The Best Still Life Painting Books of All Time

The Easy Way to Get Started with Oil Painting. Craig Stephens has a simple motto for painting: With a brush, some paints and a willingness to learn, anyone can do it. With that mindset, Craig takes his most essential lessons, boils them down to their basics and teaches you everything you need to know to start oil painting, without any fuss or highbrow. Thanks to his experience teaching painting to high school students for over two decades, Craig is an expert at helping those with no experience pick up a brush and make beautiful art they are proud of.

With his direction, you’ll create dynamic, vivid paintings and learn to capture your world in ways you never thought possible. Each project in this book is designed to highlight the important elements of using oil paints, helping you to practice new skills and get comfortable with the medium. And thanks to Craig’s helpful step-by-step directions that pair a picture with each stroke, you’ll get great results. Hone your color-mixing eye as you blend the vibrant greens and subtle yellows in the Freshly Cut Avocado piece. Practice painting unique textures, like the small craters in the Simplified Strawberry or the glossy skin on the Smooth and Shiny Plum. Learn all the ways to capture natural light, like transparency in a glass of Refreshing Lemon Water or dazzling reflections on a Chrome Coffee Creamer. Oil painting is a timeless art form, and with Craig as your teacher, you’ll create 22 beautiful pieces for your walls and learn all the foundational skills you need to enjoy this hobby for years to come.

If you've always wanted to try your hand at oil painting, this is the book for you!

Accessible guide for beginners to learn how to oil paint on a small scale, using square canvases measuring no more than 4-inchesEasy subject matter so aspiring artists can focus on the actual subjects they're painting rather than a large composition9 step-by-step projects for classic still life paintings with different shapes, colors, and textures, to grow your painting and layering skillsTraceable sketches are included for each project, for those who lack confidence drawing their subjectsAuthor Estelle Day is an award-winning professional artist and an associate member of the Society of Women Artists. Get big results on a small canvas! A complete introduction to still life oil painting for beginners, this comprehensive must-have guide will walk you through everything you need to know to be successful in small-scale oil painting! Accessible and unintimidating, Easy Oil Painting focuses on painting small canvases that are no bigger than a 4-inch (10 cm) square so you can worry less about composition and focus more on the actual subject. Learn key painting techniques in detail — from color mixing to glazing — through nine step-by-step project tutorials, working with several different shapes, colors, and textures to grow your painting and layering skills. Projects include an egg, espresso cup, lemon, apple, silver pitcher, red onion, glass vase, fall leaves, and green pear. Easy-to-follow instructions and "Trace-This-Linework" drawings for each of the nine projects are also included, making this must-have guide a great starting point for beginning artists! Award-winning professional artist Estelle Day studied at both Chelsea College of Art in London, UK, and Oxford Brookes University, graduating with a degree in Fine Art. Since then, she has continued to paint and draw and currently works from her home studio in London, UK. She has exhibited her portraits and still life paintings and has sold her work in the US, UK, France, and New Zealand. She is also an associate member of the Society of Women Artists. Estelle is on Instagram @estelledayfineart, where she has an engaged following who adore her lively paintings, which are often filmed as time-lapse videos. Get started quickly, hone your skills, and fall in love with the luminous and vibrant world of oils, with Easy Oil Painting!

An exciting, easy to understand book devoted to still life painting! 30 Ways to Master Still Life Painting tackles most problems artists face. No more confusion about still life composition or how to light your setup. Capture the power of light and shadow, create form and the illusion of depth. Discover brush handling and mixing techniques that will make your painting come alive. “A still life, if done well, tells a dynamic story of light and form and paint—all converging into a vivid drama,” according to Gregg Kreutz, artist/author of Oil Painting Essentials and Problem Solving for Oil Painters.

“[This] collection of her paintings will help beginning and advanced artists.”. 171 pages fully illustrated in rich color, 30 Ways to Master Still Life Painting is divided into six sections, including seven demonstrations as well as bonus tips and a materials list:. I-Setting Yourself Up for Success—from materials to lighting to process. II-Composition—telling a visual story, formatting a canvas, eye levels, sizes and shapes, the four elements of composition, background colors and values. III-Brushstrokes—handling the brush, thin vs. thick paint quality, experimenting with different brushstrokes. IV-Value, Color, Edges—using ranges to tell a story, color strategy, color mixing. V-Light and Atmosphere—light and shadow, creating the illusion of atmosphere. VI-Form and Tactile Quality—three-dimensional objects, variety of textures, solid and transparent objects. Kelli Folsom received a B.F.A. from Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, CT, where she studied traditional life drawing, painting, and sculpture. In 30 Ways to Master Still Life Painting, Kelli Folsom generously shares her knowledge and love of painting.