Customer Reviews

The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons for Beginners and Experienced Artists

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Staiger has compiled a wealth of information of use to the beginner in oil painting. Pretty much all the basic considerations of what constitutes a successful painting are covered.
She opens with a good overview of the materials required: paints, brushes, supports, easels and a useful piece on mediums and cleaners. Staiger appears to acknowledge that of her audience some are merely curious as to what oil painting entails through to the serious beginner looking for a good foundation of knowledge. Hence economy is apparent with a minimal range of brushes being recommended along with using good student grade paints (Winsor & Newton - Grumbacher), along with old tuna-fish cans for holding the medium. This is followed by:
i) A fairly comprehensive and easy to understand section on rendering 3D form on a 2D canvas.
ii) 20 pages on colour and colour mixing (a further 4 pages on mixing greens appears later in the landscape section).
iii) The previous chapters are brought to a conclusion with an exercise in painting a cylinder and a sphere.
iv) Painting the Still Life is next (30 pages of info), covering issues such as composition, sketching, painting.
v) Landscapes (40 pages): linear and aerial perspective, a landscape palette, components of a landscape - sky, water, trees, grass, sand, dirt, and concludes with a landscape painting exercise.
vi) Painting Portraits - drawing the head and correct placement of features, mixing skin tones, finishing with a portrait painting exercise.
Overall there is a lot of information here that should benefit the beginner. The book is also aimed at Experienced painters although I'm not sure that there is anything major that an Experienced oil painter shouldn't already know.
The exercises are somewhat rudimentary in terms of the painting style (hence the 4 stars). I'd much prefer the exercises push the painter somewhat, possibly even have two exercises per subject matter - one to get across the rudiments followed by a second adding to it showing you various tricks, flourishes etc., that can give your painting that little "extra", elevating your work from the standard twee style that poliferates.
Watson-Guptill have produced another book worthy of place in the beginner artist's library. You might want to consider buying Brian Gorst's "The Complete Oil Painter" (also by WG) that compliments Staiger's book well.

I got this book from the library. I always knew I could draw, and I always wanted to oil paint. I have a lot of books on oil painting, but I still struggle. Oil paints are tricky, sort of like playing the violin: you have to learn to control them before you start creating with them.

Now, it IS for beginners, but it also says for "experienced" because she shows you tricks that maybe you didn't cover in other classes.

She incorporates drawing lessons with the painting lessons. If you can't draw and shade a sphere, how are you going to understand a bush? She doesn't just have list of brushes, but she has exercises on how to blend paint with them. Each exercise in the book builds on the next.

It is true that you are not going to paint a masterpiece with this book, but I do think you will say, "Oh, that's the problem", and then you can move forward with your own talent.

She has one whole page on Taming Thalo Green, which no one else has in their books. She has a shading lesson in primary colors, and in secondary colors. She tells you how to dull a color without changing the value (mix it's exact complimentary in the same value, then add it). She explains glazing and scumbling. All the exercises are simple, so that if you are talented or not, you can do them. For example, she doesn't have you glaze a portrait like Rembrandt, but an apple.

As she gets to harder things, she introduces more drawing. For example, when she gets to landscape, she talks about drawing perspective, as well as atmospheric perspective. In landscapes, she explains the tricks for trees and rocks (do the darks first). When she gets to portraits, then she talks about drawing the face. I don't think her portraits are all that hot, but she shows the steps then you can do them too, and infuse your talent.

You will not create a masterpiece with this book, but you will have tools to create your own masterpiece because you won't be stumped with atmospheric perspective, how to do trees, how to make a shadow, etc. Just like you can't play the violin if you don't know where the notes are and how to get a good sound out of the bow, you can't oil paint if you don't know things like how Alizarin Crimson is going to behave differently from Cadmium Red Light. She will help you with this.

She has taught beginning oil painting for 30 years, so she anticipates your problems and questions. Oil will not longer be something to fight with, but something that will do your bidding.

I would encourage anyone interested in purchasing art books to go to your local library and check some out before you purchase. That is what I did and that is why I bought this wonderful book. Her presentations are very clear and easy to understand. She has carefully constructed lessons, just as if you were taking a class. I like the structure. I like the fact that there is a whole lesson spent learning to use the brush to achieve different techniques. Each lesson takes me about 2-3 hours to complete, but when I am done I feel I have actually made some progress. The lessons build on previous lessons so you actually can see progress from week-to-week. Finally I am sticking to a schedule and actually painting instead of just thinking about it. The practice is what brings the improvement. Her book just makes it easier.

I'm a begining painter and I felt this book helped me get off to a good start. It helped me learn the mixing of colors (which I refer to often when using the greens) I liked the practice exercises which helped me to visualize the highlights and shading. The first landscape I did was the step-by-step in the book and it turned out ok for my first. I would recommend this book!!

This book happened to be the Oil Painting Course I had wanted.

So many books and instructors talk in generalities, and say "mix the colour till it's right", but this book describes what colours are, what we are trying to do, and how to achieve it.

And again with shapes, still life, landscape and up to portrait.

Theory is presented, excersizes are given, we are led through a "paint along", and then encouraged to blossom.

If you wish to learn alone, or want to have explained what your instructor really meant to say, this book is excellent.

This book IS the oil painting course I've always wanted. I've taken a oil painting course at my local community college, but did not recieve the detailed instruction this book offers. I highly recommend it for the beginner painter. I also recommend Color Mixing Recipes by Walter Foster. It really helps you to get the color just right. It has an index on everything from apples to wet sand.Color Mixing Recipes

This book is important for those of us that find color mixing in shadows particularly challenging. Also the section on mixing greens is most valuable.

This book offers an extremely organized and disciplined course in oil painting. All the bases are covered in even more detail than she has time to teach in her class. Just an excellent book for all artists of all abilities.

This book was a great starter book and was exceptionally helpful in learning where to start and how to mix colors. It also provides a few step by step classes to get you started. It is a true beginners book, but you'll be looking for new inspiration after you've spent some time with it.

I have been painting for many years and have attended several art schools. After a hiatus I have come back to painting more seriously and been struggling. What a blessing that I found this book. There are a lot of books that try to be what this one is, but this is the only one I've ever seen that is the real thing. It cogently goes through every aspect of oil painting that either a beginner would need to start out or an experienced artist would need as a refresher course. Even though I was familiar with all the concepts I went through every exercise, as recommended, and am amazed at how much I've learned, and how comfortable I feel now. I didn't even know what I didn't know. It's beautifully written, everything one needs and no more, extremely logical and cogent. Pictures are provided where necessary for showing techniques and are excellent, right to the point.