My Three Favorite Art Books if I Was Just Starting Out Again

 
Three favorite art books for art students!

Three favorite art books for art students!

Recently one of my private students asked me what my favorite art books were.  In that conversation I realized I had not written much about my favorite art books in a while, and thought I would share the top books I adore and would want to read all over again if I was starting my path as an artist.  

  1. How Successful Artists Study by Samuel Adoquei - I love this book, it gave me such wonderful insight when I was first beginning to navigate my art career. What I like about this book is that it focuses so much on skill growth. Being an artist is both technician and business person, but I think the mastery of your medium/mediums come first.

  2. The Science and Practice of Drawing by Harold Speed. - I have read this book at least five times. Especially the early chapters, the later chapters, I think only twice through. It is an exceptional book in breaking down the craft of drawing and painting realistically.

  3. Oil Painting Techinques by Harold Speed - This is the next book to read after the Science and Practice of Drawing. It elaborates more on how to paint, especially if you want to master painting indirectly, in multiple layers with each layer getting “fatter”. In making this list, it reminds me that, I need to re-read this book. So many good nuggets of information.


And one extra one, Composition of Outdoor Oil Painting by Edgar Payne.  This is an amazing book for composition and chasing your “idea” in art.  I have read this book about three times, and even though I do not paint outdoors often, all the advice can be adapted to still-life paintings.  I do this all the time.

Personally, I prefer the wordy, dense writings of these  older books.  I like not having too many photos, instead I like to use my imagination to imagine what these books discuss and then go and try out the ideas.  I think the ideas stick with me a bit more.  I also love these older books because they blend art theory, practice, and history all together.

I hope you find this list helpful.

 
Book Review, TeachingElizabeth Floyd