Oil Painting For Dummies

Nobody ever said that oil painting was easy. But it gets much easier and a lot more fun when you follow a step-by-step approach that starts you off on the right foot, helps you build your skills one at a time, and gives you plenty of exercises to develop your craft. That’s what you’ll find in Oil Painting For Dummies.

Completely free of arty jargon, this full-color guide has all the hands-on instruction you need to master the basics. You’ll see how to plan a painting, build an image in layers, mix colors, and create stunning compositions. You’ll also find everything you need to know about oil paints, solvents, and pigments; brushes, palettes, and painting surfaces; and how to keep costs down at the art supply store. Discover how to:

• Choose the right supplies
• Set up your studio and care for your equipment
• Handle your materials safely
• Develop your design and composition skills
• Make practice sketches and studies
• Use broken stroke, dry brush, glazing, scraffito and other brush strokes
• Try out different compositions
• Mix any color you want
• Simplify tricky still-life subjects
• Paint landscapes and common objects out doors
• Paint portraits and the human form

Complete with handy color chart, basic materials list, and a very useful viewing square, Oil Painting For Dummies is the fun and easy way to discover your inner artist!

Introduction.

Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet in Oil Paint.

Chapter 1: So You Want to Paint.

Chapter 2: Getting to Know Your Oils.

Chapter 3: Assembling Your Materials.

Chapter 4: Preparing to Paint.

Chapter 5: Walking Through the Painting Process.

Part II: Break Out the Brushes and Start Painting!

Chapter 6: A Study in Black and White.

Chapter 7: Mixing Color and Three Oil Studies.

Chapter 8: Putting Paint to Canvas: Brushstrokes and Glazing Techniques.

Part III: People, Places, and Things.

Chapter 9: Tricky Still Life Subjects Made Easy.

Chapter 10: Take It Outside: Landscapes.

Chapter 11: Basic Portrait Painting 101.

Chapter 12: Beyond Portraiture: More on Painting People.

Part IV: Color and Design.

Chapter 13: Planning Your Painting.

Chapter 14: Shape, Space, and the Surface of Your Painting.

Chapter 15: How the Parts of a Composition Work Together.

Chapter 16: Communicating Ideas Visually.

Chapter 17: Using Color with Confidence.

Part V: The Part of Tens.

Chapter 18: Ten Strategies to Immediately Improve Your Painting.

Chapter 19: Ten Artists You Should Know: The Painter’s Painters.

Index.

Anita Giddings and Sherry Stone Clifton are award-winning artist-educators who have made careers out of teaching beginning artists of all aspirations.

Packed with FULL COLOR, easy-to-complete projects

The fun and easy way^® to discover your inner artist through oil painting!

Have you always wanted to paint with oil? Now you can! This friendly guide gives you all the hands-on instruction you need to master the basics. You'll see how to plan a painting, build an image in layers, mix colors, and create the right composition. And you'll practice your new skills by painting a variety of subjects, from portraits to still lifes to landscapes.

Discover how to:

• Choose the right supplies
• Develop your design and composition skills
• Practice sketches and brush strokes
• Set up your studio and care for your equipment
• Work on a variety of compositions