressionists were influenced by. Previous to this book, it was hard to find a book that showed the techiques in pastels the artists used. A must buy. Creative Painting for the Young Artist

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great for the student artist as an intro into the varying techniques of the Impressionists, November 9, 2009

By 

A. B. King (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Paint Like the Impressionists: A Practical Guide to Re-Creating Your Own Impressionist Paintings (Paperback)

This book is helpful to the student seeking practical assistance in the study of the different painterly techniques of 8 Impressionists.
The practical instruction section focuses on 8 different artists and introduces the student to a small selection of their works.
The author demonstrates 'how to' by studying a portion of one painting, through analysis from a first sketch to completed painting.
A helpful practical book, however I was a trifle disappointed in the colour replication of the artists works.