Step-by-Step, Bit by Bit

I’ve really exhausted all the paintings I want to do from my step-by step book. Either all the others have results that are too specific (Portrait of a Random Businessman), too easy (Hot Pink Peony Closeup) or too difficult (Portrait of a Kitten Detailing Every Hair).

I like learning from books, and I think it goes way back. Below is the first art book I ever had.

It is also step-by step book, published when books cost a dollar (probably the mid-fifties). I didn’t buy “How To Do Watercolors” — it initially belonged to my artistic Aunt Dolores, who died six years before I was born. When I was six and my Grandceil realized I drew to amuse myself, she gave me all Dolores’ art supplies. 

But, look at the bottom of the back cover:

Yes, both books are step-by-step books published by the Walter Foster company.

Talk about early influencers - this influence came from beyond the grave.

Comments

[KC]

Does Walter Foster have an "Even More Step by Step Oil Paintings" book? :-) It does seem like a nice alternation from the sometimes-tear-your-hair-out totally-original projects.

[TheQueen]

KC - three of them came from amazon this week. They give a variety of detail.

[KC]

Yay! I hope there is a wealth of... I don't know what to call them. Backup projects? Reassuring projects? Reset projects? Training projects?... in the tomes. :-)

[TheQueen]

KC - well, there is a greater variety of styles in the new ones. There is a dearth of floral painting, though, and my mother-in-law needs another floral painting.

[KC]

I bet there are floral paintings somewhere, though - that seems like something that tutorials would tend to cover? But I don't know if online tutorials are less useful than book-with-actual-pages tutorials.

[TheQueen]

KC - yes! One would think! There have been very few floral options, except for the “Paint Florals In Acrylics and Oils” book. That one has only florals - but every example is in hideous plastic acrylics, not luminous oils. I can still follow the steps, though.

[KC]

So, you can do All The Acrylic Paint Things with oils, but not All The Fancy Oil Paint Things with acrylics? Or does this book just focus on the things that could theoretically be done with either? Anyway: glad you have abundant florals. :-)

[TheQueen]

KC - you could paint with either, but acrylic looks plastic and dead, while oil is luminous. I was wondering why all the examples where in acrylic - then I realized if the example was in oil and you used acrylic it could never compare.

[KC]

Is acrylic always opaque? That seems like it'd make a substantial difference in the depth of the output. (I have not done anything with either, unless you count kiddie pot paints or flat-coats of acrylic craft paints or fabric paints.)

[TheQueen]

KC - I think you can dilute it with water. There was one amazing artist in New Orleans who gently painted an extra line on all of his edges so they would appear blurry. That’s the only acrylic thing I think I’ve really liked. You made me think back to when I might have used acrylic in school, and I don’t remember doing it. It would have been new. I remember using tempera paint instead, but Wikipedia suggests that I would need to be 400 years old to have done that.