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

Author Biography

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