Painting Wildlife Textures Step by Step [Hardcover]

Rod Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

In this easy-to-follow instruction guide, accomplished wildlife artist Rod Lawrence shows, step by step, how to paint realistic fur, antlers, feathers, scales, and more. Techniques are given for acrylic, oils, and watercolors. 140 color illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These two books offer complementary approaches. Tilton, former Disney and Columbia studio artist and columnist for the Artist's Magazine, takes the student by the hand for easy, comfortable lessons. In a radical approach, he encourages tracing and copying as beginning teaching aids. An excellent appendix of books, magazines, and video recommendations leads one to the next level. Lawrence's Painting Wildlife can be the next logical step, with its sophisticated treatment of fur, feathers, scale, antlers, etc. Both are highly recommended for libraries whose clientele include both amateurs and professionals.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Rod Lawrence has exhibited at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and is a popular teacher at the Zemsky-Hines workshops in Montana. He is the only artist to have won the prestigious Michigan Duck Stamp and Trout Stamp design contests seven times. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 143 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891346694
• ISBN-13: 978-0891346692
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could have done better on the illustrations !, April 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Painting Wildlife Textures Step by Step (Paperback)

I bought this book based on the review and on the sample pages in the hope it would help me to improve my technique in painting wild animals. To be honest I was rather disappointed when I first opened the book. At first I thought the book was meant as a course book for illustrators of wild life books, not painters, due to the poor quality of the illustrations, and the fact that in most cases they dont represent paintings but only details. I found the sample pages looked much better on the screen, especially colorwise, than in the real book (Paperback edition 1996, other editions may be better). My first intention was to rate this book a 3-star because of the poor presentation and illustrations. Take for example, John Agnew's book "Painting the secret world of nature" and you will know what I mean. After a closer look, though, I found Lawrence's book was not as bad after all, especially for the part on the eyes p. 66 and 67, the many explanations and usefull tips and the abundance of step-by-step presentations. Now, after having read the book through and having used it in the past days I feel I have to upgrade my rating to a 5-star as this is one of the most honest, usefull and inspirational art instruction books I have ordered. I call it honest because it really gives you what is written in the title, which is, as compared to other books, already an achievement. Unlike so many other art instruction books, where the artists use the pages as a showcase for their own art pieces instead of communicating anything relevant, you feel Rod Lawrence really wants to share his technique with the reader and does it in a clear, understandable way. It is usefull because you can really sit down and follow the clear step by step demonstrations without having to go through lots of useless text or guru-like nonsense befor you get to the point. No other art instruction book I have seen brings so many step by step demonstrations (50 in total), allowing you to see the steps to follow to achieve the desired result, making your painted fur or feathers look real. The items covered include : fur (long : american elk, short: bobcat, curly: bison), feathers (wing, speculum, body, head), scales, eyes&ears, bills&muzzles, tails&feet, antlers&horns and the different types of whites and blacks. The mediums described are watercolor, oil and acrylic, with a preference for acrylic.

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference, April 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Nashua, NH) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Painting Wildlife Textures Step by Step (Hardcover)

This is an excellent reference with a step by step guide to bringing out the most vital of details in animal art. The techniques, while shown in mainly acrylic painting, are adaptable to any media of your choice. A wonderful tool for the serious or amatur artist.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "High Quality Examples of Creating AnimalTextures", February 8, 2008

By 

Robert H. Bryngelson (Nevada City, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Painting Wildlife Textures Step by Step (Hardcover)

Each example is well documented with photographs and step-by-step procedures. The examples are easy to follow and duplicate. Once you have read the book you want to start creating textures immediately. A book every wildlife artist should start with and have.