Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color
by Kevin Macpherson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kevin MacphersonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-03-01
ISBN: 1581800533
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: North Light Books
Book Reviews of Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color
Book Review: Great Book, But Not the Best...
Summary: 4 Stars
Kevin MacPherson vs. Lois Griffel's "Painting the Impressionist Landscape?" I've checked them both out, and have done many of the exercises. I am using Liquitex acrylics, which work for both - although a little more difficult with Griffel's techniques.
MacPherson is certainly more explicit and easy to follow; his teaching gives more technical detail and really aims to help the reader become a better painter. It is geared more towards the beginning/intermediate painter (like myself), and is very encouraging.
There are some fundamental differences between the results that MacPherson and Griffel achieve, and this is what should drive you to purchase one book or the other. One cannot compare the luminosity, brilliance and depth of Griffel's work to MacPherson's. MacPherson's limited palette of 4 colors creates a "unified" look, because the paint applied to the canvas will generally need to be a mix of 2 or 3 of his primary colors. He also extensively employs neutral and earth toned mixtures. The price for this is color saturation - mixtures are always less saturated than single pigments applied straight from the tube. MacPherson's work, while colorful, is rather drab compared to Griffel's because of his limited color gamut, and his more traditional technique of layering lights, darks and shadows.
Griffel, however, teaches the use of saturated color straight from the tube, wherever possible. This forces the painter to make discrete choices in the beginning, rather than try to mix a continuum of color, and helps put the focus on seeing, recognizing and choosing colors. The other technique Griffel uses extensively is scrumbling, or the juxtaposition of two pure colors against each other. This is a key technique employed by impressionist painters, and it is also the reason why Griffel's paintings are so much more vibrant. I did find Griffel's palette huge, so I created my own, which provides very high saturation, either alone or when mixing two adjacent colors:
Hansa yellow lt
Cad yellow med
Cad orange
Cad red lt
Acra magenta
Dioxazine purple
Ultramarine blue (RS)
Phthalo blue (GS)
Phthalo green (BS)
Permanent green lt
I found Griffel's book much more enjoyable and enlightening, because I liked the wonderful effects I was getting following her simple exercises. I am learning a ton about color choices, value and seeing color. She gives lots of detail with respect to her thought process and how she chooses each and every color. This you will not find in any other book, including Susan Sarback's "Capturing Radiant Colors in Oils," which is based on the same techniques. Painting is reduced to what it is - just putting down one spot of color next to another.
If you like MacPherson's work and prefer a technically detailed, more traditional painting approach, get his book, it is really a great book on how to paint. If you like Griffel's paintings, perhaps already have some painting experience, and are willing to open your mind and experiment, go with her, you won't regret it!
Summary of Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color
For the beginner or experienced painter, this book provided inspiration and insight into the art of watercolour. Learn how the unusual techniques of pouring paint and masking give a glowing quality to the picture. Pouring causes the colour to tint rather than cover the paper while masking allows more freedom in applying colours.Oil Painting Books
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