An accessible guide for beginners to learn how to oil paint on a small scaled with canvases measuring no more than 5-inch squares Less daunting subject matter so aspiring artists can focus more on the actual subjects they’re painting, rather than a large composition Includes 10 step-by-step still life painting tutorials with simple “Trace-This-Linework” sketches for those who lack confidence drawing their subjects Author Estelle Day is an award-winning professional artist and an associate member of the Society of Women Artists. Her work has been sold to clients in the UK, US, France, Switzerland, and New Zealand

Nobody ever said that oil painting was easy. But it gets much easier and a lot more fun when you follow a step-by-step approach that starts you off on the right foot, helps you build your skills one at a time, and gives you plenty of exercises to develop your craft. That’s what you’ll find in Oil Painting For Dummies. Completely free of arty jargon, this full-color guide has all the hands-on instruction you need to master the basics. You’ll see how to plan a painting, build an image in layers, mix colors, and create stunning compositions. You’ll also find everything you need to know about oil paints, solvents, and pigments; brushes, palettes, and painting surfaces; and how to keep costs down at the art supply store. Discover how to: Choose the right supplies Set up your studio and care for your equipment Handle your materials safely Develop your design and composition skills Make practice sketches and studies Use broken stroke, dry brush, glazing, scraffito and other brush strokes Try out different compositions Mix any color you want Simplify tricky still-life subjects Paint landscapes and common objects out doors Paint portraits and the human form Complete with handy color chart, basic materials list, and a very useful viewing square, Oil Painting For Dummies is the fun and easy way to discover your inner artist!

You Can Paint With Oils! An easy and fun introduction to landscape painting. Discover Oil Painting is a complete course on painting landscapes in oils. This fun and easy guide is loaded with time-honored methods, techniques and tutorials along with ways to tweak those ideas to suit your own painting personality. No matter what your experience (or lack of experience!) you will learn how to paint beautiful works of art in no time. • 21 step-by-step painting demonstrations tackle skies, foliage, wildflowers, water, rocks and more • Easy-to-understand lessons demystify composition, color, value, paint application techniques, and other key concepts • Expert tips and advice honed over nearly 35 years of professional teaching and painting With master teacher Julie Gilbert Pollard, you will walk through the painting process in manageable steps, from laying out a palette and overcoming the initial intimidation of a blank canvas, to designing strong compositions and achieving brilliant, yet believable color. Along this path to successful landscapes, you will find the stepping stones to losing yourself in the journey and discovering the pure pleasure in painting with oils and using your own creativity.

The quick-start guide to great results! Oil painting doesn't have to be rocket science, although some books on the subject make it seem that way. Filled with encouraging, easy-to-follow instruction, Oil Painting for the Absolute Beginner is a no-fear, no-experience-required guide to enjoyable painting and happy results. Focusing on the needs of the first-time painter, this book covers everything from selecting brushes and setting up your palette to key principles of color and composition, presented in a way that moves you confidently from first strokes to finished paintings. • Mini demonstrations break down fundamental painting techniques in a clear, common sense way • 12 step-by-step painting projects progress from simple landscapes, still life and flower paintings to more challenging subjects, such as animals, seascapes and portraits • The bonus DVD-workshop features the author creating two paintings from start to finish You'll learn tricks for keeping the greens in your landscapes looking fresh, advantages to working with water-soluble oil paints, simple tips for dynamic compositions and other expert advice to make your introduction to oil painting the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Learn oil painting from the beginning with this art guide book. You have just purchased your first set of oil colours. Now what? A blank art surface may reflect an uncertainty of what to paint. Where does the beginner begin? Is an easel needed? What about a mahl stick, stretched canvases and a kidney-shaped palette? The aim of this book is to show that such paraphernalia are not essential. Oil paints can be odourless, clean and the starter kit may comprise just a few items that can be stored in a tool box. Infinite colours can be mixed with several pigments via a few brushes. This makes oil colours the ideal choice for the beginner who wishes to try a truly versatile art medium. Find basic oil painting exercises aimed at getting that brush moving, even if it means laying each pigment into rectangles to get to know each pigment. Exercises progress steadily onto shading, mark making and applying glazes. These rudimentary exercises provide the springboard from which to paint a first landscape and more. The myths of colour theory is dispelled, making dirty colour mixes a thing of the past. Find chapters that explore complementary colours, alla prima, glazing, using a limited palette, working with linseed oil and expressing a jigsaw of marks. Each chapter concludes with a summarizing bullet point list of what has been covered so far, helping to reinforce what has been learned. As will be seen, oil paints have many surprises in store and can be fun to try out – without the fuss, mess or cost. Includes a shopping list for the beginner, glossary and hundreds of colour images.

A bulky, comprehensive book on oil painting various subject matter. Ever had trouble drawing ellipses, mixing skin colours or painting skies? This bumper oil painting book tackles 78 such painting ‘peeves’ with suggested solutions. The Ultimate Oil Painting Solution comprise three full-length art books: Why do my Clouds Look Like Cotton Wool? a problem-solver for landscape painting; Why do my Skin Tones Look Lifeless? a problem-solver for portrait painting, and Why do my Ellipses Look Like Doughnuts? a problem-solver for still life painting. Each book can be purchased singly if interested in just one subject area. However, purchasing the three in this bundle book will work out a little cheaper than buying the three books individually. Each book comprises 26 common ‘peeves’ (in the form of chapters) associated with the oil painting area concerned, and therefore you will find 78 such peeves and suggested solutions collectively within. The book has 73,000 words, 78 chapters and around 400 images. Each book also possesses a step by step painting demonstration associated with the subject area. These are Castlerigg Stone Circle (for landscape art); David’s Oath of the Horatii (for portraiture) and painting strawberries (for still life). The ‘peeves’ selected represent common problem areas that students have experienced in my art classes. Such peeves include the rendering of foreshortenings, darkening skin colours, suggesting ripples in water, painting clouds, mixing greens, suggesting soft hair, painting noses, reflections in eyes, moisture on fruit, portrait photography, measuring tones, darkening snow colours and a myriad of other peeves. As each book are in themselves separate entities, where applicable, similar information is presented in context of landscape art, portraiture and still life painting, although the information is presented differently. Examples of this are the art materials needed for painting and the nature of pigments. However, such occurrences are mostly confined to the introductory chapters of each book and occur seldom elsewhere. Key chapters in this book cover the colour theory, perspectives, drawing ellipses, the golden section, tonal values, underglazing, art techniques, the nature of pigments, essential art materials, monochromatic painting, composing an arrangement, negative shapes, painting en plein air, drawing foreshortenings, creating mood, making a viewfinder, colour temperatures, drawing methods, the rules of reflections, painting on a budget, types of gessoes, skin colours and much, much more. The aim of this book is to find a ‘cure’ for a given issue and enable the developing artist to improve in the future. Most of all, to encourage creativity and growing confidence. Dimensions of print book: 10x8in and 234 pages.

Handy, well-illustrated guide shows how to paint the nude figure in easy-to-follow series of 24 fully illustrated projects. Materials and equipment; anatomy; hues, tones and values; focus on painting major body parts. Over 190 illus., 33 in full color.