The Complete Oil Painter: The Essential Reference Source for Beginning to Professional Artists

I'm a self-thought artist and began oil painting at age 6 until I reached my early teens. I never gave up drawing though. I work as a graphic artist and also have work experience in the field of cartoon animation. Now in my early 30's, I decided to give a go at oil again but there were a few things in my art that bothered me. I thought of taking painting lessons, I looked around at the various schools in my area and gave up on that idea since it appeared obvious to me that all that these schools were offering me was to teach me "how to draw" from scratch, regardless of my advanced drawing skills - Instead I bought this book; "The Complete Oil Painter" by Brian Gorst and ".Problem Solving for Oil Painters: Recognizing What's Gone Wrong and How to Make It Right" (also a good book) which was recommended to me. Honestly, I thought that the later (Problem solving) would prove to be most useful but to my big surprise it was The Complete Oil Painter by Gorst - As a self-thought artist, I was simply lacking technique and knowledge of the medium. I didn't know what a ground colour was or how to varnish a painting! This book solved a lot of problems and answered a lot of questions instantly and it saved me hundreds of dollars in un-necessary painting lessons

My instructor talked about this book in class and said it was a very helpful book to have. Being a novice, I took her advice and ordered one. It has been very helpful, with clear explanations concering color mixing and opaque and translucent color techniques. I can only recommend this book as a beginning oil painter, but have gotten great tips and my use of color combinations have greatly improved.

Gorst does an excellent job in walking the beginner through what they need and need to know to get started. It's promoted as being suitable for professional artists (I presume professional oil painters) - I'm not sure that an experienced painter will find much of use here. The images are good, providing an array of styles available with this medium. The subjects he chooses for the step-by-step practices are of a level of competancy not usually found in a beginner's book. Typically I've found the examples in other books to be rather bland - if you can reproduce the examples in here then you'll certainly have some paintings worth hanging. My library of art books is approaching something like 250 items, covering all sorts of media as well as art theory, appreciation, history etc. The one thing that has struck me while pulling that collection together is, for the most part, Watson-Guptill produce an excellent range of books. The WG range aims at getting the beginner to an intermediate level ASAP and produce some quality art in the process, as opposed to the standard amateurish twee fare that other publishers, namely North Light Books, have folks churn out. An excellent introduction to the world of oil paints. 100% Recommend.

The author's deep understanding of art in general shows in this book, and in his work. His paintings are outstanding and his writing style is easy to read. The book is laid out well, the photographs are excellent as its the overall quality; first rate. Both the "nuts and bolts" and the techniques aspects are handled quite well. Nothing is gone into in very great detail. However, each topic gets more than just a glossing over as I have unfortunately seen in so many other "Complete...." painting books. Plus, Mr. Gorst manages to slip in just a little historical perspective without you minding it a bit.

This book shines among my collection of around 25 books on oil painting technique collected over the past few years during an intense period of self-teaching. I wish I had found Mr. Gorst's book sooner, because of the book's comparitively superior organization and its excellent and carefully chosen technical descriptions with many detailed photos. Included are concise but thorough descriptions and photos of diverse oil painting materials and techniques with insights into the whys and hows of various combinations depending on your desired final effect. Any admirer of the Masters will appreciate Mr Gorst's correlations between his descriptions of various painting techniques and his references to well-known artists who historically used such techniques masterfully. Rarely have I seen an almost side-by-side comparison of multiple, diverse painting processes, from delicate glazing through bold impasto, and the various and subtle combinations possible between. The writings are articulate, clear and concise, and I'm a tough editor. I think this book could be an excellent technical reference for an established artist (which I am not), and the book would be particularly useful to anyone who is still struggling to find his or her preferred technique through experimentation with the diverse materials and style options available.