Pulling Your Paintings Together

by Charles Reid

Gives practical advice on using line, rhythm, mass, finish, style, light, mood, gesture, shape, and color, and offers critiques of student paintings

Genres: Art

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1985

About the author

Charles Clark Reid

Reviews

[Pat Loughery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite advanced, for intermediate and beyond.

[T. Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good ideas for both drawing and painted, well-described

[David Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Objectively, looking at this as an instruction book, it's really useful. There are pictures here that are walked through, step by step, as well as detailed discussions about why certain choices were made, with thought-provoking questions about why those choices were implemented. a small handful of assignments helps to keep the reader involved.
The problem was, I wasn't inspired by the examples. While I appreciate the author wasn't sharing his best pieces (in many cases he suggests there is more to learn from analysing something that he feels didn't work), there was very little content in here that I would regard as aspirational. As a result, I wasn't exactly interested in reading his detailed summaries because I found the end result a bit "meh". There are some lovely examples of this accomplished artist's work online - they're just not featured in this book.
But that's personal taste, isn't it? Regardless of the fact that I don't want to emulate Reid's style, there are still some useful take-aways to include - working with open edges both inside and outside the image, how to use local colour to balance shape, looking for rhythm, and just getting out there and sketching in the first place.