Oil, acrylics, gouache tutorials

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.