Oil Painting Techniques and Materials

Fun little book with lots of text. So if you're a visual thinker like me, this book will be a challenge since there are no visual images in it to help explain.

Still after more than 1 year I read and reread important passages and use the examples for my own exercises. The book is a treasure for everyone who wants to dig deep into painting techniques, e.g. light and shadow, forms and values and oil-painting techniques. When I first got the book I ploughed through it like a madman, intrigued by the author's knowledge. Then I reread it more slowly, marking pages and exercises, which I then executed (some repeatedly). I really can recommend this book - although the images are indeed quite bad (the author also is aware of this and apologizes throughout the book ;)). But as the exercises and examples are just meant to give the reader an idea for her own studies it is a lot more appropriate to set up real life models, statuettes, sculptures etc. An example of how the book reverberates in me might be the following: Harold Speed explains how to paint light and dark with a small statuette of a horse head (of which there is a picture in quite poor resolution). His intention is to use something more or less simple, where the painter doesn't loose herself in the forms. So the exercise can even be done without a real model. But: I know that painting from photographs can help a lot, but in order to get a feeling for the values a model in 3d is a much better solution! So, last weekend (more than a year after buying the book) I found a wonderful little statuette of a horse head on the flea market. And thus I now got the perfect model to do this exercise. To me this book is a long term companion and I'm grateful I found it. The quality of the pictures doesn't diminish this in the least. I can recommend it wholeheartedly.

Firstly, who was the author?... Harold Speed studied painting at the Royal Academy Schools between 1891 and 1896. In 1896, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1893 and throughout his life. He died in 1957, but remained to this day an important reference for scores of artist oil painters. This book, of which I just bought a second copy - the first was lost accidentally - is an excellent reference, which deserves place of pride and honour in any artist oil painter's bookshelf. Harold Speed delivers great teaching in the book, and his text is both a reflection, a lecture on a variety of subjects within the Oil Painting media technique. The reader is not obliged to agree with everything Harold Speed says - I beg to differ too, on a number of views - but that is besides the point. The point remains though, that his observations are valuable and he gives excellent clues, in particular, on the Technique of Painting, Tonal Values, Colour Theory, Tone and Colour Design and Painting from Life. Additionally, he adds priceless notes on the techniques of Velasquez, Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Franz Halls and Rembrandt; and I cannot even begin to tell you how INVALUABLE these observations truly are. Harold Speed also included a chapter in his book, entirely dedicated to Oil Painting Materials and their appropriate use, a very useful addition to any oil painters of all abilities. I note some of the less favourable comments here on Amazon... Perhaps these reviewers had a different set of expectations. The book is not intended to provide a tutorial, but rather elaborate at length on all the different aspects of oil painting as a fine art medium, which will resonate better with oil painters who already have some experience and now seek a more in-depth book. I recommend it. I lost my first copy accidentally and decided to buy a second copy as a replacement, because to me, Harold Speed's text is valuable and offers sound advice on multiple points of oil painting technique.

期待通りの商品だったので なにも不満は感じていません。 汚れやしみはほとんど無くアンダ－ラインや書き込みも有りませんでしたので、気持ちよく使用しています。

This book is a joke!!! Over a photo caption that says ‘A beautiful example of the primitive manner of colouring’…. There is a photo in Black & White (See attached image). In a book that, at least, 3 of 12 chapters are dedicated to colour… ALL images are in black & white. Disappointing!!!