All about Techniques in Pastel

I love this book. I am a beginner in pastels and needed a book to show me all of the different techniques. This book does that beautifully. The explanations of technique are well demonstrated with photos. There are also many different styles of finished artwork featured so that you can get a broad view of what is possible with the medium.

All About Techniques in Pastel (All About Techniques Art Series) I bought this book to see what can be done with pastels. The tips are great for setting up shop and how-to-do-it. Excellent photos (plural)cover what an artist needs for painting a given subject. It does not deviate from pastels by giving you Drawing 101 basics, other than by examples dealing with each technique. I call it a reference book now.

As far as a pastel technique book goes this one is all inclusive. It has the latest techniques including the mixing of pastel with other elements like water and alcohol and so on. Pastel line, color mixing, blending. The strong point of the book is that it gives an example of how to paint in pastel almost any subject like skies, rooftops, water, water in motion, vegetation, fruit, skin, portraits, fur, feathers, metal, drapery, and more. You name it. I did not see another book around that has so many different types of examples. I should know because I just published an art book myself --Creative Painting For The Young Artist. So this is a book I will now use in teaching my students. Creative Painting for the Young Artist Anyone Can Improve Their Handwriting (CD) Exotic and Meditative Sights and Sounds from Israel

This is my first pastel book, and I've found it immensely helpful in getting used to the medium. Not only does it suggest elementary exercises to getting underway (e.g. Do a painting in one color, like in charcoal, then do one in two colors, etc.) but it suggests structured approaches to doing more advanced paintings. If you've read my other reviews, if there's anything I love, it's a logical, structured approach to learning something. This book, like the other Barron's series, is originally in Spanish (Spain), so there's a distinctly European feel to it, which I find adds a romance and sophistication that American art book authors don't usually have. (Sorry...)The demonstrations are lovely, without being intimidating, and the information is easy to follow.

There are DOZENS of really good books on pastels out there but this is the one I chose after beginning the the Barron's Pastels book, which is very basic. I recommend this one before you get other pastel books.