Portrait Painting Atelier: Old Master Techniques and Contemporary Applications

There have been volumes written on the way the Old Masters approached their painting process, their techniques, the limitations of the materials at hand, and the amazing portraits they were able to produce. With the panoply of paints, equipment, mediums and surfaces that are available to the artist today, it is still not clear how we can strive to develop the beautiful, sensitive, glowing results of these Old Masters - until now. Ms. Brooker does this in a well written, 'user friendly' manner. She starts with the premise that as artists, we have to take an organized, intellectual approach to our painting (a novel concept considering what we were exposed to in the 60's and 70's). She launches us on this path of an organized thought process by addressing the basics of studio practices (organized palette = orgainzed thinking)and even includes a review of the preparation of quality surfaces and their importance to producing quality paintings (a part I found to be very useful). Ms. Brooker then addresses the use of color and pallette management, toned grounds and paint application to prepare us for the painting processes. Before diving into the hands on work of painting the portrait, she provides an abreviated look at the normally bone dry subject of facial anatomy. This is enough to whet the appetite of those who would like more detail while stasfying the basic needs of the majority of those interested in portraiture. Instead of pages on the underlying anatomy of the 4 key features of the face, she walks us through a process of observing the expressive nature of each followed by practical techniques for painting them. I found these very helpful in reassessing how I approach the painting eyes and nose. The final two sections on the process and associated demos of painting portraits, give the reader excellent examples of how one can begin to achieve result akin to those of the Old Masters. Ms. Brooker takes through the preparation of the ground, blocking-in, underpainting, paint applicaiton, finishing with the judicious use of glaze to bring forth the glowing life force we seek in our paintings. This book clearly demonstrate Ms. Brooker's thesis that a thoughtful, dare we say intellectual, approach to portraiture is essential. This, coupled with being able to take advantage of the concious choice of ground, underpainting and transparent nature of paint, will allow the reader / painter to begin the realization of the desired optical impacts we so admire in the work of the Old Masters.

This book is very informative...like a complete course in portrait painting. The information can be applied to oil paintings other than just portraiture. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in fine tuning their skills in oil painting.

This book has wonderful descriptions of how to paint like the Masters. I have learned so much and I'm only about a third of the way through. So many full high-definition pictures that it would be worth the price just for the pictures of art. But even if there were no pictures it would still be worth the price and then some. I think this book is worth an entire semester of arts school there is so much to learn I'm so much this book will teach and easy to understand and yet with in depth descriptions of why something works and how to retrieve it on a canvas. There's a whole chapter on how to prepare a canvas directly how to build one's own canvas. Then it launches into wonderful explanations of how to achieve the type of realism and clarity and oil paints. This book is truly exceptional I was surprised way better than I expected.

Helpful information attractively and understandably presented. Quite nice.

Portrait Painting Atelier is a wonderful and thorough book! I kept passing it up in my searches for figure painting books, and finally made the purchase. And I'm so glad I did. I don't paint in the style of the Old Masters, but the material presented made me feel like I was being ushered into a school of thoughtful learning and approaches that I had not learned in other figure classes. It's not a book you rush through and all the chapters-such as glazing - don't interest me right now. It's a book I'll refer to over and over.

I have been painting for quite a few years, but I noticed my colors were a little bland. When I read the reviews on this book and decided to order, I thought it might give my work a shot in the arm. I was quite impressed with the methods the author employs. I know it will take a few months to digest and personalize eveything in this method, but I am sure it will help my painting tremendously. I am very glad that such books are published, and take my hat off to the author. If you are interested in learning the 'glazing' method of painting - especially for figurative work. this book could be what you are looking for. I highly recommend it.

As much as I've learned from reading this book, I've come the conclusion that no matter how many books you read about drawing and painting, unless you start to draw and paint you're really going to learn much. In other words, there is no substitute for experience no matter how many good books you read.

The book explained color values, and combinations of compatible colors for the best skin and shadow tone results. How to layout the most effective pallet for specific portrait subjects, as well as examples of alternate painting techniques. An easy to follow tutorial for the non experienced and the more advanced oil painter. I refer to it regularly when starting a new painting.

Questo libro e davvero un ottimo manuale di pittura in generale ma è indirizzato principalmente a chiunque voglia imparare le tecniche di pittura degli antichi maestri come Michelangelo, Leonardo ,dei pittori fiamminghi etc.. applicate in particolare alla realizzazione di ritratti. Il libro è organizzato in modo molto schematico e offre miriadi di esempi e esercizi da eseguire per migliorare il nostro modo di dipingere, chiunque trarrà grande giovamento nel leggerlo ma presenta alcuni difetti, in particolare la qualità delle foto degli esempi passo passo alla fine del libro non sono granchè senza contare che le bellissime immagini in copertina e all'interno della prima parte del libro ingannano un po in quanto non sono dipinti dell'autrice.... la cui tecnica per quanto sofisticata sembra produrre risultati non proprio eccezionali e in alcuni casi mediocri.... oltre a questi piccoli difetti il libro di per se offre davvero tante informazioni e si presenta alla fine di facile e scorrevole lettura, senza contare che le tecniche per quanto antiche vengono applicate utilizzando i materiali che si trovano oggi in commercio dando dei consigli su quali utilizzare per ottenere i migliori risultati con evidente risparmio di denaro. Davvero un ottimo testo anche se devo dire che in commercio si trova di meglio, risulta cmq un'ottima aggiunta alla biblioteca di chiunque sia interessato all'argomento....

Beautiful book. Arrived with the book jacket bent and crumpled. Disappointing for such a beautiful book to arrive not looking brand new. It was packaged in a large bubble envelope and the jacket was about 2 inches above the book, which is the part that arrived damaged.

Este livro tem extensa gama de explicação sobre como fazer retratos baseados nas técnicas dos velhos mestres, e tem ilustrações de vários pintores contemporâneos.

Portrait Painting Atelier: Old Master Techniques and Contemporary... Sehr gutes Buch für jeden Künstler. Sehr gute Bilder und Erklärungen Schritt für Schritt.

Ouvrage fondamental pour un peintre amateur car donnant des renseignements techniques précis et très valables. A beaucoup plu à celle à qui je l'ai offert.