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Master Strokes: Pastel: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Techniques of the Masters
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12 new or used available from $19.98
Average customer review:
Product Description
"Harrison has created [a] unique and exciting book...It may seem odd at first to study an oil by Courbet to learn pastel techniques but it works beautifully."--Library Journal.
Through the work of the masters, this visually stunning guide will inspire and teach home art students to create evocative, beautiful pastels. Seven richly illustrated "tutorials each present a painting by a great artist, with an in-depth focus on technique, a breakdown on the use of color, points on composition, background information, and a discussion of the work as a whole. On display are atmospheric landscapes by Turner, Constable's impressive skies, portraits by de la Tour, urban scenery by Monet, nudes by Degas, and still lifes by Courbet and Van Gogh. In addition, paintings by modern masters show how to apply time-tested principles to contemporary art. An invaluable technique section covers blending, hatching and crosshatching, feathering, scumbling, and much more.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1119583 in Books
- Published on: 2005-03-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 96 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Harrison has created two unique and exciting books based on the methods of the masters. It may seem odd at first to study an oil by Courbet to learn pastel techniques or an oil by Gainsborough to learn the art of watercolor portraiture, but it works beautifully. The core of each book focuses in detail on a series of master paintings, each chosen to illustrate a specific subject area, such as portraiture, still life, or landscape. Each is followed by a tutorial in which a contemporary artist demonstrates not how to copy the original but how to use specific techniques to create a new work. Thus, the point of analyzing Winslow Homer's "The Red Canoe" is to learn how to paint figures in a landscape in one's own work. These two books should be added to most collections to complement Ettore Maiotti's earlier fine volume, The Oil Painting Handbook: Learning from the Masters, now out of print.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Customer Reviews
Difficult to Follow
At first glance this book seems almost as simple as paint-by-number, but when trying to do the projects I found that the explanations were sketchy and the photographs didn't show every step. I'm not an absolute beginner with pastels but my attempts certainly didn't get anywhere near the projects shown, and I don't feel as thought I learned anything. It's nice to see what's possible, but it would be better to work with simpler projects that are explained in detail. I definitely don't recommend this book to anyone who is not already accomplished in oil painting if not pastels.
