Oil Painting Essentials

Oil Painting Essentials: Mastering portraits, figures, still lifes, landscapes , and interiors by Gregg Kreutz  shows “how a multi-genre approach can dramatically improve your painting skills. Arranged by category, each chapter covers both the essentials specific to that subject matter and those that apply to all genres.”

This is a beautifully done book. And as the description says it covers several genres of oil painting so that no matter your specialty or preference it is likely covered. This book isn’t for the beginner oil painter. I’m not the artist in our family. My daughter loves art of all kinds so I passed this book to her and let her look at it. She expressed it was way over her current abilities. He gives step by step techniques for different approaches. I would say that if you are a well honed artist looking to improve your skills this would be a good resource. Again, it isn’t for the beginning artist in my opinion.

The book itself is filled with gorgeous pictures of oil paintings. It is chocked full of useful information to help improve your skills. I would recommend it to an experienced artist looking to improve. Whether you love portraits, landscapes, still life, etc. you can benefit. It kind of reminds me of a text book when reading through it with very comprehensive information. It may be overwhelming to the beginner.

I received this book at no charge from www.bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for an honest review. You can purchase a copy of this book here.

Simply Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Elegant Lettering

 

Judy Detrick’s book Simply Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Guide to Elegant lettering is just as it says a beginners guide to calligraphy. “This little guide to hand lettering proves that calligraphy is as easy as picking up pen and paper.” The books starts with giving you an idea as to what tools you need to start. The information is very basic and it is kind of left up to you to research exactly what works best for you. The rest of the book is instructions that start with basic lines and curves to form the letters. It begins with the easiest lower case and progressively leads up to the hardest uppercase letters.

I would say this book is very good if you have never been introduced to calligraphy. It is very basic in my opinion and easy to understand. It should give you a foundation to start with. I wouldn’t think it would be beneficial for intermediate or beyond. It doesn’t get into the fancier or more artsy calligraphy. It does include swirls and such at the end that you can add to what you learn.  I have some knowledge of calligraphy but it has been years since I did it. It is going to be fun to practice and see if I can pick it back up. It would have been nice if maybe some practice sheets would have been included in the book so one could start right away. I suppose you could start on plain paper but I remember having practice paper that helped you get the right angle and slope to the lettering, not just lines.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get started with calligraphy but not for anyone who already has knowledge of calligraphy. I do wish it had included a few more examples or exercises for some more advanced writing.  I received this book at no charge from www.bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for an honest review.  You can purchase a copy for yourself here.