The Complete Oil Painter: The Essential Reference for Beginners to Professionals,   ISBN:9780823008551

Customer Rating: 

This is a very good book on oil painting. Its instructions are clear, ample, and to the point, illustrated by beautiful reproductions of good painters. I find myself reading and reading again with visual pleasure this excellent book.

Customer Rating: 

I'm a self-thought artist and began oil painting at age 6 until I reached my early teens. I never gave up drawing though. I work as a graphic artist and also have work experience in the field of cartoon animation. Now in my early 30's, I decided to give a go at oil again but there were a few things in my art that bothered me. I thought of taking painting lessons, I looked around at the various schools in my area and gave up on that idea since it appeared obvious to me that all that these schools were offering me was to teach me "how to draw" from scratch, regardless of my advanced drawing skills - Instead I bought this book; "The Complete Oil Painter" by Brian Gorst and ".Problem Solving for Oil Painters: Recognizing What's Gone Wrong and How to Make It Right" (also a good book) which was recommended to me. Honestly, I thought that the later (Problem solving) would prove to be most useful but to my big surprise it was The Complete Oil Painter by Gorst - As a self-thought artist, I was simply lacking technique and knowledge of the medium. I didn't know what a ground colour was or how to varnish a painting! This book solved a lot of problems and answered a lot of questions instantly and it saved me hundreds of dollars in un-necessary painting lessons

Customer Rating: 

As the first book I ever bought on painting with oil colours, I didn't know what to expect. Well, this book is really a great reference, covers everything - charecteristics of specific pigments, how to prime canvas and panels, which mediums do what.. and it has some very helpful demonstrations. What I was missing, is any word about glazing, which medium to use with oils (actuall ratio of distilled turpentine to linseed oil and so on), anything that someone that wants to be more of a pro would look for. But still, a great book.
Also, since the author uses water-soluble oils, it is a very good book for people that use those. He explains everything for those too.

Customer Rating: 

My instructor talked about this book in class and said it was a very helpful book to have. Being a novice, I took her advice and ordered one. It has been very helpful, with clear explanations concering color mixing and opaque and translucent color techniques. I can only recommend this book as a beginning oil painter, but have gotten great tips and my use of color combinations have greatly improved.

Customer Rating: 

Just wanted to say I found the book informative but not actually for a true beginner, a first timer who wanted to try painting in oils. The book used lots of words and terms of reference that were unfamiliar to me without first explaining what these terms and words actually meant.
Other than that I must admit I have learnt a lot from the book and would recommend it to someone with some familarity with the genre or a beginner with more brains than me perhaps.
Thanks