Hi Nexus,

I've recently started painting and drawing. I've been doing it for about a month now.
As a kid I used to draw often and was pretty good at it, but I guess I never got the encouragement I needed, neither the drive to pursue this.

But now I'm totally willing to learn and paint everyday. It's just a wonderfull thing, it opens my consciousness just by paying more attention to nature and objects and the colors and light involved etc...

At the moment I really like the classical painting style of David Leffel or Gregg Kreutz. Also the impressionistic painting style (Monet for instance). And off course, visionary art...
Since I've never been to art school I bought a couple of books to help me on my way, and I think they are great:

Colar and light - James Gurney
Bring color and light in your oil paintings - Kevin Mcpherson
Problem solving for oil painters - Gregg Kreutz

Now I know the nexus has a bunch of great artists, so I would like to hear some recommendations on good learning books, or on your approach to learning.
Did you ever learn from books? Did you go to art school? Did you copy great paintings of artists you like? (try to copy a Venosa painting )

Thanks for your input!

Kimon Nicolaides - The Natural Way to Draw

this is an awesome book about drawing/sketching , it has some oil studies , yet its mostly about drawing , the method for drawing learned from this book is beyond anything natural .......its truly alien and super advanced

also using oil paints is just like playing with crayons , yet oil paint can take a work way beyond anything crayons can do on their own ,it takes a while to hold and use the brush efficiently like a pro , yet oil is such a flexible medium

obviously glazing is the holy grail , yet alla-prima is faster than lightening

and even alla prima allows for a bit of glazing , alla-prima technically does not always mean impressionistic work , bold strokes or either impasto , many have used this method for fine art aswell like velaquez himself

also oil painting = $$$$ a lot of $$$$

if getting into oil painting remember to use colour right out of the tube , dont use any medium unless absolutely necessary , its better to paint thinly rather than thin the paint

edit : try visiting the forum at www.wetcanvas.com for really awesome info about everything related to oil painting

cheers Jin!

I will definately look into that book!

I'm actually using acrylics, it seemed the obvious choice for a beginner. I like the fact that you can just use them with water, no need for solvents or thinners.

I'm using a limited palette for now, to get familiar with color mixing.

Anyone else care to share some info?
Come on, I know this place is full of great artists, help out a beginner!

As I've seen there aren't really that many books out there for the aspiring artist that are actually of much help beyond the fundamentals. I'd like to find some myself. The internet is by far the best resource there is and I never find myself coveting a book that contains information that I can't already find online.

Ralph Meyer's book 'The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques' is a very well known slab of a book, with lots of information about different processes and materials, but won't really teach you how to paint well.

Acrylic is a good starting point as you can figure out a lot of the theory quickly without waiting for paint to dry or thinking about too many rules like oil painting requires. The absolute most important thing you can learn first is subtractive colour theory and properties of the pigments. Without colour theory, you're screwed.

I realize this might not be of much help, but I feel like I've never had much help either. If I can't figure out how to make something work I end up looking for a specific solution.

There is lots of good stuff on youtube, Will Kemp's videos range from beginner to intermediate and some beyond, though many are only previews, you should be able to get some colour theory down from his channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/willkempartschool . There's a couple of good videos that deal with pretty basic colour theory too.

Also seek out some of Paul Taggart's vids. He has whole complex landscapes from start to finish and has the whole thing in real time, as well as other videos dealing with materials and colour theory in acrylic, oil and watercolor.

Jin mentioned glazing and ala prima. I think think the most flexible approach is simple layering. Ala prima demands that you know what you are doing and have your knowledge of colour mixing at a pretty decent level. Layering in acrylic is fast and easy and allows for glazing on every layer with as little or as much medium as you please. You can also very easily make adjustments this way instead of getting it literally in one (ala prima literally = in one). Glazing itself is very useful, but some opaque pigments can give even bolder colours than glazing can. Some colours can't create bright saturated hues without glazing. When you have built experience you will know which is which.

Thanks for the reply Orion! I like your artwork!
I've checked out the Will kemp website and it's full of great advise.