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 Location:  Home » Oil Paintings » History & Criticism » The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons for Beginners and Experienced ArtistsMay 17, 2008  


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The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons for Beginners and Experienced Artists
The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons for Beginners and Experienced Artists
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Author: Kathleen Staiger
Publisher: Watson-Guptill
Category: Book

List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.78
You Save: $10.17 (41%)
Buy New/Used from $14.78

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars(13 reviews)
Sales Rank: 45965

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 10.4 x 8.5 x 0.5

ISBN: 0823032590
Dewey Decimal Number: 751.45
EAN: 9780823032594
ASIN: 0823032590

Publication Date: July 1, 2006
Release Date: July 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Editorial Reviews:

Book Description
Did you ever wish you could go to a really good art school and learn how to paint in oil? Or perhaps you have painted for years and are still struggling with color mixing and wish you could find a good teacher to help. In the Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted, author Kathleen Staiger gives you a complete painting course you can take at home. Crystal clear, step-by-step lessons build from learning about light and shadow, brush control, and foolproof color mixing, to still life painting, landscapes, and portraits—every topic is covered in clear text, diagrams, illustrations, and demonstrations, with guided projects in every lesson. Tips and extra help sections appear throughout the book to help with common problems. Staiger has taught oil painting for more than thirty-five years; many of her students are now exhibiting and selling their paintings. Every painter from beginning hobby painters to BFA graduates has questions. Here atlast are the answers!


Customer Reviews:   Read 8 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars Oil painting can be tricky - this book helps control oils   November 24, 2007
  7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I got this book from the library. I always knew I could draw, and I always wanted to oil paint. I have a lot of books on oil painting, but I still struggle. Oil paints are tricky, sort of like playing the violin: you have to learn to control them before you start creating with them.

Now, it IS for beginners, but it also says for "experienced" because she shows you tricks that maybe you didn't cover in other classes.

She incorporates drawing lessons with the painting lessons. If you can't draw and shade a sphere, how are you going to understand a bush? She doesn't just have list of brushes, but she has exercises on how to blend paint with them. Each exercise in the book builds on the next.

It is true that you are not going to paint a masterpiece with this book, but I do think you will say, "Oh, that's the problem", and then you can move forward with your own talent.

She has one whole page on Taming Thalo Green, which no one else has in their books. She has a shading lesson in primary colors, and in secondary colors. She tells you how to dull a color without changing the value (mix it's exact complimentary in the same value, then add it). She explains glazing and scumbling. All the exercises are simple, so that if you are talented or not, you can do them. For example, she doesn't have you glaze a portrait like Rembrandt, but an apple.

As she gets to harder things, she introduces more drawing. For example, when she gets to landscape, she talks about drawing perspective, as well as atmospheric perspective. In landscapes, she explains the tricks for trees and rocks (do the darks first). When she gets to portraits, then she talks about drawing the face. I don't think her portraits are all that hot, but she shows the steps then you can do them too, and infuse your talent.

You will not create a masterpiece with this book, but you will have tools to create your own masterpiece because you won't be stumped with atmospheric perspective, how to do trees, how to make a shadow, etc. Just like you can't play the violin if you don't know where the notes are and how to get a good sound out of the bow, you can't oil paint if you don't know things like how Alizarin Crimson is going to behave differently from Cadmium Red Light. She will help you with this.

She has taught beginning oil painting for 30 years, so she anticipates your problems and questions. Oil will not longer be something to fight with, but something that will do your bidding.



5 out of 5 stars A new era in art   September 27, 2007
  1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Not only was l able to correct old bad old habits, l have learnt an incredible amount from this art instruction book. Highly recommended to both beginners and accomplished artists.


5 out of 5 stars Fun & Useful   July 14, 2007
  1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I'm an artist (or, rather, used to be). I consider myself an illustrator, but haven't painted in a long time. This book is great, as she discusses mixing colors, selecting brushes, using the medium and so on. This is a fine book!!!


5 out of 5 stars Artistic Masterpiece!   May 7, 2007
  3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book IS the oil painting course I've always wanted. I've taken a oil painting course at my local community college, but did not recieve the detailed instruction this book offers. I highly recommend it for the beginner painter. I also recommend Color Mixing Recipes by Walter Foster. It really helps you to get the color just right. It has an index on everything from apples to wet sand.Color Mixing Recipes


4 out of 5 stars great starter but you'll need more books   April 8, 2007
  3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book was a great starter book and was exceptionally helpful in learning where to start and how to mix colors. It also provides a few step by step classes to get you started. It is a true beginners book, but you'll be looking for new inspiration after you've spent some time with it.


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