Home Forums Explore Media Acrylics The Information Kiosk Books of Interest to Acrylic Painters (and others).

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  • #448238

    We are updating the list of books in the sticky at the top of the page as a result of a suggestion by catkin. Thank you catkin :wave:

    If you are willing to recommend a book, we would like to know:
    Title
    Author
    Year published
    Where you bought it
    What it covers
    What you thought about it

    For example…

    The Acrylics Book. Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist by Barclay Sheaks 1996
    Purchased from Amazon

    The book is packed with information and is divided into five sections.
    1. Materials and Tools: paints, mediums, brushes, knives, supports, grounds, selective colours, miscellaneous necessities, and varnishing.

    2. Basic Concepts: painting mixtures, blending methods, obtaining a hard edge, layering, creating textures, planning a painting, preliminary sketching.

    3. Colour: understanding colour, colour families and relationships, value dominance, value and form, contrast, solid versus broken colour.

    4. Acrylic Painting Techniques: transparent watercolour techniques, opaque watercolour techniques, oil painting techniques, acrylics as egg tempera, painting on wet canvas, collage, working with gel medium and relief painting

    5. Acrylics and Mixed Media and Craft Applications: ink and transparent washes, pancil and wash, acrylics and coloured pencil, acrylics and lithography, acrylics and charcoal, acrylics and pastel, other uses for acrylics.

    The book is a great reference for a variety of techniques from how to to just plain inspirational. There are many demonstrations to get a variety of effects and virtually every page has an example of what is being covered. A good reference book not only for the beginner but also the experienced.

    Carol
    "Mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence" - Time Bandits[/color]
    Moderator: Acrylic Forum
    My websites: Discoveries With Colour Adventures in Photography[/B]

    #494578
    Leslie Pz
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        Good idea! Very helpful.

        ¸.•*´¯)¤"˜¨¯" Leslie Anne Pease "¯¨˜"¤(¯`*•.¸
        #494592
        frodron
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            I would like to recommend “Alwyn Crawshaw’s Acrylic Painting Course”It was first published in 1994. Alwyn is a very down to earth tutor in that he keeps
            the materials and the lessons very simple. You can guage this from the section headings in the book, namely, 1. Getting Started, 2. Oil Painting Technique Exercises, 3. Watercolour Technique Exercises, 4. Working Outdoors, 5. Simplifying What You See, 6. Using Your Photographs & 7. Demonstrations. This is a great beginner’s book

            Cherish yesterday,dream tomorrow,live today

            #494593
            JanB
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                I would like to recommend Acrylic Painting Techniques: How to master the Medium of Our Age by Stephen Quiller. Quiller’s work ranges from traditional, to contemporary to abstract, and if you’re a fan of his work the book is worth it just for the color plates of his paintings. An excellent and thorough discussion on his personal color theory, and indepth discussion of materials, techniques(watermedia, opaque, batik), step by step demos, and exercises all make this a helpful book. If you’re the experimental sort you’ll especially appreciate the “Integrating Other Media” chapter which inludes using acrylic with watercolor, gouache, casein, collage and a whole bunch more! I’ve read some reviews on Amazon where folks criticize the book because they don’t like Quiller’s style…so do a google serch and check out his work first. However I will say that all they techniques and instruction can be applied to any type of style and Quiller is definitely NOT pushing his style as the only way, actually his works are quite broad and encompass a variety of styles. The back of the book says $19.95, published by Watson-Guptill. I recently got mine from Amazon, and I find it a very inspiring book!

                #494573

                Good books. Thanks for contributing.

                Carol
                "Mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence" - Time Bandits[/color]
                Moderator: Acrylic Forum
                My websites: Discoveries With Colour Adventures in Photography[/B]

                #494574

                No one else got books to recommend?

                Carol
                "Mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence" - Time Bandits[/color]
                Moderator: Acrylic Forum
                My websites: Discoveries With Colour Adventures in Photography[/B]

                #494588
                Catkin
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                    Following on from the Stephen Quiller Acrylic book I have two by Stephen Quiller and Barbara Whipple – they both cover water media so though they are not strictly just acrylic they both have some great ideas and illustrations.

                    Water Media Techniques – Published 1983 by Watson Guptill
                    Covers four forms of water media – watercolour, acrylic, gouache and casein.
                    Part 1 – The characteristics of the four water media
                    Part 2 – Combined Media Exercises
                    Part 3 – Multimedia Demonstrations
                    Part 4 – Water Media workshop

                    Water Media: Processes and Possibilities – Published 1986 by Watson Guptill
                    Covers four forms of water media – watercolour, acrylic, gouache and casein. Book is divided into 5 parts –
                    Chapter One – Characteristics of the four water media
                    Chapter Two – Generating excitement in your compositions
                    Chapter Three – Developing your visualizing skills
                    Chapter Four – Putting it all together
                    Chapter Five – Learning from contemporary artists

                    Both were bought on eBay as I believe they are out of print. There is info on the characteristics of the different watermedia plus exercises and demonstrations and lots of colour illustrations which I always find helpful – if you liked his acrylic book you should like these two.

                    Quiller still has some other books in print – Color Choices and Painters Guide to Colour – again not really ‘acrylic’ books but lots of interesting info on using colour – and lots of juicy colour illustrations!
                    Sharon :cat:

                    Luck is another name for optimism:cat:
                    Check out my eBay items - katkin
                    My New Blog - http://cats-and-art.blogspot.com/
                    Myspace http://www.myspace.com/cat_artist

                    #494580
                    asmith38
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                        I have just purchased a book on Chinese brush painting. I know that there are usually done in ink or watercolor, but this author also does them in acrylics.

                        My main goals with this book:

                        Learn to “simplify”, maybe I should say to unclutter. Someone said less is more, and that it something I need to apply in my paintings.

                        Learn to “loosen” my style. I find that I tend to have too cramped a style, where every little dot has to be just so, and when I can’t accomplish it, i get frustrated.

                        Books specs:

                        Title: Chinese Brush Painting
                        Author: Kwan Jung, NA

                        Ann-Yes
                        From the Florida Keys... where your paint never dries ;)

                        #494575

                        Thank you Sharon and Ann-Yes for your excellent contributions.

                        Carol
                        "Mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence" - Time Bandits[/color]
                        Moderator: Acrylic Forum
                        My websites: Discoveries With Colour Adventures in Photography[/B]

                        #494581
                        Bertoni
                        Default

                            Just a quick tip here…I find there are a few books on oil painting that I find to be extremely helpful in my acrylic work along with ones I own strictly pertaining to acrylics. One I would recommend is ”Oil Painting, Develop Your Natural Ability” by Charles Sovek. It was given to me by a painter friend/mentor…:)

                            Bertoni

                            #494579
                            nevbogus
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                                thanks for that one, bertoni. i just visited sovek’s website and what a wealth of info it holds. i can see why you recommend his ideas.

                                [FONT="Verdana"]Dean Williamson
                                http://deanwilliamson.info

                                #494582
                                Bertoni
                                Default

                                    nev: I like the way Sovek handles color!!! Am sure you’ll get a lot out of his books!
                                    The guy’s work has style!

                                    Bertoni

                                    #494594
                                    carld
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                                        I just purchased “ The New Acrylics Complete Guide to the New Generation of Acrylic Paints” by Rheni Tauchid, photographed by Jonathan Sugarman. It is published by Watson-Guptill Publications.
                                        This book is full of technical information presented in a very accessible manner. It begins with a description of the paint manufacturing process,acrylic paints, inks, specialties and current innovations. The next chapter covers materials, tools and painting preparation. Chapter three is about color, with detailed information on newer pigments, metallics and iridescent paint.

                                        The chapter on mediums was especially interesting to me. The only medium I use is mat medium when I tone the canvas. After reading about all of the possibilities, I will be trying a lot of new things. Chapter five covers basic application techniques. They may be basic to the author, but much of it was new to me. The last two chapters cover alternative techniques, (mixed media, printing, transfers, painting on transparent supports) and acrylic sculpture and tiles.

                                        The author has a very nice style that flows effortlessly from chapter to chapter. I read past bedtime two nights in a row. The photography is superb. The pictures are clear and illustrate the text very well. They are also good art in their own right. Imagine a strawberry topped with modeling paste or a bunt cake frosted with matte medium.

                                        This book, along with Barclay Shieks “The Acrylics Book” and Stephan Quillers “Acrylic Painting Techniques” should be studied by every serious painter. All three cover different aspects of painting, with little overlap.

                                        I got my copy at Danial Smith. It should be widely available.

                                        Carl

                                        See my website http://www.dummannart.com

                                        #494583

                                        Just bumping this up so everyone can see it!

                                        Cheers, Maureen


                                        Forum projects: Plant Parade projects in the Florals/Botanicals forum , WDE in the All Media Art Events , Different Strokes in Acrylics forum .

                                        #494571

                                        The Impact of Modern Paints, Jo Crook and Tom Learner, Tate Publishing in 1999 (but also republished elsewhere in 2000).
                                        I bought it at the Tate Modern, it’s a history of acrylics via looks at 10 or so well-known modern painters. Fascinating!!!! especially if you’re a bit of a geek

                                        The Encyclopedia of Acrylic Techniques, Hazel Harrison, Amazon says 2001 but I used the oil techniques book back in ’97-98.
                                        I actually don’t have this but when I was learning (oils) my teacher had the oils version and it was invaluable. Tons of basic techniques and lots of pictures, step by step demos. It’s part of a large series, and I believe the acrylic book and oil book are 90% interchangeable.

                                        :)
                                        Tina.

                                        Abstract coast and geology art: www.tina-m.com | Art/Science gallery: www.grejczikgallery.com

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