What do you think?
Rate this book
Lessons in Classical Painting: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier
A companion volume to Lessons in Classical Drawing and an atelier in book form, Lessons in Classical Painting breaks down the foundational skills and techniques of painting in a format that is accessible and manageable for all readers.
With the same direct, easy-to-follow approach of Juliette Aristides's previous books, Lessons in Classical Painting presents aspiring artists with the fundamental skills and tools needed to master painting in the atelier style. With more than 25 years of experience in ateliers and as an art instructor, Aristides pairs personal examples and insights with theory, assignments and demonstrations for readers, discussions of technical issues, and inspirational quotes. After taking a bird's eye look at painting as a whole, Aristides breaks down painting into big picture topics like grisaille, temperature, and color, demonstrating how these key subjects can be applied by all painters.
With the same direct, easy-to-follow approach of Juliette Aristides's previous books, Lessons in Classical Painting presents aspiring artists with the fundamental skills and tools needed to master painting in the atelier style. With more than 25 years of experience in ateliers and as an art instructor, Aristides pairs personal examples and insights with theory, assignments and demonstrations for readers, discussions of technical issues, and inspirational quotes. After taking a bird's eye look at painting as a whole, Aristides breaks down painting into big picture topics like grisaille, temperature, and color, demonstrating how these key subjects can be applied by all painters.
- GenresArtNonfictionDrawing
248 pages, Hardcover
Published July 26, 2016
108 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 29, 2020
This book is magnificent! The lessons, wording, images, thoughts, the size, cover, feel, binding are all perfection. It is the best of Juliette's books in my opinion. It is also one of the greats and I am sure it will stand the test of time.
For me, there was nothing new in the book since I am a classically trained artist who runs my own teaching Atelier - nonetheless it is one I will recommend to my students, in fact I already have.
For me, there was nothing new in the book since I am a classically trained artist who runs my own teaching Atelier - nonetheless it is one I will recommend to my students, in fact I already have.
May 13, 2023
There are art instruction books that focuses on the instructions and did a good job. And then there is this book, that interlace almost philosophical nuggets of wisdom with solid technical painting how-tos. The author's writing style flows easily from instructional to reflective and back again.
Even though this book focuses on oil painting (classical studio style), and I do not use that media, it is fascinating for me to learn, for instance, about how interconnected the palette is to oil painters' style and methods.
This book also did a good job with challenging topics such as light values, limited palettes, and one of the take away for me is that within an artwork, everything is relative to each other, and the more this relationship is built and maintained, the artwork becomes a world onto itself which is key to engaging the viewers and leaving them with something memorable.
Overall I highly recommend this book to anyone who is studies drawing, painting, and sketching.
Even though this book focuses on oil painting (classical studio style), and I do not use that media, it is fascinating for me to learn, for instance, about how interconnected the palette is to oil painters' style and methods.
This book also did a good job with challenging topics such as light values, limited palettes, and one of the take away for me is that within an artwork, everything is relative to each other, and the more this relationship is built and maintained, the artwork becomes a world onto itself which is key to engaging the viewers and leaving them with something memorable.
Overall I highly recommend this book to anyone who is studies drawing, painting, and sketching.
February 20, 2017
Excellent
This thought provoking and inspirational book contains invaluable methods for painting in oils. I have implemented these into my work and have been delighted with the results. The lessons are by example, the instruction informative whilst keeping discussion to the essentials. There is plenty of illustration images with notes that link into the main text. Recommend.
This thought provoking and inspirational book contains invaluable methods for painting in oils. I have implemented these into my work and have been delighted with the results. The lessons are by example, the instruction informative whilst keeping discussion to the essentials. There is plenty of illustration images with notes that link into the main text. Recommend.
April 23, 2022
Like her book on drawing, Lessons in classical drawing, this book is beautifully illustrated. Aristides is an excellent educator who knows how to simplify her method into very understandable steps. This book also helps the reader to chose palette colors, a question every painter has asked. A must have to any interested in formal painting.
August 1, 2023
A WONDERFUL BOOK PACKED WITH INSTRUCTION AS WELL AS INSITEY
Not only does this book contain great advice on how to paint in oil, it also contains A lot of wisdom. One must be able to think, observe and understand their surroundings before they even begin to put anything on a canvas and paint it.
Not only does this book contain great advice on how to paint in oil, it also contains A lot of wisdom. One must be able to think, observe and understand their surroundings before they even begin to put anything on a canvas and paint it.
July 6, 2019
A helpful book on oil painting practice!
August 26, 2019
Still working my way through the lessons in this book, but I can confidently give it 5+ stars. Juliette Aristides’s methods, style, and writing are so engaging. Love her approach and “voice”.
June 30, 2020
Good for intermediates. The book focuses on color theory mainly, which might be too technical for a beginner, but in general very good for any level. Besides this, the book is quite vague and intuitive. The beginner does not get explicit basic rules, and the advanced reader does not get advanced technique refining tips. That being said, the technique here is mainly realism, using opaque paints. Don’t let the title deceive you - there is little to no mention on layers, glazing, her technique on blending, mediums, their ratios, or the no-no’s that will spoil your otherwise archival quality work - she even uses notoriously fugitive pigments in her examples. Not a bad book, just not aligned with my technique.
November 30, 2020
Practical and inspiring
July 7, 2021
what a wonderful, very informative book! Totally enjoyed.
June 14, 2022
Very insightful, added lots of tools to my knowledge in art. Very very good!!!
Never thought I could learn this much from a book 😂
Never thought I could learn this much from a book 😂
February 23, 2023
Excellent book for academic atelier trainees!
August 8, 2016
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Blogging For Books/Waton-Guptil Publications in exchange for an honest review.]
Admittedly, I am not the ideal audience for this book in at least one major respect, for although I greatly enjoy art and art history and art criticism [1], my own skills in visual media like painting are nearly non-existent. That said, this book is a fantastic piece of educational writing from an artist for those who wish to practice the sort of art education that comes from learning in an atelier, or studio, although they lack a master to train them. Even for those who are not artists, though, this book has a lot to offer, largely because it happens to be written from the approach of someone who struggled at art, and who has a deep belief in the spiritual nature of art, all of which makes for a compelling book that is of interest to readers even if their own interest in art is marginal at best. Besides this, the book is full of intriguing quotes that are immensely thought-provoking and that apply far outside of the art world as well.
The contents of this book are focused, as would be expected on the practical side of art. There are four chapters to the book, each of them focusing on a different aspect of art: learning the importance of gray in value patterns, using form painting to combine the senses of touch and sight, using temperature to unlock the secrets of color, and using the palette of nature to master the nature of color. Included among these chapters, which total slightly more than 200 pages of writing, there are lessons on making value posters, creating tonal underpaintings, doing value sphere painting, practicing form painting, doing a warm and cool painting, practicing limited palette portrait painting, mastering trompe l’oeil, doing a master copy of a masterpiece, painting a full-chroma object, doing a still-life floral painting with a color wash underpainting, and doing figure painting from life. The eleven lessons are meant to mimic the year-long education that would normally be undertaken by an artist in a studio as an apprentice painter.
This book manages a very difficult task. It manages to be an intensely practical work from a master painter who struggled to master her art and who therefore has great insight for others who are struggling as well. Yet her advice is practical far outside of art, and her quotes are quite thought-provoking and intriguing as well. Likewise, she is a firm believer in the spiritual nature of art and in the beauty of creation, but also whose love of beauty and spirituality does not contradict in any way a firm appreciation of either the male or nude female form, of which there are plenty, in various stages of glory, to be found in artistic works in this book. Not only does the book feature very technical text about the practice of painting–and the author is firm in her belief in the importance of practicing over and over again different aspects of painting in order to master art–but it also features a large number of paintings, some of them famous and some obscure, that have something to offer the reader interested in exploring nuance and ambiguity and the large number of answers to the same deep questions about art, about what is and what should be, and about how we are to better understand and appreciate the world outside and inside of us. This is a book of value not only with regards to art, but with regards to life as well, and that is a considerable achievement.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Admittedly, I am not the ideal audience for this book in at least one major respect, for although I greatly enjoy art and art history and art criticism [1], my own skills in visual media like painting are nearly non-existent. That said, this book is a fantastic piece of educational writing from an artist for those who wish to practice the sort of art education that comes from learning in an atelier, or studio, although they lack a master to train them. Even for those who are not artists, though, this book has a lot to offer, largely because it happens to be written from the approach of someone who struggled at art, and who has a deep belief in the spiritual nature of art, all of which makes for a compelling book that is of interest to readers even if their own interest in art is marginal at best. Besides this, the book is full of intriguing quotes that are immensely thought-provoking and that apply far outside of the art world as well.
The contents of this book are focused, as would be expected on the practical side of art. There are four chapters to the book, each of them focusing on a different aspect of art: learning the importance of gray in value patterns, using form painting to combine the senses of touch and sight, using temperature to unlock the secrets of color, and using the palette of nature to master the nature of color. Included among these chapters, which total slightly more than 200 pages of writing, there are lessons on making value posters, creating tonal underpaintings, doing value sphere painting, practicing form painting, doing a warm and cool painting, practicing limited palette portrait painting, mastering trompe l’oeil, doing a master copy of a masterpiece, painting a full-chroma object, doing a still-life floral painting with a color wash underpainting, and doing figure painting from life. The eleven lessons are meant to mimic the year-long education that would normally be undertaken by an artist in a studio as an apprentice painter.
This book manages a very difficult task. It manages to be an intensely practical work from a master painter who struggled to master her art and who therefore has great insight for others who are struggling as well. Yet her advice is practical far outside of art, and her quotes are quite thought-provoking and intriguing as well. Likewise, she is a firm believer in the spiritual nature of art and in the beauty of creation, but also whose love of beauty and spirituality does not contradict in any way a firm appreciation of either the male or nude female form, of which there are plenty, in various stages of glory, to be found in artistic works in this book. Not only does the book feature very technical text about the practice of painting–and the author is firm in her belief in the importance of practicing over and over again different aspects of painting in order to master art–but it also features a large number of paintings, some of them famous and some obscure, that have something to offer the reader interested in exploring nuance and ambiguity and the large number of answers to the same deep questions about art, about what is and what should be, and about how we are to better understand and appreciate the world outside and inside of us. This is a book of value not only with regards to art, but with regards to life as well, and that is a considerable achievement.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
August 2, 2016
"Lessons in Classical Painting" contained foundational lessons for painting "in the atelier style." This isn't for absolute beginners since the author assumed you have done some painting and doesn't cover equipment basics. Rather, it's a series of lessons that build on each other to improve your painting.
The author talked about a topic then provided a lesson or two to help you learn and apply that principle. She'd tell you the goal of the lesson and how to choose a subject rather than assume you'll do the exact same painting that's in the demonstration. This allows you to practice the lesson more than once (if you wish) and to pick a topic you'll enjoy painting. I really appreciated this. This is the only painting book I've ever read where I decided to do every single lesson in the book.
The paintings used as illustrations ranged from the old masters to works by the author and many other current artists. Nearly every painting was a lesson in itself or illustrated a point in the text. The topics that she covered included really looking, basic shapes and the values that create an object, how to organize a scene, under-painting, monotone paintings, light as a way to reveal form and create a mood, working with a limited palette, color temperature, color theory, color mixing, and more. You can apply these lessons to any type of oil painting (still life, portraits, landscapes, etc.).
The author clearly defined her terms. She was easy to understand, and I felt no confusion when following her directions. I'm probably an advanced beginner, and I think her lessons have really helped to improve my painting. I'd recommend this book to oil painters who aim for some level of realism in their paintings.
I received this book as a review copy from the publisher through Blogging for Books.
The author talked about a topic then provided a lesson or two to help you learn and apply that principle. She'd tell you the goal of the lesson and how to choose a subject rather than assume you'll do the exact same painting that's in the demonstration. This allows you to practice the lesson more than once (if you wish) and to pick a topic you'll enjoy painting. I really appreciated this. This is the only painting book I've ever read where I decided to do every single lesson in the book.
The paintings used as illustrations ranged from the old masters to works by the author and many other current artists. Nearly every painting was a lesson in itself or illustrated a point in the text. The topics that she covered included really looking, basic shapes and the values that create an object, how to organize a scene, under-painting, monotone paintings, light as a way to reveal form and create a mood, working with a limited palette, color temperature, color theory, color mixing, and more. You can apply these lessons to any type of oil painting (still life, portraits, landscapes, etc.).
The author clearly defined her terms. She was easy to understand, and I felt no confusion when following her directions. I'm probably an advanced beginner, and I think her lessons have really helped to improve my painting. I'd recommend this book to oil painters who aim for some level of realism in their paintings.
I received this book as a review copy from the publisher through Blogging for Books.
August 25, 2016
Good basic instruction here in increments that if followed will help just about anyone improve their skills. For the more advanced that have hit a snag this would be a good review to work through just to check your technique for the “little” things that matter.
Each chapter talks the reader through the lesson and gives progressive pictures to show what the words cannot convey. Talk about lighting and shadows all you want, but a picture gives me that aha moment where all the words come to make more sense. Each lesson builds on the previous one which for the impatient sorts will chafe considerably. But that’s way forward in art it seems.
Planning and more planning to get the right light, colors, and form will become part of the routine. Value strips abound. Tedious stuff, but trial and error uses more time and product. (Of course, I have never done that, but have heard from others who have.)
Follow this book to its conclusion you will improve. Yes, this sort of instruction is available in other places and formats. The other versions might work better for your particular learning style. For those of us that prefer a less hurried method (I’m thinking of video) I would recommend this book. There is one thing before you start this one, though. Drawing. Learn to draw first. At least well enough to follow along with these instructions. Besides drawing helps identify more thoroughly just what you are seeing. Maybe it is the beginning of seeing?
I do recommend this book. Lay flat binding, full color prints on nearly every page, clear font. The only thing better than that would be to work in the atelier itself
I received this book from the publishers in return for a review.
Each chapter talks the reader through the lesson and gives progressive pictures to show what the words cannot convey. Talk about lighting and shadows all you want, but a picture gives me that aha moment where all the words come to make more sense. Each lesson builds on the previous one which for the impatient sorts will chafe considerably. But that’s way forward in art it seems.
Planning and more planning to get the right light, colors, and form will become part of the routine. Value strips abound. Tedious stuff, but trial and error uses more time and product. (Of course, I have never done that, but have heard from others who have.)
Follow this book to its conclusion you will improve. Yes, this sort of instruction is available in other places and formats. The other versions might work better for your particular learning style. For those of us that prefer a less hurried method (I’m thinking of video) I would recommend this book. There is one thing before you start this one, though. Drawing. Learn to draw first. At least well enough to follow along with these instructions. Besides drawing helps identify more thoroughly just what you are seeing. Maybe it is the beginning of seeing?
I do recommend this book. Lay flat binding, full color prints on nearly every page, clear font. The only thing better than that would be to work in the atelier itself
I received this book from the publishers in return for a review.
February 6, 2017
One thing you may not know about me is that I love to paint. When I was younger I used to draw all the time. I would pick up a paintbrush and would feel too intimidated to actually paint anything. Just in the last few years I have learned to really love painting. I'd say it's a pretty good tie to reading!
When I saw this book on the list of choices to review I knew it was the one for me. I have enjoyed leaning new techniques and practicing the different paintings in the book. This book taught me a lot and refreshed my memory on things that I had previously learned.
*Note: I received a copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.
When I saw this book on the list of choices to review I knew it was the one for me. I have enjoyed leaning new techniques and practicing the different paintings in the book. This book taught me a lot and refreshed my memory on things that I had previously learned.
*Note: I received a copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.
July 27, 2016
This book is my new go to studio book for sure! I love the eloquent writing of the style of the author. Brilliant artworks sprawl throughout the pages along with quotes to inspire and encourage. The author, Juliette Aristides, gives the reading several different projects to go about painting throughout the book, each one building on the last. Learning classical techniques of underpainting through the use of color and master studies. This book should be in every single studio! I received this book in exchange for an honest review through blogging for books. Thanks to Juliette Aristides, Random House, and blogging for books for the opportunity to discuss the book in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews