Learning to Look at Paintings

This book is written in a plain, clear style---it is a good reference book to look up anything about art. The chapters are short.

I enjoyed this book on the principles and elements of design. I think she selected exemplary pictures to illustrate her point. I especially enjoyed the chapter on "subject matter". The only drawback of this book was having to flip back and forth from the reading to the painting. Also, she talked about some of the paintings color combinations that were printed in black and white. In the paperback version some of the details of the paintings were lost because they were reproduced on a small scale. Overall, though I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about design elements.

Composition, space, form, tone, color, subject-matter, and other pictorial elements of the plastic arts are considered and their interrelationships explained in this handy introduction, with over ninety well-chosen illustrations, some in color. The author, an experienced art teacher, has also included illuminating essays on drawing and its purposes, looking at prints, a handy glossary of art terms, and references for further reading. Highly recommended as eminently suitable for an Introduction to Art course, and for anyone else interested in learning to see more in paintings. (The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)