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BOOKSHELF

 

I HAVE A FAIRLY EXTENSIVE BOOKSHELF OF BOOKS WITH PENCIL CONTENT

There are only so many books that one person can usefully buy before suffering a severe outbreak of ‘Deja Vu’ on opening the pages of the next new book.

This list cannot be comprehensive, but it does list the books I find useful,

If you know of a book that you find invaluable and it isn’t listed here, please tell me ( and let me have a short review at the same time ).

I will add it to my list.

 

Some of the more useful - or interesting ones are shown below .  Not all are still in print.

Not in any particular order:

 

The Drawing Book - Richard McDaniel - Pub. Watson Guptill -

       A very good book covering all pencil media very comprehensively. Well illustrated.

Coloured Pencil Explorations - Janie Gildow - Pub. North Light -  Mixing Media with CP

Masterful Colour - Arlene Steinberg - Pub. North Light -

       Building up layers, a comprehensive and very good book by a skilled artist

 

Painting Light with Coloured Pencil - Cecile Baird  - Pub. North Light -

      Excellent with step by step demonstrations of different types of subject inc still life.

Colored Pencil Solutions Book-  Janie Gildow and Barbara Newton - Pub. North Light

      Tips and Techniques for winning results. Questions and demonstrated answers. Invaluable reference book

 

Creative Colored Pencil Landscapes - Vera Curnow - Pub. Quarry Books (USA)  Now out of print

      Wonderful little book on Landscape techniques

Drawing & Painting Landscapes - Trudy Friend - Pub . David & Charles (UK)   

      Quite a bit on Watercolour, but the pencil content is very good and the watercolour could just as easily apply to Aquarelles pencils

 

Colored Pencil for the Serious Beginner - Bet Borgeson - Pub. Watson Guptill (USA)   

       Has some very useful chapters on the fundamentals

Paint Radiant Realism in Watercolor, Ink and Colored Pencil - Suellen Ross  - Pub. North Light

      Beautiful work in mixed media with some fascinating examples

 

Drawing & Painting with Colored Pencil - Kristy Ann Kutch - Pub. Watson Gupthill

      Good on Colour Theory and also watercolour pencils

The Encyclopedia of Coloured Pencil Techniques - Edited Judy Martin - Pub Headline (UK)

       May now have been replaced by a more up to date edition. Very comprehensive though some of the techniques in my copy are in need of an update

 

Painting with Water-Soluble Colored Pencils - Gary Greene - Pub. North Light

      Very helpful for beginners

Drawing and Painting Buildings -  Jonathan Newey  -The Crowood Press

      Covers a variety of media, but the author teaches Coloured Pencil Techniques and there is a lot of content which is relevant  to CP work

 

Watercolour Secrets   and

The Magic of Watercolour  -  James Fletcher Watson  -  Batsford

      A renowned watercolour artist and architect who died a few years back.  His Videos are still available and his books are still  in print.  

A no nonsense approach and a brilliant eye for a scene, Fletcher Watson’s videos  show how teaching should be done. The books are entirely on watercolour, but they are an excellent primer on how to see landscape and building subjects.

 

Colored Pencil Painting Bible  -  Alyona Nickelson  Watson Gupthill

A good sized paper back with 180 pages of information and a very useful appendix giving recent Lightfastness tables for a large number of brands.  

At first sight  a very useful collection of articles on techniques.  

You might be put off by the fact that Alyona’s main technique involves using solvent with dry point pencils,  and for European readers not all the products mentioned are on sale within the EEC.

The illustrations and print size are large, so it is an easy read, though the large number of broken words at the ends of lines annoys me as I read, and that could have been avoided by more attentive page setting by the publisher.

However, the good news is that there are lots of useful chapters that have good ideas and information and where the author describes a solvent process using Gamsol, Reader of this site  Bernard Goodman  tells me ‘the solvent Gamsol you mention as unavailable in the UK is now available, from the art supplier T.N.Lawrence; website www.lawrence.co.uk’  It is listed under Gamblin Oil painting mediums.

The page link is :  http://www.lawrence.co.uk/acatalog/Gamasol.html     Thanks for the update Bernard.

The user friendly citrus based solvent ZestIt will probably work equally well.

Watercolour pencils will also provide an alternative for some techniques.  

Her examples are mainly still life and are not complex, so the book will suit beginners as well as those extending their knowledge.  

I have spent much more money on books that are less informative or potentially useful,  This one was a good buy.

 

PASTEL BOOKS

This Section of my bookshelf contains a lot of books on soft pastel as well as pastel generally and many of the older books are now well out of print.  I have reviewed the books against Amazon’s current availability, and where a new copy of the book is still available I have assumed the book to still be ‘in print’.  I have excluded all the others except where they are particularly good and worthy of looking for a second hand copy.

In most  cases a book on pastel techniques is useful for pastel pencils and where there is a section on pastel pencils I will say so.

 

Painting the Landscape in Pastel    Albert Handell & Anita West  ( Watson Guptill pub. )

First published in 2000, this is an excellent landscape book.  Albert is/was resident in New Mexico, so the landscapes are very much open country, scrub, rocks and trees - with some water.

The techniques are well presented and the comments with each worked picture most helpful.

The book deals with soft pastels only - but then there are not many books looking at pastel pencil techniques.

 

100 Great Pastel Tips   Miranda Fellows    Out of print 2010

An excellent little reference book - only 64 pages, but very concise notes that cover the ground very thoroughly.

 

The Encyclopedia of Pastel Techniques.  Edited Judy Martin    (Various publishers to different editions)

Still in print after many years and deservedly so. Covers all pastel types and gives a wide selection of examples from different artists.  The basic book that should be on your shelf.   Pastel pencils are covered

 

Creative Painting with Pastel    Carole Katchen ( Harper Collins Pub )

A pastel book with another collection of examples of different artists work. Not a lot on pencil, but the examples are very good and a lot of the work is very detailed.  Published 1990

 

Painting Landscapes & Figures in Pastel   Jose M Parramon   ( Watson Guptill Pub.)

A book that looks at interpretation and style and has a detailed look at the work of a few skilled artists most of whom work portraits.  The step by step examples are good.   All soft pastel

 

Exploring Pastel with Barry Watkin  ( Batsford Pub.)

The master of English landscape in pastel.  His moody Somerset moor and coast images are excellent.  The book covers soft pastel, but if you like landscapes, it is well worth a look.

 

The Big Book of Painting Nature in Pastel   S Allyn Schaeffer ( Watson Guptill Publisher)

72 lessons in pastel techniques from a single artist. His approach is not detailed and he doesn’t use pastel pencils, but the book does show a wide variety of techniques.  Worth a look.