Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide - Hardcover

Kloosterboer, Lorena

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770854088 ISBN 13: 9781770854086

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2014

Synopsis

The technical secrets of a professional painter for the best results and more room for creativity.

Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide provides comprehensive guidance for painters of all experience. Realist painter Lorena Kloosterboer, known for her exceptional technical skill, starts with the basics and progresses to advanced techniques and professional practice.

The topics include:

About Acrylic Paint -- Types of acrylics, comparative advantages, how to read a paint label, using mediums and additives, gesso and varnish

Materials and Equipment -- Art supply shopping, palettes, masking, special effects tools, brushes, knives and shapers, airbrush, supports, surface preparation, the studio

The Foundation -- Color theory, mixing colors, size and dimensions, order of work, using references, transferring images, painting whites, grays and blacks

Techniques -- Underpainting, washes, wet in wet, adding salt and alcohol, blending, dry brush and scumbling, pouring, masking and stenciling, grisaille, glazing, impasto, sgraffito, spattering, sponging, stamping, decalcomania, airbrushing

Surface and Form -- Still life, wood, glass, metals, fabric, paper, flowers and leaves, portrait, skin, hair, animals, feathers, landscape, water, clouds, shrubs and trees, stone and brick

Be a Pro -- Ethical behavior, competitions/exhibits, art community, consistency, painting titles, keeping records, recording your work, framing, shipping, reproductions, social media, tuition.

A navigator sidebar refers readers to related sections for more information or problem solving. Appendices include a list of recommended brands and where to buy them, a glossary of art terms, how to fix common problems, and health and safety.

Beyond its outstanding content, this book's size makes it an exceptional value. Other titles on this topic rarely exceed 200 pages, even the so-called "big" books. An affordable volume by a world-renowned, widely exhibited artist, Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide is a superb value that will provide years of expert guidance and inspiration. It is an essential choice for retailers and libraries.

About this title

About the Author

Lorena Kloosterboer is an internationally acclaimed Dutch-Argentine artist with a career of more than 25 years. Her award-winning artwork, mostly in the photorealist style, has been exhibited in galleries and museums in 10 countries, including the United States, and published in leading international art magazines, museum catalogs, and art books. Her paintings, drawings and sculptures reside in numerous collections around the world. She lives in Antwerp, Belgium.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Beautiful art has always inspired me. Being infinitely curious, great paintings draw me closer to investigate brush strokes and colors and make me wonder about methods and techniques used. Well yes, I admit that I'm one of those inquisitive people who actually reads labels, instruction manuals and encyclopedias -- because I want to know everything!

Starting out as an oil painter when I was in my teens, I switched to using acrylics in 2004 and haven't looked back since. Of course, building a successful relationship with acrylics took time and energy, but just as with true friendship, my interest and devotion harvested fruits. I came to know and accept its little idiosyncrasies and weaknesses, as well as its strengths and pleasures. Acrylic paint has become a trusted and dearly beloved friend that still surprises me regularly.

I believe that each artist grows and develops along a very personal path, learning through observation, practice and especially by making mistakes. Looking at other artists' paintings and work methods is always useful in order to learn, gain insights and sometimes find solutions for our own artwork.

The suggestions and demonstrations in this book merely present a few possibilities of expression among numerous equally valid approaches. It is impossible to touch upon all artistic subject matter in these pages, let alone show all conceivable forms and methods of expressing them.

This book offers you practical guidelines and useful facts, but the tools and methods shown are mere suggestions -- certainly not rigid instructions. Apart from a few technical dos and dont's, as far as I'm concerned there are no rules in making art. I believe we all need to follow our hearts and intuition and dance to our own tune. Use whatever method you like to achieve the best end result; don't ever let any dogma dictate you!

Sometimes a simple sentence or image sparks an "aha" moment that stimulates you to create new artwork that suddenly propels you to reach a new level. I sincerely hope this book will inspire you to experiment, practice and find your own artistic voice, to ultimately become the very best artist that's inside of you.

Lorena Kloosterboer

About this edition

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1770854088
• ISBN 13: 9781770854086
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320