Customer Reviews

Oil Painting Secrets From a Master

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

OK, so the title of this review got cut off. It should read: "My secrets of how to read 'Oil painting secrets from a master.'"

Anyway, how in the world that a book could get excellent reviews in some comments, yet was claimed to be a disappointment in others? Here is the truth, as I see it.

THIS IS A BOOK ON OIL PAINTING TO OWN; and I say this based on my experience reading a considerable number of art books (see my "About You Area" for your info), as well as my own oil painting experience.

To keep it as short as possible, the following are facts and my opinions.

1) The artist: David A. Leffel is a realist artist, his style will certainly reminds the readers of Rembrandt's, you know, "the Old Master's".

2) To oil painting beginners: This book is NOT meant for beginners. Instead of giving this book a poor review, readers may be better off keeping it for future reference, when their painting skills up to par.

3) To others: This is what are covered in the book in extended bullet point format:
- Artistic thinking: on seeing, the concept
- Painting process: materials, brushstroke techniques, chiaroscuro (light/dark), massing, painting procedures, planes
- Basic advice: light and shadow, values, edges, color, painting still lifes, painting portraits, painting backgrounds
- General observations: comments on painting, attitudes that can hold you back.
For the demos, close-ups (from final painting) are shown to express points in case.

Here are my additional view:
- Mr. Leffel is one of the great names in contemporary American art (read my other reviews should you wonder what other great names may be). His open-minded and humble attitude towards painting and the learning process is very easy to connect, in my opinion, to individuals who love painting for the love of it. These individuals include those who go through painstaking efforts to ever improve their skills.

- This book is very enjoyable and profound. Advice and "secrets" (for those who love "shortcuts", or as I see them, "how an experienced, professional artist would do it - there are NO secrets, THEY ARE JUST GOOD SOLUTIONS THAT FIT YOUR STYLES AND SKILLS) like those in this book are valuable tricks of the trade.

My hat off to the artist (although I rarely wear one), and above all, let's get one thing straight: this book is a FIVE-STAR!

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!

This book should have been titled "My Method Of Painting". David Leffel is famous american painter who makes no secret of his admiration for Rembrandt and Chardin. His thoughts, hints and pieces of advice collected here are helpful and valuable, particulary to those beginners and intermediate painters who want to paint in the manner of Van Rijn. Or Leffel.
If one prefer style of some other great painter - say Titian, Vermeer, Bouguerau..., he might be somewhat dissapointed.
I admit that I expected elaborate account on the basics of the painting technique: recipes for mediums, ground and varnishes, the way the pigments behave in mixtures, how to achieve certain effects, what is recommendable and what should be avoided in painting - that sort of thing.
For the truth sake, it should be emphasized that due to the fact that this book was not written by Mr. Leffel himself, no wonder it isn't as systematic and comprehensive as one might expect from such a prominent painter.
Yet, what may confound an aspiring artist even more are contradictory pieces of advice like this:
"Make your light strong so the viewer doesn't look at the shadow" vs. "Make the shadow on your objects more vivid"
Or:
"To make something look darker, make the light next to it look lighter" vs. "If something looks dark and you want to lighten it, see how much light you can put in an adjacent area."
(Of course, these quotations were not culled from the same page)
In addition, most of the reproductions here are out of focus. In a painting technique book, high quality illustrations are essential. Whoever photographed Mr. Leffel's paintings should have visited ophtalmologist first.
In a nutshell - by purchasing this book an art student can't go wrong, but there are better ones; for instance Vernon Blake's "Creative Color For The Oil Painter".

I am always skeptical of books which are meant to teach you to paint. I myself am an artist and I've learned the only way to paint is to do it and do it often. But his book is excellent because it helps you learn to "see" things you might otherwise miss. It is not for beginners but for those with some painting experience. This is one of the only books on painting I would recommend, besides perhaps, Gregg Kreutz's Problem Solving for Oil Painting, another excellent book, very similar to this one. Coincidently, Leffle [sic?], whose paintings are the ones featured in this book, was a teacher of Kreutz at the Art Students League of New York.

In "Oil Painting Secrets From A Master," author/art student Linda Cateura shares her class notes from two years of studying under prominent artist/teacher David A. Leffel. New York based Leffel paints in the classic tradition of the early Dutch and Flemish such as Rembrandt and Chardin. His compositions are inspired by the human form and still life. The quality of light and its relationship to the objects under observation are most important to him. Known for his visual clarity, David encourages his students to paint from life in order to perceive each subject differently from the next. Well versed in technique, he transcends method painting in order to convey dimensionality, quality of surfaces and illumination.

From Cateura's point-of-view, Leffel has the ability to transform the temporary into the eternal. He is always able to find something in any subject to lift if our of the literal into the realm of poetic. "The functional use of light is one of the most distinctive qualities of a Leffel painting. His use of light leads the viewer through the painting toward the central image. When it reaches this focal point, the light is usually at its most intense...and enables the eye to come to rest there. The light does not just illuminate the scene - it is an active participant in the drama."

Leffel believes that an artist sees what is significant and a painter sees only what to paint. In "Oil Painting Secrets From A Master," Cateura, with Leffel's help as the teacher shows us how to move from the safety of being a painter to becoming an artist. Learning is the difference. The quality of our ambition and how much or how little we learn stems from our motivation - to be an artist? To be a great artist? Fame and fortune? Relaxation and fun? And real learning requires one to abandon security and take risks - new colors, new brushstrokes, and imaginative compositions.

"Oil Painting Secrets" is amply filled with Leffel's work and is organized into four basic sections:

Artistic Thinking (seeing, the concept)
The Painting Process (materials, brushstroke techniques, massing, chiaroscuro)
Basic Advice (light and shadow, values, edges, color, still life, portraits and figures, backgrounds)
General Observations (attitudes that can hold you back)

Cateura has created a useful for book for the beginner, intermediate, advanced, and professional. It will cause you to think and rethink the your entire approach to painting...not as painter but as an artist.

I have to warn you that I was extremely disappointed in the printing quality of this book. Every image lacks any saturated color, the blacks look flat and gray removing any punch that may have existed in the original paintings, and most of all, they are blurry to such an extant that I feel ripped off. I can guarantee you that many of these image files didn't even meet the 300-dots-per-inch requirements of offset lithography. Yes, a publisher can print lower resolution images, but they will look exactly like the images in this book; awful, blurry, lacking punch and conveying abysmal quality. It's not a cheap book, but the printing is decidedly so.

The previous reviewers have been so glowing in their evaluations of this book that I feel compelled to dissent. I returned my copy after a few days because it fell way short of my expectations. I was first struck by the very poor quality of the reproducions: many are blurry to the point of distraction. And despite the opinion of one reviewer, I would caution a beginner to stay away from this book. Rather than an instructional, it is a series of notes culled from classes given by "the master", and it reads that way. Admittedly, much of the information contained in this book is valuable. But it is much more a collection of bon mots on oil painting than a systemmatic guide. If you are expecting that, you may enjoy it as much as some of the other reviewers. (Just don't expect great reproductions).

This art instruction book will appeal to all levels from very beginning to advanced. The book is filled with the most basic instructions from brush cleaning and preparing the canvess to discussions on how to solve a variety of problems with your paintings. I bought this book immediately after taking a workshop with Mr Leffel and feel that it completely incorporates his basic painting techniques as well as his philosphy of painting. I have returned to it for review many many times. It is also beautifully filled with reproductions of his art. Mr. Leffel's style is twentieth century old masters, but there is something here for everyone's style and subject matter. I consider this book a must have for every artist library.

David Leffel has been referred to as a "modern day Master" in the class of a Rembrandt. He has been painting and teaching for about 40 years years now, and this book is a compilation of class notes written by the author while in one of David's classes. And while there is much valuable information presented, some of these notes are disjointed and refer to illustrations not even included in the book. David has since written his own book entitled "An Artist Teaches" which, while much more expensive, is probably a better investment.
That being said, however, the illustrations of David's work are worth the price of this book, and I would buy it for that reason alone. If you are a careful reader, you can pick up some solid, useful information.

While I highly recommend this book it is not a text so much as a compilation of notes. In many ways, it is like reading the written comments of a talented painting instructor compiled and organized into chapters. Thus, there are some gaps and apparent contradictions just as you might expect in any compilation of the oral comments of an instructor simply expressing his views as he lectures and critiques students.

I would rate this book right up there with Gregg Kreutz' book on realistic oil painting for advanced/intermediate students. It is based on notes taken by the author at a class taught by David Leffel at Art Student's League. The book is illustrated by Leffel's paintings with no intrusion by the author.