Oil, acrylics, gouache tutorials

Stinkie

Thanks. Looks like an interesting resource.

Anssi

There is a "dull" book written in the 1930s by a Max Doerner : The Materials of the Artist and Their use in Painting. AFAIK professional artists (as my father was) still swear by it. Of course, acrylics were not yet invented when it was written, but the traditional techniques are covered. It is translated into several languages (the original is in German)so you might find it even in Dutch.

I used to help my father with preparing canvases to a recipe from the book. The result was much better and cheaper than with readymade gesso(ok, the animal glue does not smell too good)

Anssi

Alan Fraser

Dunno about multimedia, but there’s a book I found particularly inspirational called Breaking The Rules of Watercolor by Burt Silverman. He’s predominantly an oil portrait painter, but explains how to use watercolour and gouache like oils.

Review:
http://weread.com/reviews/0823005232/Breaking+the+Rules+of+Watercolor/BOK-11174504-2/English

His site:
http://www.burtonsilverman.com/

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Rules-Watercolor-Practical-Books/dp/0823005224

Stinkie

Thank you, Anssi. A Dutch translation does indeed exist: the library I frequent has a copy. Currently lent out, obviously.

There's a wealth on painting vids on youtube, it turns out. I'm not too confident their quality is beyond questioning, though. I've just seen one in which a man stands before a very bad abstract painting and explains (I'm paraphrasing):

"As you can see, this isn't a realistic painting at all. I've taken an abstract approach here. The thing with abstraction is, it doesn't matter what colors you use, any each one will do."

Stinkie

I was hoping you'd chime in, Alan. Thanks for the tip.

olishea

I'm guessing you wanna give ur cousin a painting....not a book about how to paint?....could be read two different ways.

my advice: get a canvas and get your hands dirty. start with acrylic and gouache. oil is a little devil. a book can't teach you experience with the materials. If you don't wanna practice on canvas then I suggest hardboard (the rough textured side) its cheap and has a lovely texture that can hold a lot of paint. Readymade canvas is pretty crappy I think so avoid it. good luck and enjoy yourself.

Stinkie

Oli ... you okay?

olishea

lol god knows where i got 'cousin' from. i was hammered this weekend sorry, brain not functioning!

Stinkie

lol. I figured as much.

Alan Fraser

Hmm! Oli gets hammered and starts thinking of cousins. This is not good....I thought that only happened in the Ozarks

olishea

haha i left myself wide open for that.....mmmmmm cousins

Stinkie

I'd say it's time for a new avatar, Oli.

olishea

pbacot

I have a six hour video set by a relative of ours (not a cousin) who painted for National Geographic and portraiture. He goes into minute detail in classical techniques for oil, how to mix colors etc. I don't see any harm in seeing how experienced artists do it. Now this set is just gathering dust VHS not DVD. Maybe my wife would part with it, she's a painter but never watched it all. I haven't seen the whole thing either. I can say it is very systematic and detailed but not very exciting.