Compendium of Acrylic Painting Techniques

I really love this book and wish I had ordered it 3 years ago when I got into acrylic painting as opposed to oils. I'm being Formally trained in college by professors whom I found to have little if any knowledge of acrylic paints and how to paint with it! They prefer oils it seems.This book tells you things like how to make a stay wet palette , one you can travel with outside and avoid drying out.. Things like what to do if mold gets in your paints rather than throw it out! Also how to use different acrylic paints with each other, for example ,the acrylics you use to paint on wood or glass acrylic can be used with the regular acrylic paint on your wood panel paintings. Seems obvious but I never thought of it. Thought it wouldn't blend right. A lot more included like how to mix flesh tones different with acrylics as opposed to oils. It is just a bit different and I could never get acrylic paint mixed right like I could the oils. I recommend this book to all acrylic painters new to it or done it for years. This author has painted in acrylics for 40 years I believe it says and she knows a lot of very useful info. I have a lot of books about acrylics but I know if I had bought this one first I wouldn't have needed all of those other books . Get this book and learn it all in one book! I highly recommend it!

Ok I have to say this book is outstanding!!!! It tells you everything you need to know about acrylics. It is not hard to follow. It helps you with the basics for beginners. The price of the book was reasonable, and illustrations in the book are very colorful. It’s worth the buy!!!

This is a great book, however it was previously published by Reader's Digest under the title "Acrylic Secrets" 300 Tips and Techniques For Painting the Easy Way" by Gill Barron. I hate when they re-release a book under a new title and don't mention it. I buy a lot of books and don't always read them right away and I've been known to make the mistake of buying a book twice because it has another name from the original and I didn't recognize the pictures in it, especially if it is an older book. Be aware...the Compendium of Watercolor Painting Techniques now for sale is also a re-release with the title "Watercolor Secrets" published by Reader's Digest. I just wish these publishers would be a little more open about the books that they publish when they've already been on the market for years and aren't new books at all. Once in a blue moon they might note that on the publishers info page, but not always. Very annoying.

While browsing online through some art collections and current exhibits in London museums and public galleries, I clicked on "Store" in each site just to see what was available - I was mostly interested in books on collections and exhibits that included discussions of the artists' techniques and materials. For one of the large public galleries, this was the only acrylic techniques book listed for that store. So, I dropped in here to Amazon and read all the reviews. Then, I went elsewhere on the www and read more reviews. Then, I came back to Amazon and bought it. Over the last few months, I have consulted it as often, if not more often, than the other handful (i.e., less than six) technique books I keep handy while painting.

If you are like me and don't want to take the time to experiment to achieve a particular effect when painting (or also like me don't have a long attention span so don't always remember what I'm doing), this book should be added to your reference library.

It was an okay book. I was hoping for more tips and tutorials for brushes and painting techniques to achieve different styles and strokes. While there were some... I knew most of them just from watching a few vids on YouTube. I just started with acrylics a 2-3 weeks ago... But I didn't feel like this book was super helpful. Unless you've NEVER painted before... I'd look for other books and tutorials.

Now into my forth month learning to paint, This book was my first one on "How To" and I made a gem of a choice. This little book has so many tips and suggestions that I incorporated as soon as i read about them that I am having a great time painting with knowledge now after such a short time invested. From materials needed to tips on form, colors, well, anything to do with painting. You will not go wrong with this manual on about everything on acrylic painting.

Despite the title, this book doesn't cover is actual techniques for, like, putting paint on canvas. I was hoping for information about techniques like one-stroke painting, dry brushing, impasto, etc. I'd like to have a range of approaches for creating effects in acrylics specifically.

Instead, it's a book about general painting knowledge - using the grid method, the color wheel, mixing dark into light, composition, and how to create and maintain a palette. This is all good information if you don't know it! But much of it isn't acrylic-specific, and there isn't much about methods if you already know the basics.

If you've done very little painting, this would probably be a good book to pick up and go for it. Read the table of contents first, though.

The 300 tips were very informative and Inovative . The instructions for handling spicific details with regard to facial detailing was very helpful. I would recommend this book to all artists alike. It is a welcome addition to my art library.

I am writing as an absolute beginning in acrylic painting (or any painting), who both realizes that this is a hobby and it’s supposed to be fun and relaxing… but also, wants to make nice pictures, darn it! I picked up this book as a crash course in acrylics, and it was that.

There’s a lot of information about both acrylic painting and, I think, art in general, but it’s all covered rather quickly and briefly, and so it can be a bit overwhelming. I think the author both assumes that we know nothing, but also assumes we’re going to be professionals, like a college professor teaching acrylic painting 101. And so you have things like how to mix colors (which was useful) and how to make your own easel and palette (which was less useful).

The first half of the book is more about general knowledge and the second half was projects where your knowledge could be applied. And this second part did, in fact, remind me of projects you’d get at a high school or college art class. But the seriousness of the projects (which might involve segmenting your canvas into a graph or drawing with charcoal) was a bit intimidating to me. As such, I was hesitant to try it.

I will be honest. For me, right now, I’m learning more about acrylic painting techniques just from watching YouTube videos and trying to copy them. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get anything from the book; there were plenty of tips and tricks I might look at in the future… once I have more experience under my belt.

I think that for a young person (teen or college age) who wants to be an artist, this could be a good first book to study. This could also be good for someone who has dabbled in painting for a while and wants to take their skills to the next level. For absolute beginners who want to use painting to relax, it may not be the best choice, though there are definitely valuable tips to be found.

Finally the book I've been looking for!!! My formal art school training was more than fifty years ago when acrylics were in its infancy and instruction was primarily concerned with water and oil. Now, retired, I can finally spend my time painting. And stated to dabble with acrylics but soon found I needed some "nuts and bolts" help with some basic questions concerning acrylic painting vs oil and water painting. This book was perfect and it even touched on some of the general basics of painting in general. It's simply written with everything accompanied with clear pictures demonstrating all the information given! Just got the book today and read answers to some issues I had already incurred! Can hardly wait to start a new canvas!