Click Here To Purchase From Amazon The Beginner’s Guide Pastels: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Techniques and Materials

Author: Angela Gair

ISBN: 1 85368 604 2

Publishers: New Holland Publishers and distributed by Sterling Publishing

The subtitle to “Beginner’s Guide Pastels” isn’t exaggerating when it utilizes the phrase “complete step-by-step guide.”  Angela Gair’s elegant but straightforward prose gives as many details as a beginning pastel artist could wish for, making the beautiful accompanying illustrations nearly unnecessary.

As a beginning collage artist trying to expand my own artistic horizons (while simultaneously trying to encourage an adolescent artist-in-the-making), I was confused by the mysterious plethora of “crayons” and colored “chalk” found at my local art store.  Gair’s book completely cleared up this confusion.  The so-called “chalk” is actually something called “hard pastels” while the “crayons” are either “oil pastels” or “soft pastels.”

But that’s just the second chapter (“Materials and Equipment”).  The bulk of the book, in the usual “Beginner’s Guide” style, is devoted to 10 chapters which describe, with clear accompanying photographs, the steps necessary to create 10 different styles of artwork from pastels.

Because Gair’s detailed expertise is so clearly presented and the finished products in the “Techniques” and “Gallery” chapters so professional-looking (but at the same time, not at all intimidating), this book will appeal to artists of all ability levels who are looking to learn more about this very unique medium.

The above review was contributed by: Kathryn Atwood: Click Here To View More Of Kathryn's   Reviews:

Kathryn Atwood's poetry, reviews and essays have appeared in numerous online and print journals, including "The Aurora Review,", "Afterimage," "Void Magazine," "Wild Violet," and "PopMatters."  When she's not writing or driving her three kids around somewhere, she's usually teaching at a local music studio or givng vocal performances with her husband on the  subject of American song.

Click Here To Purchase From Amazon The Beginner’s Guide Pastels: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Techniques and Materials