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Best Acrylic Painting

Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings: Pick up the skills * Put on the paint * Hang up your art
The book is ideal for anyone coming to acrylics for the first time, or keen to improve their skills, and who is sometimes daunted by the thought of filling a large empty canvas or blank piece of board. After an introductory chapter on tools, materials, and basic techniques, subsequent chapters present exercises to familiarize the reader with acrylics, show how to represent space realistically, how to construct abstract compositions, and how to render form and surfaces.
Reviews
"This is my New Year's resolution to get back into painting and I thought this book would be the book to make this project a reality."
"This book really explains painting techniques like complex scenes, varying brush strokes, negative space, rendering multiple planes, and reflections on metal just to name a few. They helped me purchase the right brushes and paint colors so that I can gather everything I need for each project."
"I love the bite-size projects in this book."
"I was looking for a book I could do QUICK paintings that don't require a lot of thought process and time on my days that I work. For a beginner (which I'm Not) but still easy quick paintings, as you go, the paintings get a little more detailed and takes a little longer to complete. The book *very basic.... * My painting I added more.....that comes with practice."
"I love this book for simples easy painting ideas."
"i really like how this book is designed."
"I am an artist and I usually paint abstracts but it was refreshing to go back to basics and do these exercises because after a long time of doing a certain abstract style you can lose some of the other basic important skills that this book will help with."
"Some of the directions are a bit vague and I would like to see how he would mix the colors he asks for from the primary colors plus black and white."
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1,500 Color Mixing Recipes for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor: Achieve precise color when painting landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and more
This collection of Walter Foster's bestselling Color Mixing Recipes books, including Color Mixing Recipes for Oil and Acrylic , Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits , Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor , and the most recent addition, Color Mixing Recipes for Landscapes . STEP THREE Use the Color Mixing Grid to measure each paint color.
Reviews
"Love this for it's collection of various color schemes, landscape colors etc."
"this was a great value...like 3 books in one."
"Good product."
"Amazing."
"excellent color reference for mixing."
"I have only skimmed through this great little manual thus far but know I will refer to it over and over again to save myself the time and effort experimenting to find the exact shade I want!!"
"So much info!!!"
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Abstract Explorations in Acrylic Painting: Fun, Creative and Innovative Techniques
With the belief that an attitude of playfulness is key to artistic growth, award-winning acrylic artist Jo Toye leads you on an engaging workshop-style adventure filled with innovative techniques, inventive approaches and breakthrough results. When you don't have anything to lose but a few minutes and a little piece of paper, you'll find that you paint more fearlessly, absorb new concepts faster and enjoy yourself more. Heavily illustrated and filled with exciting ideas you won't find anywhere else, Abstract Explorations in Acrylic Painting will inspire you to paint, experiment, play...and come away with some of your best work yet! Jo Toye is an award-winning experimental artist who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Reviews
"So, my internet search for acrylic abstract instruction led me to Jo Toye's book, Abstract Explorations. And did I play! So, if you're like me and have a gazillion art instruction books on your shelves that are dusty and sadly unused, buy Jo Toye's book and allow it to unleash your fiery, inner Artist Warrior too !"
"In addition, she uses innovative techniques like painting with a razor and provides tips for being successful, avoiding making a mess and a variety of different techniques to try. You will find creative ways to make glue gun stencils, use make-up sponges, paint with pipettes, masking fluid, atomizers and tar gel."
"Also, it is not overdone in descriptions as there are a lot of photos to go along with each of the techniques. So many art books go on and on without photos, or have photos but no descriptions. This book has a perfect combination of written description and photos."
"I do a lot of art and still this book had lots of ideas with plenty of room for creativity."
"Awesome, my mother was so happy to receive this, very useful for her, she loves abstract painting."
"As a beginner artist, I'm finding this book very useful."
"love this book very informative."
"I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about the process of creating these abstract pieces."
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Best Oil Painting

Painting California: Seascapes and Beach Towns
This volume, which follows Skira Rizzoli’s luminous California Light: A Century of Landscapes , presents more of the club’s distinctive and lush plein air painting, an impressionistic style in which painters work outdoors in order to capture the ephemeral moment when the natural lighting of a landscape elevates an already beautiful scene into something sublime. Jean Stern is the executive director of the Irvine Museum and coauthored California Light .
Reviews
"This is a compendium of modern/contemporary landscape painting (mostly) with an emphasis on the pretty and the beautiful."
"This is a beautiful book celebrating the artististic history of the California coast."
"The beauty of California landscape through the eyes of its artists."
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Best Portrait Painting

Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors
Growing out of President Bush’s own outreach and the ongoing work of the George W. Bush Institute's Military Service Initiative, Portraits of Courage brings together sixty-six full-color portraits and a four-panel mural painted by President Bush of members of the United States military who have served our nation with honor since 9/11—and whom he has come to know personally. President Bush will donate his net author proceeds from PORTRAITS OF COURAGE to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, a non-profit organization whose Military Service Initiative works to ensure that post-9/11 veterans and their families make successful transitions to civilian life with a focus on gaining meaningful employment and overcoming the invisible wounds of war. It’s also a tale of life’s capacity to surprise, its ability to hand up new and unexpected lives not only to these veterans but also to their constitutional commander.” -Seth Lipsky, New York Post. After staring at the haunting close-up portraits of wounded warriors and reading the searing accounts of their suffering, I’m beginning to understand why this beautifully published book went to No. “Most of [the portraits] show the head and face full size, seemingly bursting out of the frame with genuine presence and considerable expressive energy . “[It’s] impossible to look at these 98 extraordinary images without thinking deeply about the artist who made them: A leader who sent troops off to the battlefield, and who, so many years later, spends his days channeling the damaged but determined warriors who came home .
Reviews
"I'm an artist and a Liberal."
"So while I don't want to cross the line into the contentious, I have to be perfectly honest and say I never would have expected myself purchasing one of President Bush's books. But I watched an interview with him from Jimmy Kimmel's show while he was promoting this book, and when he mentioned that all the proceeds to to supporting causes for veterans, I said “I'm in”. I read a piece a couple years back by some artists and critics who weren't very flattering in their assessments, so I imagine he's already been exposed to some of that. I took a drawing class in college and got a B on a project...the professor's only reason was she hated my subject matter, thought it wasn't mature enough, the thrust of her criticism was not about my technique."
"The most beautifully portrayed emotionally moving book I have ever read."
"The love and honor is expressed in every brush stroke of the portraits."
"The president took on art (painting) after leaving the office, without any previous art background, but his desire to paint lead to this book; Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors. The title of the book is kind of self-explanatory, it deals with the courageous men and women who served in the military. It will make a great coffee table book and something special to keep in anyone's personal library. Lastly, the president did not just paint these men and women, but he has met with most of them personally multiple of times."
"These portraits seemed crude to me at first glance, but once I read each story and looked a bit longer at each portrait, I could see that the president managed to capture each person's character in the eyes or mouth, or some other aspect of that individual's personality."
"I was very Impressed and moved by President George W. Bush's paintings and the stories shared by the wounded Vets."
"Amazing!!!"
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Best Watercolor Painting

The Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook: A treasury of watercolor secrets discovered through decades of painting and experimentation
This special 10th-anniversary collection combines two of the best-loved North Light watercolor guides available: The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook and The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook: Landscapes . Gorden MacKenzie is the author of North Light's bestselling watercolour book, The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook.
Reviews
"*NOTE* HALF OF THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AS THE SEPARATE BOOK TITLED "The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Landscapes" which at the time of this purchase was available for $15, while this book has double the content and a lot of great example art for only $20."
"I wrote this review to make note that this book ALSO INCLUDES: The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Landscapes by the same author. Half-way through the book you will come across the latter, exactly the same book that is sold separately."
"I carry this book with me all the time and Enjoy it very much.... very informative A++++."
"Lovely book, good information."
"Another good guide to technique."
"This book is huge for the cost."
"Very instructionual for beginner and pro."
"I've been checking out the outeated version of this great book from my library and am thrilled I now have the latest edition."
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Best Still Life Painting

1,500 Color Mixing Recipes for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor: Achieve precise color when painting landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and more
This collection of Walter Foster's bestselling Color Mixing Recipes books, including Color Mixing Recipes for Oil and Acrylic , Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits , Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor , and the most recent addition, Color Mixing Recipes for Landscapes . STEP THREE Use the Color Mixing Grid to measure each paint color.
Reviews
"Love this for it's collection of various color schemes, landscape colors etc."
"this was a great value...like 3 books in one."
"Good product."
"Amazing."
"excellent color reference for mixing."
"I have only skimmed through this great little manual thus far but know I will refer to it over and over again to save myself the time and effort experimenting to find the exact shade I want!!"
"While there are a lot of good mixing recipes for watercolor in this book, the list of component colors is quite extensive .....and expensive to acquire."
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Best Landscape Painting

The World of Debbie Macomber: Come Home to Color: An Adult Coloring Book
From beloved author and Hallmark Channel favorite Debbie Macomber, this special adult coloring book features forty-five original illustrations depicting scenes from the Rose Harbor and Blossom Street series. Debbie Macomber , the author of A Girl’s Guide to Moving On, Last One Home, Silver Linings, Love Letters, Mr.
Reviews
"This coloring book depicts a number of scenes from various books, including: “Starting Now”, “The Inn at Rose Harbor”, “Love Letters”, “The World of Debbie Macomber”, Blossom Street Brides”, “Silver Linings”, and “Rose Harbor in Bloom”. Here is an overview of what I found in the book and during my testing of mediums and coloring in this book: 45 Hand-drawn designs depicting scenes from Debbie Macomber books. Printed on one side of white, heavyweight lightly smooth non-perforated page. Quote of Scene is on the preceding page (back of the previous design page. Glue Bound. Designs merge into the binding area – if you cut pages out, you will lose portions of the design. Book opens fairly flat if you “break” the spine. Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. Given the construction of this book, with the quote on the prior page, I do not plan to remove pages from the book."
"I am a big Debbie Macomber fan and an avid colorist so it took me not two seconds to decide to buy this book."
"The Paper in this coloring book is thick and takes multimedia well."
"I have been coloring as a hobby since high school so I'm no stranger to "adult coloring books" and after a while the same themes get old."
"Most of my books are jungles, gardens and flowers, so I thought I'd try something different."
"Purchased this for my mother who absolutely loves Debbie Macomber books and Hallmark Shows."
"Would love more normal pictures such as homes, gardens, landscaping."
"As everything Debbie Macomber does is full of class, so is this beautiful "coloring book"."
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