I love books and I’ve quite a few art books on my shelves. Some are almost encyclopaedias of techniques with different media. Others more inspirational – examples of other artist’s work I use when I want to think about new ways of developing my own style of painting. My collection reflects my development as an artist, so I have books on impressionistic oil painting, landscape painting, working with acrylics, watercolours and finally developing abstract work. Here’s mixture of some of my favourites.
The books of techniques I have found helpful over the years are:
The Search Press Guide to Painting Techniques: a detailed book of techniques across a wide range of different media. Search press produce a good range of books that cover different techniques.
Compendium of Acrylic Painting Techniques: a rich source of ways and means of creating with acrylics is also excellent, particularly if you are new to acrylics and interested in learning more about all the many and varied ways you can use the paint.
Betty Edwards – a great writer and really helpful when it comes to understanding how to draw. Her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is excellent. She offers a very clear and effective process for representational drawing. She’s also written a book on colour techniques as well that is full of great exercises and ideas to help you understand about tone and hue.
Some of the books I have used for inspiration:
Experimental Landscapes in Watercolour by Anne Blockley. Anne is a watercolourist and her book is full of glorious images of her work along with lots of suggestions and ideas for how to use watercolour. Her use of colour gorgeous.
Acrylic Colour Explorations by Chris Cozen. This is a book of Chris’ work along with some of her students. Another lovely compendium of inspiring images that I’ve very much enjoyed leafing through.
And finally, Creating Abstract Art is a book by Dean Nimmer. Emeritus Professor, Dean Nimmer, is the former Chair of the Painting, Printmaking programs at Mass College of Art, where he taught from 1970 to 2004
Do you have a favourite art book? I’d love to hear your suggestion if so.
Interested in learning to paint with me? My new workshop programme for next year is now available here.