The Oil Painting Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist (Watson-Guptill Materials and Techniques) Paperback – March 1, 1999

I wish I had this book earlier on my career. It explain everything very well in a scientific way so it’s easier to understand how paints, medium, glaze etc work. I highly recommend this book to any artist on their journey to oil painting; in fact, if you only want to buy one book, this is it!

I've read a few books on oil painting, and this one is my favorite, hands down. You know that feeling when you're in the art store, selecting supplies and making discoveries, and you look up and realize half the day has gone by? Well, just be sure to set aside some reading time for this when you don't have an urgent project going, because...Although there is at least one other book that calls itself an oil painting encyclopedia (and this one does not), this book has more factual, up-to-date, and helpful information about oil painting tools, supplies, mediums, etc., and how and when to use each of them than any other I've found. Plus the paintings and demonstrations in this book so beautifully illustrate those usages, it was easy for me to see which particular paints and mediums I should try next to complement and grow my own style--and I was deeply inspired to do so. It felt like getting an artist-led tour through the art store, with demos along the way, and pre-printed cliff notes.One word of warning: this book may lead to large purchases of oil paints and mediums! You WILL want to try new things. :DI was sad to come to the end of this book, but I have already found myself going back and referring to sections and passages multiple times, as the information is densely-packed, so there's more you will get out of it after the initial reading, or after your own experiments and efforts. The more you learn and try, the more it will grow with you over time.

So many creative ideas for oil painting and excellent color reproductions!

lots of good practical information on materials. But not great a instruction.

This book was an excellent guide to oil painting. The best I’ve seen. I wish I had owned it when I spent an afternoon all over the internet trying to find out how to keep my drawing from smearing into my oil paint. As simple as it sounds, the answers never really solved the problem. This does. The section on glazing was just spectacular and provided infinite ideas for improvement and just messing around. I knew what scumbling was but did not realize the entire technique. This is invaluable. I use water misable oils, and my only wish is that this book could either be updated or someone someone would write an extensive book about water mixable oils. There a lot of conflicting information. But thanks, Mr. Creevy. I really did need this.

NIce addition to my library and well worth the price. Lots of pictures and guides.

Wish I had purchased this book as my first reference for getting back into oil painting. The author does a great job of describing in clear terms a vast number of painting techniques and the tools and steps needed to implement those techniques. I bought this book primarily to get some better information on glazing and was delighted to find so much more useful data on techniques I was unaware of - like using a small foam roller for blending! The clear prose of this book puts other painting books to shame. The detailed descriptions of the authors techniques make translating them to your work much easier. The author's style may not be to your liking, but the clear descriptions are priceless. This book has become my primary oil painting reference.

I am reading some of the less-than-5 star reviews and felt compelled to write my first review because in my opinion this is a 5-star book, with a wealth of valuable information. Perhaps it’s not a book for beginners, but I have been oil painting for years and have been given bits and pieces of knowledge along the way. This book is extremely comprehensive and has helped me review, revise, articulate (to students), and more fully grasp oil painting materials/techniques, as well as learn new ones. I was especially interested in the glazing section, which can be elusive (due to the layering & mediums involved) and I found it to be thorough and useful. Highly recommend this book!