Customer Reviews

The Pastel Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderfully complete book covering all aspects of pastel painting. It is useful for both the beginner who needs to understand the medium and the experienced artist who needs a ready reference to a multitude of materials and techniques as well as a source of inspiration.

The book starts out with a very thorough overview of materials, spanning about 30 pages, with lots of pictures as well as descriptions of soft, oil and handmade pastel types with a detailed analysis by brand. Oil sticks, numerous paper types, mediums and tools are also included.

Basic pastel techniques are covered next including sketching, and pastel painting concepts such as liner, blocking-in, and atmosphere. Making corrections and the role of fixatives is also included. Then, you learn to create pastel textures by scumbling and dusting as well as by adding pencil or using fixative.

A comprehensive section on color theory follows, including an explanation of the color wheel and using metallic/iridescent colors. There are demonstrations on achieving transparency and using different paper colors. Numerous other techniques follow, showing you how to use pastels with other media such as watercolors, acrylics, modeling pastes, oils and gum tragacanth. The unique characteristics of oil pastels and oil sticks are given special treatment as well.

A list of quality suppliers as well as an index for easy reference are included in the back. This is definitely a must have for any pastel artist.

As an artist, I often look to other's works to observe technique and style. Lately, I noticed I was getting a bit behind in my pastel work...many other artists were mixing media and pushing the envelope on their pastel paintings and drawings. After browsing through several pastel books, I settled with Creevy's "The Pastel Book" and I'm very happy with my choice.

Creevy not only covers materials and tools and basic techniques for the beginner; he takes the medium to new levels with the combination of watercolor, acrylics, gels, oil paint and monotypes. Creevy has also covered every brand of pastel in this book, from the hard stick pastels to the super-soft Senneliers; he also describes the effects of various oil sticks, papers and supports and tools. Step-by-step instructions for each technique helps the artist retain a mastery over the combinations on any given mix.

An exciting book that has helped me gain an edge with my artwork.

If you have succumbed to the allure of a gorgeous new box of pastels but find yourself baffled by this fascinating, enigmatic medium, this book is by far your best bet. The author has something nice to say about every brand of pastels, and his thorough review of the market helped me understand that there are merits to owning a variety of pastel types. Even experienced painters can be frustrated by this medium, but Creevy's approach makes it manageable. I own lots of pastel books, but it wasn't until I read this one that I actually experienced a breakthrough. Wish I'd bought this one first!!

A very experienced pastel artist/teacher told me this was one of the best books on contemporary uses of pastels. I read it and I agree! It opened up whole new realms of creativity for me. Creevy gets fascinating textures combining pastels with watercolor, gouache, acrylics, various acrylic mediums, oil pastels, etc. The book is out of date when describing materials. Even though many of the author's paintings don't appeal to me because of their subject matter or composition, I find his textures exquisite. Highly recommended.

When I read this book, it was so fascinating, I couldn't put it down. The author explains and demonstrates everything so clearly, starting with the materials, basic techniques and working on up to new techniques. Even experienced artists will find the material comparisons handy. The demonstrations are easy to follow. A very thorogh but readable book. The best I've found on pastels.

This book contains a wealth of knowledge about soft pastels, and their cousins the oil pastels, oil bars and other specialties and are used traditionally and with modern techniques in the book. It is a must buy. It opens a new world to what you can do with those pigments and mediums. The paintings are beautiful. It is comprehensively composed and illustrated.
I regard the book cover design and title as generic in promoting what is inside. It needs to be redesigned to show the range of content. I think this book was ineffectively marketed and has not reached its full audience.

Bill Creevy is a great artist and this book is chock full of great ideas. As I am an absolute beginner, this book was a bit too much for me but it will come in handy as i improve.If you are somewhat experienced in pastel get this book.

There is a good section in this book on types of pastels, all the way to oil stick, oil pastel and oil bar. A smaller selection of mixed media (acrylic, watercolor) is also included. But the most fun are Creevy's own works, especially his fanciful retro automobiles. He has a fine technique and gives good insight especially on surface texture when using pastel. Not a complete treatise, but a very good book of ideas and techniques for the pastel artist.

What is unique about this book is its strong treatment of pastel color and blending methods. Also the treatment of pastel usage with other mediums like acrylics, modeling paste, alkyg gels, oil paint, oil pastels. I personally did not know that pastels could be combined with so many mediums, and the texture outcomes are amazing and even unique. Author- Creative Painting For The Young Artist. Creative Painting for the Young Artist Anyone Can Improve Their Handwriting (CD) Relaxing Sights and Sounds of Natural Israel

There is no doubt that this is a very comprehensive book, hoewever as a beginner in the medium I found the book not so useful.

The book spends way too long for my taste discussing the different brands of pastels and papers. I always get an uneasy feeling about artistic materials name dropping. In any case this information is either for a professional or for someone with deep pockets - preferably both.

The bulk of the book is devoted to techniques. However the time spent on basic techniques is quite small. Several pages discuss the use of using color seems to me to be unnecessary, as the book was written to learn pastel technique, not color composition. What appeared to me to be the bulk of the book is on mixed media techniques.

As a subjective statement, I also did not like the author's painting style and would have enjoyed some discussion of techniques to attaining more "realistic" and less "atmospheric" works.

Finally I was disappointed by the relatively short treatment of oil pastels after getting the impression from the other reviews that they got serious treatment in the book.