Oil Painting Books

A Selection of the Best Oil Painting Books Available

The Complete Oil Painter: The Essential Reference for Beginners to Professionals

Oils are perhaps the most versatile of all paint mediums. Yet for many artists oil painting is either shrouded in mystique or considered very difficult. Filled with clear, step-by-step instructions and surefire strategies, The Complete Oil Painter is an essential, one-stop guide to becoming an expert in every aspect of this medium. Artists will discover everything they need to know about materials (pigments, supports, canvases); tools and equipment (palettes, brushes); paint application (wet-into-wet, alla-prima, glazing, impasto); form and color (light and dark, expression, color mixing); exploring themes (still life, portraiture, figure painting); and much more.

Oil Painting Techniques

The palette knife and painting knife are intriguing and expressive tools. Working in oil with a painting knife adds an element of texture and spontaneity to fine art that simply cannot be achieved with a paintbrush alone. “Oil Painting Techniques” addresses everything you want to know about painting with a knife, including the materials you will need to get started, as well as hand positions, paint mixing, and coverage techniques. Follow step-by-step instructions to create different textures and master numerous applications: thick and thin coverage, dot and sidestrokes, and much more. From painting thickly impasto style to using your knife to scrape away lines of paint, itAEs all right here in this comprehensive guide!

The Oil Painting Course You’ve Always Wanted

Many an art student and BFA graduate arrive at the sorry state that despite all their classes and books on painting, they still don’t understand the rudiments of oil painting – the basics of colour mixing and creating the illusion of form. That’s where The Oil Painting Course You’ve Always Wanted comes in, an invaluable primer on oil painting that sets itself apart from other books on this subject. First, this book is a course – a composite of lessons that the author, Kathleen Staiger, has developed over many years of teaching. Structured so that each detailed lesson builds on the previous one, the book reinforces the learning process with fully explained diagrams, illustrations, exercises, and demonstrations. Second, there is a logical, workable method of sure-fire colour mixing. Third, the book is tailored to the insecurity of the beginner; skills are built slowly, with precise guidance and logical explanations. Staiger has been teaching this course for years with amazing results. Students who have never touched a paintbrush are now exhibiting and selling their paintings. Experienced painters find they learn something new in every lesson. This book is organized around a progressive set of lessons: Class 1: How to Create the Illusion of Three Dimension; Class 2: Making Your Brush Behave; Class 3: Foolproof Colour Mixing; Class 4: Putting It All Together Class 5: Still Life Painting; Class 6: Landscape Painting; and Class 7: Portrait Painting. The features include: a complete, foolproof primer; includes author’s sure-fire method of colour mixing; and step-by-step lessons, complete with diagrams, exercises, and demonstrations.

Oil Painting Secrets from a Master

Some of the most popular art instruction books ever written have been based on student notes culled over the years from actual workshop sessions, with all their power and immediacy – and with practical, on-to-one contact between student and teacher. This is such a book. For more than two years, Linda Cateura has pursued teacher / artist David A. Leffel, notebook in hand, as he critiqued the work of students. Linda Cateura’s succinct notes capture his insights, philosophy, painting hints, and general comments.

Leffel’s classic, painterly, twentieth-century old master style, much in the manner of Rembrandt or Chardin, affords ample illustration of the ideas expressed – through his many paintings, details, demonstrations, and diagrams, almost all in color.

No matter what your level of ability, there is something here to apply to your own work, ideas that will cause you to rething your own ways of painting, hints to save you effort, or solutions to persistent painting problems.

The Oil Painting Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist

Without equal anywhere in print today, this is the most complete guide to oil painting materials, and how to use them to derive best results from the medium.