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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
An essential guide for beginning oil painting, 19 Nov 2000
Alwyn has done it again, he has produced another essential guide in an artistic medium, this time oils. I have closely followed Alwyns books, videos and general teachings for over 10 years and found them invaluable so i was very interested to see what this offering was like when i started to take up oil painting. The book is set in the same manner as Crawshaws watercolour painting course and is composed of 29 self contained lessons so that even the total beginner can start using the paints straight away. The book begins with that most indespencible guide to the array of materials you need to begin oil painting such as brushes, paints, painting surfaces, mediums and easels then goes into brush techniques and control and what can your brushes actually do. There is a simple but still well explained colour theory lesson using only the three primary colours then goes into lessons on form and shape to achieve 3D effects in your paintings and tonal studies. In part two of the book starting at lesson 8 you actually begin to paint simple pictures using just three colours, the first is a simple parsnip, you just need to follow the simple step by step directions and viola you have your first painting that is guaranteed to be a success. Other objects to paint in this lesson are half an apple, a stetson and a fish. Part three of the book is how to work outdoors and this includes the importaint lessons on perspective,measuring and sketching. Part 4 of the book is about simplifying what you see for example, landscapes, foregrounds, trees, water, reflections, boats, skies,buildings and animals. Next Alwyn demonstrates how to paint from photographs and what to put in and more importaintly what to leave out. The final section of the book is full step by step demonstrations of actual scenes to paint. Demonstration 1 is a snow landscape, demonstration 2 is a seascape, number 3 is a half hour excersise of a group of people in a rowing boat and the final demonstration is a still life consisting of a bunch of flowers in a teapot. Finally the end of the book as usual is Alwyns personal gallery of oil paintings. In all i found this book a joy to read, Alwyns text is in a very informative and relaxed style you can easily read this book and totally enjoy it even without touching your paints. I found the 27 lessons easy to understand and i also found them to be logically thought out. I can wholly recommend this book to anyone who is remotely interested in trying oil painting.
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