The Search Press Guide to Painting Techniques

Description

This book offers a unique combination of reference material and practical guidance for the painter in any media. It is divided into two parts: the first is a directory of all major painting techniques, and gives examples of their use, and of the particular media appropriate to them. The second section shows the applications of these techniques to a wide range of popular painting subjects. With step-by-step demonstrations and detailed close-up photographs on how to do everything from frottage to scumbling, to blending, backruns and masking out, this is an invaluable and inspiring sourcebook for painters of all abilities and media.

Elizabeth Tate is a practising painter, writer and editor. She first studied art history at Sheffield Polytechnic and then spent several years painting in Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland and Germany. She has taught practical art and has worked as an author and editor on a number of art education magazines. Hazel Harrison is a practising artist who works in all paint media. She studied painting at the Guildford School of Art and the Royal Academy of Painting in London. Hazel divides her time between painting and writing and editing art instruction books.

This is an updated version of the 1986 book Encyclopaedia of Painting Techniques. There has been so much progress in the world of panting mediums in the last decade that it was time this book - ground-breaking and a "first" at the time - was updated. From how to stretch paper and prepare canvasses to the best way to begin a painting - whether oil, watercolour , acrylic or pastels its all here. If you want to experiment but are unsure what to do, or are a beginner wondering where to start just flip open this book at your chosen media and enjoy, most major painting techniques are included accompanied by lots of reference materials. Elizabeth and Hazel explain how to "build up" paintings, how to lay different washes and fun things like dropping in colour. They cover different ways of working such as knife painting, impasto, glazing and even finger painting. Trying different styles lets you find out what you enjoy and are best at rather than limiting yourself to one traditional approach - its all part of the art journey. Along with different ways of working they cover many different techniques used - some well known and some less used but very useful tool box additions to an artists repertoire such as wet brushing pastel - that's something I've never tried or thought of -and I'm always open for something new. To finish the book has a larger section on themes - landscapes, portraits, water, skies etc accompanied by step by step demonstrations and plentiful illustrations offering specific techniques for different subjects. If you love to play and experiment or if you're just starting and wondering what to do first this book will enthrall you as its full of little tips and bits for lots of different media. Its a brilliant reference book for any artist studio.-JeannieZelos.com Although this isn't actually a new book, it looks like it and the editors have done a good job on updating what was already an excellent idea that has stood the test of time well. The book is organised into a logical sequence that begins with a section on Preparing To Paint, which deals with preparing canvases, stretching paper, priming and so on. The layout here shows us how the book is going to progress, with each section given a double-page spread with plenty of pictures and simple, short captions that explain what you're looking at. From here, you get Making A Start, Ways Of Working, Special Techniques and then Themes, which is a rather neat way of working from a technique-based approach to something more practical, where you look at techniques in action in portraits, landscapes, waterscapes and so on. A lot of people will tell you that painting isn't, or shouldn't be, about the technical stuff but rather about expressing your creativity and that's fine as far as it goes. However, you still need to know how to mix colour, use resists, drybrush, glazing and all that in order to be able to get the effects you want. If you went on a course, this is what they'd teach you but, if you're working on your own, you need something to help and this mixture of the encyclopaedia (the book grows out of the encyclopaedia series) and the practical guide will give you a lot of help all in one place. This was a good book when it first appeared and it's a measure of its fundamental quality that it still is.-Artbookreview.net This book undoubtedly has a place on every artist's bookshelf. It is an indispensable guide, almost an encyclopedia, into painting techniques. No matter what your question you are likely to find the answer within these pages. Over 40 different painting and paint preparation techniques are covered in detail from variegated washes and scrumbling to coloured grounds. If you want to find out how to do a particular technique, or just simply refresh your memory - this is where to find it. There are step by step demonstrations explaining how to achieve an effect, easy to follow instructions for using acrylics, watercolours, oils and pastels. An interesting section deals with how to achieve specific effects such as sunshine or rain, water and cloth. No matter what your style be it realistic, or impressionistic, this book is a valuable aid to developing your skills.-Monstersandcritics.com With a widely varied mix of new titles on offer, I'm going to start with something old, although it's not immediately obvious that it is. The Search Press Guide to Painting Techniques started life in the Encyclopaedia series that was so successful several years ago. Actually, it was so long ago that many of you probably haven't seen it, but those with a longer memory might want to check their shelves before investing. Publishers often eye up their backlists and wonder whether they can revive an old favourite and my response is usually "I wish you hadn't". Although there are only so many ways you can write about painting, books have their time and rarely come back successfully. This, however, is one of the exceptions. The encyclopaedia series was always led by its design and was one of the first places where the idea of presenting things in a single-spread format appeared. The illustrations were the main thing and the words were reduced to captions that just explained what you were looking at. This is often characterised as dumbing down but really it's not, because art is about what you see, not what you read and, if you can't show it, you're probably not doing it right. In this new edition, what has happened is that the design has been updated but the concept remains the same, making the book as fresh now as when it first appeared. So what do you actually get? Basically, a thorough grounding in the techniques of painting as they work in practice and not just as a series of dry exercises. Good techniques is essential if you want your work to be anything more than expressive chaos, but getting bogged down in it can stifle the creative process. The balance between the two is a fine thing that this book achieves really rather well.-Paint