The Pastel Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist

A great refrence book to have, if you learn one thing from this book it will your it's worth the price.

I have read both of his books twice over, and still keep getting more from them. I can't wait for some time and experience to get under my belt so I can go for round three. These are multidimensional works that speak FROM experience TO experience. The more you work with the materials and media, the more you will appreciate this artist's take on them. If you think this book is somehow "dated" because he wrote it before the latest cool pastels, supports, or mediums were available, you've got it backwards. The amazing new products that are available to artists are truly wonderful, but they are not going to make you an amazing artist, especially if you use them as a crutch. Better to learn from a breadth of tools, and more importantly, an artist who really knows what he's doing with them. Then extend that foundation from there.

UPDATE :04/30/2017Now that I am done reading the whole thing I have upped the stars to 4, but this is for a beginner level only in pastel art. Lots of info about pastels, but not any of the new ones in the market, or paper, or how pastel painting has changed into something other than the examples in the book. But, if yous are new to pastel painting or drawing the examples in the book are indispensable and you can try them out in order to learn the feel and texture of the pastel and how it lays with different techniques. Every artist new to pastels will get something out of this book. Once I am finished with trying out all the techniques, will donate the book.Good for the basic understanding, but very old fashioned as far as techniques. Very good info on pastels and paper, I would suggest another book, linked below. All About Techniques in Pastel (All about Techniques Art) /

I wish I had this book when I first started working in pastels. I have read countless magazines, blogs and books for advice on pastel products. This book saves you time and money by giving you straight information on brands of pastels and papers and boards. Although choices finally comes down to each person's preferences and the amount of money they are willing to invest, it helps to have good advice so that you do not need to try every product yourself. Although it does not cover every brand of paper, board or primer, it is fairly comprehensive and up to date. The techniques section is also very comprehensive, going beyond basic underpainting advice found in most sources, including acrylic mediums which are featured in current magazines and blogs. And from there it moves into oil pastels and other modern painting media. There are step-by-step demonstration pieces for each painting media combination. Although I have been working in pastels for several years, I am finding this book to be an eye-opening resource that I feel will help me move my art forward.

The Pastel Book: Materials and Techniques is an excellent book for artists unfamiliar with the broad applications of pastels. The author expects the reader has art skills and is applying them to the pastel medium. Consequently, all the examples of the huge variety of pastels feature the author's work--which is a particular style suitable for pastels. As a former professional artist in oils and watercolors, I found the book very valuable to apply the distinctive textures, glazes, and manufacturer-specific, texture-opacity versions from crumble to fine-line very informative. I only wish some other artists' contributions of their discoveries could have been included in the examples to see different styles. Bill Creevy is an excellent and patient writer/artist, taking the reader through logical applications from coarse crumble to mixed media.

This is an excellent resource book for any aspiring Pastelist whether you're a beginner or consider yourself at an intermediate level. Bill Creevy takes you through the usual review of basic materials and follows with a "how to" of basic techniques. No matter what your level of expertise, you'll utilize what follows: how ground color, texture, and palette affects the final mood and style of the finished work. A fairly complete covering of both hard and soft pastels, oil pastels and oil sticks with various types of underpainting. I'm not a big fan of the demonstrations in this book which is why I held back one star. However, the generous number of exemplified works more than satisfies the presented material. For demonstrations and for those seeking to seriously advance their skills, or learn the nitty gritty stuff, I would recommend Alan Flatmann's The Art of Pastel Painting. Having said that, I still wouldn't want to be without this valuable resource in my personal library and well, hey, this is just my opinion.

Very good condition as stated, very pleased with this transaction!

This is a great classic. I actually owned a copy and gave it away during a move, thinking I would no longer benefit from it. Was I every wrong! A year later, during an art class, the teacher pointed out some techniques in this book that I'd not studied closely enough. Fascinated, I bought another book, and found that I was learning new things from it--not because the book had changed but because I had. That said, I recommend this book to beginning artists and advanced artists alike. It covers so much, and you will learn, as I did, that rereading it at different stages of your artistic development will expose new and helpful information.

I am in two minds about this book. On the one hand, as a beginner, I found the opening section discussing materials and tools very informative, and much of the theory is fine. What I struggle with is the application of the theory. The author has a highly individual and probably unusual painting style which I (and I strongly suspect many others) just do not find in any way appealing. I can honestly say that there is barely a picture in this book (and there are many of them) that I like. And as all the demonstrations are accomplished in this particular style I did not find them very useful on the whole. I think it is a big mistake to have used only the author's work. It would have been far more likely to have had a wider appeal if different artists work had been used. So, while there was much useful material, overall I was disappointed with this book.

This is hands down my favourite book on pastels.It covers lots of different subjects and introduces many innovative ways of working with them including combining use of pencils as well various painting mediums and even irridescent pastels.There are loads of examples I particularly liked that he included oil pastels as well.

Great informative book good demonstrations for beginner and tips for more experienced..good buy worth it!

Discovered some new ideas on using pastels

Lots of ideas and tips, which as a novice pastels user I found instructive.