Professional painting instructor Lea Colie Wight demystifies the formulaic process of oil painting into a simple approach to help you paint confidently and accurately in full color. Develop a core foundational skill set to develop your paintings and discover a signature way of working from life that can be applied to figure painting, portraits, landscapes and still life. Though the focus is on oils, the methods in this book can be applied to all painting mediums including as acrylic, pastel and watercolor. • Informative lessons and simple exercises help to build confidence and lay the foundations for successful oil painting • Learn a straightforward system for painting realistically with a focus on accurate color. • 4 full-length step-by-step demonstrations show how to paint a figure, a portrait, a still life and a landscape

The equivalent of a foundation course in traditional oil painting for beginning to intermediate level artists, this in-depth book uses the still life as a practical way to master oil techniques. The still life is a practical, forgiving genre as it does not require the likeness of a portrait or the accurate proportions of the figure and, unlike the landscape, it doesn’t change with the weather. Instead, it gives aspiring artists ample time to study and the opportunity to look closer. It can be used as a purely formal subject for drawing and painting techniques, or a platform for emotional expression using personal symbolism and imagery. However, though the still life is used throughout as a teaching tool, this is first and foremost a book about oil painting. It begins with simple compositions that build to more complex arrangements. Starting with essential information on how to best set up your studio—including lighting, equipment, materials (paints, solvents, brushes, mediums), and preparing your canvas and paper for oil painting—Still Life Painting Atelier then offers concrete lessons in a logical progressive sequence, with step-by-step illustrations, finished paintings, diagrams and tips. Chapters cover: • How to address composition through thumbnail sketches and line drawings • Using underpainting to study the characteristics of light and shade • The basics of color theory and color mixing • How to use a variety of brushes to create sharp and soft edges • Techniques that are helpful when painting metal and glass • How to apply glazing and scumbling to bring luminosity and texture

Employing the methodologies of the new art history as well as some tools provided by poststructuralism, historiography, and analytic philosophy, Poussin's Paintings offers a novel approach to the art of Poussin. David Carrier begins with a comprehensive analysis of Poussin's self-portraits, which provides the starting point for a critical discussion of the traditional strategies of Poussin scholarship and for an evaluation of the status of this artist. Carrier shows that Poussin can be properly understood only by seeing how his visual and political culture differs from ours. Carrier examines the traditional approaches of Poussin scholars, noting the limitations of their views and showing how they not only shape our image of the artist but also restrict out ability to properly grasp his concerns. Carrier also considers the important conceptual claims of connoisseurs and reveals how their work invokes an implicit theory of Poussin's development. Carrier then focuses on a group of paintings concerned with erotic themes, demonstrating the inadequacy of traditional accounts of these pictures. He extends his analysis to a discussion of Poussin's landscapes, which have a different and more important place in his development than the older accounts claim. Carrier places Poussin within the artistic and political culture of seventeenth-century Rome. He asserts that artists of the time were concerned with the problem of belatedness and that Poussin attempted to return to the tradition of the High Renaissance, reworking images from that tradition in response to his own visual culture. Carrier argues that Poussin's art is thus best understood as a response to that setting for baroque art, and he relates Poussin's work to the later tradition of French history painting.

"Traditional Oil Painting is that rare sourcebook that comprehensively covers the most advanced techniques and concepts of oil painting"--P. [2] of cover.

Everything you always wanted to know about oil painting...but were afraid to ask. Or maybe you weren’t afraid—maybe you just didn’t know what to ask or where to start. In The Oil Painting Course You’ve Always Wanted, author Kathleen Staiger presents crystal clear, step-by-step lessons that build to reinforce learning. Brush control, creating the illusion of three dimensions, foolproof color mixing, still-life painting, landscapes, and portraits—every topic is covered in clear text, diagrams, illustrations, exercises, and demonstrations. Staiger has taught oil painting for more than thirty-five years; many of her students are now exhibiting and selling their paintings. Everyone from beginning hobby painters, to art students, to BFA graduates has questions about oil painting. Here at last are the answers!

Here, Elkins argues that alchemists and painters have similar relationships to the substances they work with. Both try to transform the substance, while seeking to transform their own experience.

Want to paint more like Manet and less like Jackson Pollock? Students of art hailed Classical Drawing Atelier, Juliette Aristides’s first book, as a dynamic return to the atelier educational model. Ateliers, popular in the nineteenth century, teach emerging artists by pairing them with a master artist over a period of years. The educational process begins as students copy masterworks, then gradually progress to painting as their skills develop. The many artists at every level who learned from Classical Drawing Atelier have been clamoring for more of this sophisticated approach to teaching and learning. In Classical Painting Atelier, Aristides, a leader in the atelier movement, takes students step-by-step through the finest works of Old Masters and today’s most respected realist artists to reveal the principles of creating full-color realist still lifes, portraits, and figure paintings. Rich in tradition, yet practical for today’s artists, Classical Painting Atelier is ideal for serious art students seeking a timeless visual education.

A landscape painting guide for oil painters that breaks landscapes down into component elements from nature, and showcases tools and techniques used by classic and modern oil painters for bringing these scenes to life. Landscape painting is one of the most popular subjects for painters working in the medium of oils--from classic masters to contemporary artists. In The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, established Watson-Guptill author and noted instructor/painter Suzanne Brooker presents the fundamentals necessary for mastering landscape oil painting, breaking landscapes down into component parts: sky, terrain, trees, and water. Each featured element builds off the previous, with additional lessons on the latest brushes, paints, and other tools used by artists. Key methods like observation, rendering, and color mixing are supported by demonstration paintings and samples from a variety of the best landscape oil painters of all time. With The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, oil painters looking to break into landscape painting or enhance their work will find all the necessary ingredients for success.

Bridging the fields of conservation, art history, and museum curating, this volume contains the principal papers from an international symposium titled "Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice" at the University of Leiden in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from June 26 to 29, 1995. The symposium—designed for art historians, conservators, conservation scientists, and museum curators worldwide—was organized by the Department of Art History at the University of Leiden and the Art History Department of the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Amsterdam. Twenty-five contributors representing museums and conservation institutions throughout the world provide recent research on historical painting techniques, including wall painting and polychrome sculpture. Topics cover the latest art historical research and scientific analyses of original techniques and materials, as well as historical sources, such as medieval treatises and descriptions of painting techniques in historical literature. Chapters include the painting methods of Rembrandt and Vermeer, Dutch 17th-century landscape painting, wall paintings in English churches, Chinese paintings on paper and canvas, and Tibetan thangkas. Color plates and black-and-white photographs illustrate works from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.

How to paint oil portraits like the Old Masters Mona Lisa. Girl with a Pearl Earring. Madame X. The infinite variety and beauty of humankind--like the mysteries behind sparkling eyes, a sly smile or an averted gaze--has captivated artists since the beginning of time. This expanded edition of Chris Saper's best-selling guide, Classic Portrait Painting in Oils, reveals keys for mastering how to paint beautiful portraits in oil to create soulful works of art. Through easy-to-follow lessons and expert oil painting tips and techniques, you'll find secrets for working from life, using reference photos and more to create rich, realistic portraits imbued with timeless character. • 14 step-by-step demonstrations teach how to paint 7 diverse subjects of varying skin tones from life and from photographic reference • Additional exercises reveal expert oil painting techniques for defining facial details, like eyes, mouths, wrinkles, facial hair and eyeglasses • Professional tips for working from life, including ideal session times, posing, seeing and mixing color and even how to work with children • The basics of using natural, artificial, creative and "Rembrandt" lighting to light your subject and convey a mood • Expanded key concepts of "perfect practice," the importance of regularly painting subjects in real time and an insistence on excellent photographic reference material, including a checklist for how to take--and self-edit--your own quality photos • New material on how to approach and execute paid commissions, including step-by-step demonstrations for painting both corporate and family subjects Through Saper's universal techniques, painters of all skill levels will learn to render more realistic portraits of every subject they paint, with predictable and joyful results.