Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color

by Kevin Macpherson

These pages practically glow with Kevin Macpherson's rich and powerful paintings! He shares his techniques for quickly capturing the mood of a scene in bold, direct brushstrokes, with step-by-step instructions that make it easy - simply a matter of painting the colors you see. Follow his lead and you too, can create landscapes and still lives in a vibrant, impressionistic style.

Genres: Art

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

Reviews

[Bali Briant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book for the beginning oil painter. MacPherson presents a paradigm of painting which emphasizes putting the right color note in the right place. Don't paint things, he says, paint color notes arranged in shapes. Separate the light and shadow families. Within a family, look for change of temperature first before change of value. Learn to paint simple compositions en plein air with 6x8-inch pochades, which can rendered in full size in the studio later with the help or memory and snapshots. This approach to simple and straightforward, yet sublime. MacPherson's paintings present such vivid vistas of light and color that one is astonished, upon closer inspection, to see that the vision is made up of mere brushstrokes, seemingly splayed haphazardly on the canvas with little detail. If you want to learn to paint impressionist landscapes, this book is a perfect start.

[Natalie Celelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting, so clearly it was captivating! Great photo examples of the techniques described. I felt like there were a lot of great suggestions. Many felt repetitive- however sometimes in order to get an important point across you have to repeat it over and over until the reader understands just how important it is.

[Arena Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent advice and technique in this book. A lot of his advice applies to all painting and works well for acrylics. Key nuggets of advice: making a decision to limit the number of pigments you use in a painting and painting the dark sections first. Maybe you already knew that, but those two alone go a long way toward better paintings.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearest explanation of how to transition from initial sketch, laying in, and final painting I have seen yet. Great examples and illustrations. Great tips on gauging color and composition and plenty of encouragement throughout.