Painting Tools & Materials by Walter Foster Creative Team

Artist’s Toolbox: Painting Tools & Materials by Walter Foster Creative Team ISBN-13: 9781633222823 Paperback: 112 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: Dec. 1, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from NetGalley:
The Artist's Toolbox series provides easy-to-use reference guides for beginning and aspiring artists. While many instructional art books gloss over important concepts, focusing instead on how to simply replicate a piece of art, the Artist's Toolbox series breaks down the whats, whens, whys, and hows of each relevant tool or technique, clearly demonstrating its purpose and how to employ it to achieve desired effects.

In Painting Tools & Materials, artists will discover the important differences in brush styles, sizes, shapes, and types; how each brush is used to create different types of strokes; and how different types of brushes interact with various paints and supports. Artists will learn how to properly load brushes with paint, how to shape brushes to create specific strokes and effects, when to choose synthetic-hair over natural-hair, and much more. Experienced art instructors focus on the key concepts and practical aspects of working with specific tools, materials, and mediums to impart a complete understanding for those seeking to learn the fundamentals of painting.


My Review:
Painting Tools & Materials is a very basic, beginner's art instruction book about painting. They covered the basics about using watercolors, acrylics, and oil and explained which media work well together for mixed media. They talked about the types of brushes and how they're used, supports, mediums, easels and other work surfaces, lighting, storage, and safety issues. They covered color theory, color mixing, and various painting techniques including those specific to a certain type of paint (like watercolor). They provided good pictures of the various materials and techniques.

At the end, they provided six step-by-step demonstrations (2 watercolor, 1 acrylic, 2 oil, 1 mixed media) that used the various techniques discussed in the book. While most art instruction books cover tools and materials, they usually do so quickly and often assume you understand more about the materials and techniques than complete beginners really do. This book goes in depth into these basics so that you can better understand art instruction books and know what tools and materials you actual need for the painting you want to do.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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