Capturing the Seasons in Oils

Others here have said it: this book contains a ton of information, page after page, covering limited palettes, values light to dark, a variety of techniques for taking an idea from sketch to painting -- all the way down to information about seasonal light. Deibler's art in the book (when it is not a sketch for illustrative purposes) shows a real mastery of brush and color handling. It's definitely loose; those looking for photo-realism or art in the academy tradition will be unhappy. It's somehow reminiscent of both West Coast California art and East Coast Cape Cod schools, approaches that kept on keeping on with their own strains of approachable art throughout the 20th C. maelstrom of off-putting "isms." While the illustrative sketches are far from finished, they do a good job of revealing the skeleton of each task at hand. Chapter 2's "Painting Methods" has especially valuable build sequences. Deibler presents a monochrome block-in, a complementary color block-in (a touch of the academy tradition without the bloodless, obsessive tickles of the brush), a full-color block-in, a light and shadow block-in, and direct painting. Here (as in so much of the book) there is a lot to study, because the finished works are widely diverse in effect and emotion, and this diversity is in part due to the differences in approach. It's one of the few books where I've felt that the author has really thought out the means and methods to impart technique -- and presented each step in a cohesive and informative way. You get the impression that Deibler is eager to share his professional approaches -- and I come away feeling eager to learn more about those approaches by tackling subjects close to me.

As a fine arts professional and art teacher, I've bought hundreds of drawing and painting books extracting the best. In Tim Deibler's "Capturing the seasons in Oils"I have extracted almost all the parts of the book soo useful they are! The book have treasures of basic and indispensable topics as in Chapter 1 "The four key elements of painting" - explaining Shape, Value, Color and Edge ( The edge part its wonderfully detailed). In "Painting methods" Tim not only describes the techniques but shows the thing with terrific illustrations! In "plein air painting" You have a fine selection of equipment and delightful titles as "I'm outside, Now what?" On the last part of the book you have precious step by step demonstrations with detailed materials as paints,brushes and other supplies in little tips boxes. A clear up to the beginners and the advanced! If you buy this book I'm sure that by itself it will be your best companion and instructor for long long time !

I have greatly enjoyed all the works by this artist. His instructional video of this title is right up there at the top of all art videos. I've never seen an artist paint so fast and loose, and tie it all together into such inspiring pieces. His mastery of color and how he does his mixing is exciting and quite unique. Never seen anything like it. Worth every penny!!

I was very inspired by the vibrant paintings in this book. This book has a compilation of a large number landscape paintings created by the author. The artist has demonstrated the steps required to create different effects and seasons using various techniques. Some more detail into these techniques would be excellent. For example, how to create the look of branches of trees against the bright sunlight.

OK so a lot of books by this publisher are kind of lightweight but this is a nice exception. Tim Deibler has a lot of painting and color knowledge and shares it in this book. His palette is spare but he gets miles out of it. He really knows how to mix color and he brings a freshness to each work. He's not one of those painters that keeps repeating the same color formula. This is a well done book with exceptional color reproductions.