Radiant Oils: Glazing Techniques for Fruit and Flower Paintings That Glow Paperback – October 9, 2013

This book is all about glazing. There are hundreds, if not thousands of books on other, more common oil painting techniques, such as impasto, plein air, alla prima, but this book focuses solely on glazing.The Old Masters used glazing on rich fabrics and jewels so it is important to add the knowledge of glazing techniques into your oil painting skills.If other oil painting books mention glazing, it is just in passing. Arleta happens to be an accomplished watercolor artist and she incorporates her knowledge of watercolor skills into this book on glazing. She is very experienced in painting in layers, and creating luminosity with transparency.Arleta loves floral still lifes, so all of her projects are still lifes with flowers in them. But she also talks a lot about photographing the subject, stretching the canvas and which exact oil colors she uses for her glazes. She also discusses the various alkyd mediums so you know how they compare.The book is a series of exercises and projects, going from a simple sphere and then some fruit, to complicated projects of crystal, silver, and sweet peas. The picture on the cover of the book is one of the projects. This book is set up to truly teach you HOW to do it. She breaks down every project into many steps, telling you exactly which colors to use and where to put them.So, even if you are not into flowers or still lifes, this book will give what you need to know so that you can incorporate the tools of glazing into any of your own oil paintings.

Arleta Pech has been my favorite artist since I discovered her over ten years ago by buying her first book, PAINTING FRESH FLORALS IN WATERCOLOR. The lessons were fantastic, and my skills improved greatly. I decided I wanted to try oil painting, and was so excited when I found out she was going to do a book on oils. I had to wait quite a while before it was available, but I was not disappointed when my book arrived from Amazon. The paintings in the book are beautiful. It is worth the price of the book just to be able to look at her recent art work in oils. The lessons are so well thought out and explained so thoroughly. Arleta Pech is an inspiration for all would be artists. Her new book is fantastic.

I own both of Arleta Pech's books, this one and "Painting Fresh Flowers in Watercolor" and several of her DVDs. Arleta was originally a watercolor painter and many of her techniques are reminiscent of watercolor. However, what she is able to accomplish by glazing with oils is amazing. If you want to learn oil glazing and how to paint realistically, this book will not disappoint. It is well written and detailed. The painting demonstrations are easy to follow. If you follow Arleta's techniques your oil paintings truly will "glow". Arleta uses traditional oils but I work in water soluble oils and have achieved the same results. This book is an excellent guide for both the beginning and experienced painter.

I bought this book last year on the advice of another artist friend. It's a good quality book, the images are very good. The technique of layering paint is very good. I thought he subject matter for painting was a bit limited but the author is a still life artist for the most part so I guess that is to be expected. I think the advice in the book is good and will help any artist wanting to improve technique and quality of paintings. The section on photographing artwork is great, one of my favorite parts of the book.

I am new to oiils and mainly work in acrylics using a glazing technique of sorts. I tried to apply the same to oils and the transition between mediums was a disaster. While looking through the Oils section of books on Amazon, I came across Arleta Pech's 'Radiant Oils'. I checked out the 'Look Inside' feature and from what I saw, I knew this was what I needed. Arleta's instructions in layering with oils and especially the medium to oil ratio was just the information I was looking for. I recommend this book especially to those artists who are coming from an acrylic background and like using the glazing technique. This is the 'missing link' of info for that transitioning! I love it and recommend this book.

This is a practical, go to book for anyone who wishes to learn about glazing techniques for oil painting. I've owned this book before, and loaned it out so many times, it eventually didn't come home. So I ordered a new copy for myself. Glad to see this book is still there to be ordered.

like new, very pretty oil paint book

I agree mostly with the other reviews concerning the thorough explanations and well-written instructions, as well as beautiful work produced by the author. My problem with the book is that the author/artist glazes absolutely EVERYTHING in every painting. Her style of painting in oils is virtually identical to using watercolors, and quite the opposite of using glazing in a 'classical' oil painting style, which is what I was looking for. Most of the classical masters used glazing of color only after a full umber underpainting and a dead layer (black and white), then proceeding to glaze color and finally ending with more opaque paint in the final layer(s). This is the kind of instruction I was looking for, and as good as the book is at displaying the author's technique it is virtually a textbook on using oils in the style of watercolors. Example: anything 'white' in the painting is simply the canvas showing through, as in watercolor, and each layer is painted from the lighter areas to eventually the darker areas in very thin transparent layers. To sum up, this is a good book and artists can learn from it, but I was expecting the glazing process to be a smaller part of the whole procedure, not the whole procedure itself.

Arrived within a short time. Glazing Techniques well described with illustrations

Please don't persist with these reviews. I have already expressed my appreciation!!

Schönes Buch. Sehr motivierend. Geeignet für jeden künstler.

Ótimo livro, com explicações objetivas e detalhas sobre o assunto. Ricamente ilustrado! Mostrando passo a passo, as técnicas de pintura para alcançar um maior realismo em suas obras!

Il testo in questione è una guida approfondita sulla tecnica delle "Velature" con i colori a olio (Glazing in inglese) oltre ad introdurre diversi concetti sulla tecnica della pittura " in negativo ".L'autrice era un acquarellista e ed applica con successo molte delle tecniche imparate precedentemente con un medium completamente diverso come i colori a olio.Il libro inizia con un'introduzione hai materiali necessari e una spiegazione generale delle varie tecniche utilizzate dopo di che seguono diversi tutorial passo passo di difficoltà crescente che guideranno il lettore nel dipingere dei dipinti completi.Le tecniche imparate tramite questi tutorial sono facilmente utilizzabili per ogni genere di soggetto che si vorrà dipingere successivamente , vengono infatti trattate le procedure di rendering di praticamente qualsiasi materiale o superficie.Gli esempi posti sono davvero ben spiegati, le illustrazioni sono di alta qualità e i dipinti dell'autrice sono meravigliosi molti dei quali di genere foto-realistico.L'unico appunto che si può fare riguardano la tipologia dei soggetti presa in esame sempre molto simile e inoltre le tecniche illustrate sono per altro molto avanzate e quindi non è un il libro adatto a i principianti , lo consiglio a chi ha già buone conoscenze di pittura e anche molta pazienza visto la natura della tecnica.Infatti per via delle fasi di asciugatura delle velature per completare un dipinto utilizzando le tecniche illustrate si impiegano giorni e giorni oltretutto gli errori sono difficilmente recuperabili c'è da dire però che i risultati ripagano ampiamente tutta la dedizione impiegata.Se siete dei pittori o appassionati che intendono imparare la tecnica delle "Velature" questo è uno dei migliori libri che ho avuto il piacere di leggere merita di essere preso in considerazione.