Painting with Pastels: Easy Techniques to Master the Medium Paperback – May 18, 2007

I like the way the author explained step by step on how to do the painting. What really captures my attention and amazes me is the part on underpainting! I call it magic!

After seeing some beautiful pastel paintings, I decided to broaden my artistic abilities. I've been painting in watercolors, and discovered that it was possible to combine it with pastels by using the watercolor as a base. I ordered the pastels (cheaper ones, because I wasn't sure I'd like it).Then I prepped my watercolor paper for pastels, I watched a few youtube videos, but I'm a visual learner that needs to see it in my hands so I ordered a few books on painting in pastels. My first attempts went right in the trash! The (painting ) looked nothing like the one i was attempting to paint. Then by chance I ordered "painting with pastels" and wished I'd started with this book first! It's full of basic info on what, when and how to do it. It also has several lessons that show you step by step how to paint it. It is by far the best one I've seen. Im not sure this is the medium for me, I guess my passion is watercolors, but if you're seriously trying to learn pastels, this is the book to teach you....

This is a terrific book for those moving to or starting with pastels.I'd highly recommend this as a solid reference.That being said there is an issue with the printing quality.The is printed in China (go figures) and it shows. On almost every single image, except perhaps the cover, there is a distinct bronzing problem with the colors.Depending on how it's held in the light you can see the edges around various parts of the image light up in reflection. These are not the quality reproductions of images you'd see with a lot of other books by different publishers. The quality is sub-par.This same issue occurs in certain pigmented inkjet printers when using glossy paper. The micro-encapsulation of the ink particles reflects certain type of light to produce this effect and is always an issue when making high quality prints on this type of paper.As I said earlier, the information in the book and Ms. Price's explanations are wonderful but perhaps they should have it printed in a country where quality control is taken seriously.It's a shame that such nice images has to have this effect.

Excellent Instructions And Inspiration for Beginners & Pros! Very practical! Great Examples! Surfacing Options, Subject/Sketching/Painting Options, Framing and Archival Advice! Great Value, New Or Used!

Great book for beginners and I will be using in my middle school art class. Great for the value.

This is by far one of the best advice books for beginners. Many beginners feel intimidated by the artwork inside but its not exactly a by step painting book, no one expects you to paint like this straight away, although you could certainly try to do the paintings in the book. This book is full of helpful information that a beginner should know if they want to continue to be successful at pastel. Totally recommend if your serious about learning.

Over the past five years I've read numerous books on pastel painting, especially ones primarily about pastel painting techniques. Given the caveat that this book is more than 10 years old, and therefore not up to date on pastel materials (pastels, paper etc.), it, nonetheless, provides some the the clearest most easily understood explanations of frequently used art concepts, eg. balance, and also gives multiple variations on processes for creating pastel paintings using examples from a number of excellent artists (eg. Richard McKinley). Thus, I found it a very useful book.

I have begun dabbling in pastels after working with acrylics for many years. My work just didn't seem to go the way I wanted, so I explored the various books out there and purchased several of what I thought would be great beginner books and also for those of us with some artistic background. I have to say "Painting with Pastels" by Maggie Price is my favorite! She covers all the necessary bits (types of pastels, papers, workspaces, choosing subject matter, composition, strokes, color (in many different ways - paper, underpainting, application), use w/watercolor), blending....and so much more. I also loved the sections where discussion, with appropriate figures to compliment the written work, on using either photos, slides, still life, landscape, and models, as your subject when using pastels. I now feel confident in my own work and know I can now expand into producing works of art that even I can be happy with and hopefully someday become an expert, well at least adequate, artist using pastels as my medium.