Review of TURNER by Noel Gregory and CEZANNE by Michael Sanders This series continues with the time-honoured practice of learning to paint by copying the work of great artists. These books are extremely accessible and easy to follow. Showing you how to reproduce famous works in acrylics (although there's nothing to stop you following the instructions using oils if you prefer) the books are refreshing and appealing. Both authors portray their enthusiasm for the artists, giving insights about their lives and methods and explaining how each achieved his revolutionary and innovative effects. They discuss materials and methods and there are five step-by-step projects showing you how to copy the artists' painting, or paintings inspired by them. These projects include many photos, detailed instructions explaining how to apply the paint and what colours to use, lists of all the paints and brushes you need and six reusable tracings to pull out and transfer on to your painting surface. It's a great way to learn painting and will give all beginner artists confidence, or inspire and enlighten anyone who wants to discover how to paint in any of these great artists' styles.-The Artist I've enjoyed this series - one of the joys of painting for me is looking at how the paintings are constructed, the paints and supports used, how thick or thin and how the paints are applied, heavy or light brush strokes, whether its beautifully blended or simple mark making. For me this information is as much to enjoy (sometimes more!!) as seeing the finished artwork. This time Noel Gregory looks at Turner - the famous English painter of lightA" using acrylics rather the oils he would have used. I like Noels own style of work and feel he's made a very easy to follow book here. I love The Fighting Temeraire and following that with Snowstorm shows how Turner took work from the usual realism for the time into almost abstraction. As ever there are tracings of the artworks so that the student can concentrate on the techniques used rather than worrying about getting the initial drawings right. Coming to Stonehenge - the original is watercolour - we can see just how well turner does the effects of light. Its something I struggle with and maybe if I study this books and this work especially I'll find what it is I'm missing..one can hope! For a long while I didn't understand how Turner got some of his paintings to look as they did using watercolours and then I read that he used white as a body colour and things began to fall into place - that's the kind of thing you learn from looking at how paintings are constructed and not just a superficial study of the finished work. There's much to learn from this book from studying how Turner applied paint to learning how he treated his subjects and how he reduced them to their essence to bring about an abstract painting that still conveys the subject matter. If you like trying different styles and are interested in various techniques of painting and applying paint in a way other than what you are used to you'll find this series thoroughly engrossing, and if you admire Turners works Noel gives us some hints of the secrets that turner refused to share in his lifetime!.-JeannieZelos.com
