101 Textures in Oil and Acrylic by Mia Tavonatti

101 Textures in Oil and Acrylic by Mia Tavonatti ISBN-13: 9781633226869 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: Dec. 25, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
101 Textures in Oil & Acrylic features step-by-step instructions for mastering a variety of the most common surfaces—sand, water, metals, foliage, wood, bark, fabrics, stone, grass, and many more—in oil and acrylic paint.

Although many art instruction books focus on learning to paint specific subjects, many fall short when it comes to offering instruction on techniques that help one capture textures adequately. Experienced and talented artist Mia Tavonatti provides artists with the essential skills required to render realistic surfaces in oil and acrylic. Artists will discover tips and tricks for working with both mediums, as well as a variety of techniques, including blending, layering, working with oil and acrylic mediums, creating an underpainting, and more. In addition to valuable step-by-step instructions, general color recommendations offer a quick start guide. This helpful guide includes an index for fast and easy reference, while a short gallery at the end of the book represents various textures in finished works of art.


My Review:
101 Textures in Oil and Acrylic provides instructions on how to produce 101 textures using oil or acrylic paint. The author assumed that the reader knows the basics of painting in oil and acrylic, so she jumped into the step-by-step demonstrations after a brief introduction. The instructions were not specific to either oil or acrylic paint, so you have to know how to adapt her general instructions to the type of paint you're using. She also never described exactly what she meant by "impressionistic" or "painterly" (and different artists mean different things by these terms). However, the pictures for the different steps did a good job of showing what she meant. She didn't usually say if you should let a layer dry or not before going to the next step, which would have been useful information.

The step-by-step demonstrations were basically "use these colors in this order with these techniques to create this texture." She did not describe how to choose the best colors to create a certain texture. But she did use different colors for the demonstrations of similar textures (like the different types of hair), so you can get an idea of how to choose colors from that. Also, she only demonstrated how to do a small section of texture, like fur or skin, and left it up to the reader to correctly apply it to the whole body. While this book is helpful in teaching how to create different textures, it probably wouldn't be as helpful for a beginner as for someone who has some experience already with oil or acrylic paint.

You can see exactly what's covered in the table of contents, but she basically covered people (hair, skin, eye), animals (fur, mane, feathers, etc.), fabrics (tweed, silk, leather, lace, etc.), woven basket, glass, stone, ceramic, wood, metal, various food textures, and nature textures (bark, fern, grass, rain, etc.).


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.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.