May 102013
Portrait Painting Atelier: Old Master Techniques and Contemporary Applications
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The art of portraiture approached its apex during the sixteenth century in Europe with the discovery of oil painting when the old masters developed and refined techniques that remain unsurpassed to this day. The ascendance of nonrepresentational art in the middle of the twentieth century displaced these venerable skills, especially in academic art circles. Fortunately for aspiring artists today who wish to learn the methods that allowed the Old Masters to achieve the luminous color and subtle t
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Decent enough on portrait techniques.,
This book contains some valuable information and tips on this difficult topic. The skin tone colour mixing part is especially helpful, and the illustrations are informative and high quality. I really like the way it goes into detail on different elements of the face, on application of paint and on toned grounds. Nevertheless, this book suffers from the same problem as all of them do. The step by step demonstrations are all made by the author/artist himself. This results in a lot of demonstrations basically using the same approach in different variations. I would really like to see a book of this kind with demonstrations by different artists, displaying different approaches and techniques! If you are very interested in glazing techniques, this should really satisfy you, since all the demonstrations involve a lot of glazing. That beeing said, the book actually includes a mini-demonstration by another artist with a different approach.
All in all a great book for the intermediate painter who wants to learn more about depicting the human form.
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|Good overview of technique,
The author presents a coherent approach to painting in traditional “Old Master” style. To absorb the wealth of
valuable information takes several readings, as well as working through the exercises and much practice. Techniqes
are clearly described.
There are some impressive examples of painted portraits — but not by the author. The step by step demos she herself
does are not inspiring and result in stiff, “tight”, uninteresting images.
This book will be most useful to painters who have some experience and have already encountered the technical issues the author describes. Beginners will probably find it overwhelming.
Incidentally, the author’s mentor Domenic Cretara, who supplies the introduction, is a modern master in his own
right, and his work is well worth looking up online.
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|One of the most comprehensive books on traditional indirect method of painting,
I received this book yesterday and love it.
I think this will be one of those books which keep growing in value long after they have been sold out. This book is in the same class in regard to the traditional indirect methods of painting as Richard Schmid’s Alla Prima in regard to direct painting. Although its focus is on portraiture the techniques and principles can be applied to figure painting and even still life. I have been studied traditional painting for two years and still find gems of advice nearly on every page. I can foresee that this book will be my companion for a long time.
The book is richly illustrated but the quality of illustrations is not consistent. Most of the other artists’ paintings are images of reasonable quality. Author’s paintings, though, look a bit drab. I suspect not because she can’t paint but because the photographer stuffed it up. This becomes evident if you look at images depicting tools, blobs of paint etc. They look equally drab. The biggest disappointment is the quality of images representing swatches for colour mixing exercises. The author seeks to demonstrate subtle nuances in tone and temperature. However the quality of images basically ruins her effort as it serves as a poor illustration for her recipes. The darks, in particular, nearly all look the same. I am sure the author did not mean it that way.
Five star for the author, one for the photographer of her artwork.
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