Watercolor Painting Book Reviews: 60 Minutes to Better Painting

Reviews of 60 Minutes to Better Painting: Sharpen Your Skills in Oil and Acrylic     - Publication information     - Buy this book Review #1: 6o Minutes to Better Painting Review #2: Fast track to improvement Review #3: somewhat helpful Review #1 6o Minutes to Better Painting Good instructions to improve ones painting by doing quick painting studies at 60 minutes or less. It challenges one to skip the details and it teaches you better brush strokes. Review #2 Fast track to improvement This book will really help you sharpen your skills by removing your fear of a blank canvas and getting you started on real paint slinging. The idea of doing quick studies is similar to the "painting a day" practice for painters to go on the fast track to improvement. I have been mystified by brushwork despite having read books devoted entirely to that topic. Here I finally saw the "why" of the adage to use the biggest brush you can to paint as much of your work as possible. The brushwork becomes intrinsic to the creation of form and light and gives paintings a spontaneity often missing in beginner works. You can clearly see this in the painting examples given in the book. The author even takes pains to describe which size brush he used for each section of the painting. Another tip I've found invaluable was to start each study with a two value blocking in of the lightest light and darkest dark of each shape. This REALLY helped me to improve my value contrast overall. This book is a gem among painting books and is applicable to oils or acrylics. Sure there are some grammatical errors in the text, but the content is very good. Review #3 somewhat helpful I thought this book to be somewhat helpful but really didn't learn anything profoundly new. I loved a few of the paintings but overall other than reinforcing the theme of painting everyday it didn't excite me. It's an alright beginner's or entrance level intermediate artist's manual but there are better oil painting books for beginner's or the advanced intermediate artist such as Bill Creevy's book, Vicki McMurty's or Kevin MacPherson's. I found them to be more beneficial and cover more artistic ground in the areas of color theory and painting structure. Check for more reviews on Amazon.com Similar Products: Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color Alla Prima: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Direct Painting Problem Solving for Oil Painters: Recognizing What's Gone Wrong and How to Make It Right Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice Brushwork Essentials 60 Minutes to Better Painting: Sharpen Your Skills in Oil and Acrylic by Craig Nelson Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2002-11 Publisher: North Light Books ISBN: 1581801963     List Price: $29.99 Price: $39.95 Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Amazon.ca Buy from Amazon.co.uk 60 Minutes to Better Painting Reviews book-reviews.info home