How to Paint Like the Old Masters, 25th Anniversar y Edition: Watson-Guptill 25Th Anniversary Edition

PAINT LIKE THE OLD MASTERSThis 36-year-old publication, reprinted more than once, obviously still commands a lot of attention, mainly, I would think, because of its title; who, indeed, wouldn't want to paint like the old masters - if he could ?However, as other reviewers have pointed out in the past, the author's work doesn't even bear a passing resemblance to such, by deliberate intent on his part, as he declares at the outset (he doubtless didn't want to be accused of starting a school for scoundrels). A more accurate, albeit a bit less catchy, description of the contents would be "how to paint using the methods and materials of a few of the old masters". But reading about all the palaver involved, such as washing linseed oil ("shake the mixture twice a day for 7 days"), black oil (first find your lead), mastic varnish ("Expose the mixture to the sun for several days, turning the jar occasionally"), I am led to wonder why on earth anyone would want to. I'd rather use the time actually painting, with just acrylic and water - perfectly capable of producing an excellent pastiche of any old master in a tenth of the time - and not only superior in just about every way to these antediluvian methods and materials - but safer.Painting should be fun - and there's plenty to be had here if, for example, you're a beginner; for the painterly techniques employed, the grisaille, the glazing, the toned canvas, etc., are all equally applicable to the superior and healthier modern medium, enabling one to ignore all the tedious palaver demanded of ancient methods.Joseph Sheppard's work is something of an acquired taste; he painted for a particular audience, of which I am not a member. However, I do have a couple of of his other books, and find them, like this one, entertaining and sometimes informative food for thought, albeit irrelevant in terms of a style to emulate. If you want to paint portraits and figure studies (and that's all you will find herein) in the style of these 16th and 17th century masters, the best way is to buy monographs and practice copying from the illustrations using modern materials; if, on the other hand, you truly want to paint with the desperately inconvenient materials of the ancients, there are plenty of other books exclusively on that subject to consider - not least a few contemporary with the old masters themselves.

This one book contains far more information on techniques of painting than I was taught in a year of Higher Art Education . If you are a painter who wishes to advance your knowledge of Oil painting technique , you might well find this book as helpful as I have . Although it is true that many of the paintings included are quite unlike those of the artist they attempt to mimic , this is a relatively trivial flaw and can be easily put down to the sheer difficulty involved in attempting to closely emulate so many markedly different styles . What the author does do is seemingly to incorporate what he regards as the major elements of each of the artists work into a painting that remains chiefly 'his own work '. The chief exception to this rule is probably the 'Rubens' portrait , which actually does closely resemble a painting by Rubens . What is most valuable about the book is the plethora of information about colour technique , the use of mediums and the differing processses that the artists allegedly used during the manufacture of their paintings . Although I suspect that some of this information is assumed to be true by the author , rather than having been actually proven to be , this again , as a problem , pales in comparison to the fact that much of what he observes here is probably very close to the truth and is information that has seemingly been virtually lost by the modern education system .

OK book

I recall borrowing a copy of this book from my local library about 30 years ago. It was a revelation to me then and I have owned a copy ever since. From it, I realised that oil painting was not simply a case of mixing the right colours and putting them next to one another. It also made me realise that grey is not always a mixture of black and white. It shows techniques which may have been used by the old masters. It explains them in such a way, and by use of numerous step by step illustrations, that it encouraged me to have a go myself. Not only that, but giving an insight into different techniques made me look at pictures, and appreciate them, in a different way.The author is not as good as Rembrandt or Titian. I do not think this makes the book any less useful. Certainly, I would be more than happy if it enabled me to paint pictures of the same quality as the author's. Nor do I think that it is particularly relevant that a lot of information may be available on the Internet. Today, this applies to most books. On the whole, I prefer to read and study a book; and this is a very good one.

Many other reviewers have commented on the how badly Sheppard paints. I think this is slightly unfair. Just because he's not quite a master at painting, it doesn't mean he doesn't have something to teach the world.The trouble is, I don't think he has much to teach the world. His claims to be able to paint like the old masters are far fetched. He doesn't have to draftsmanship skills but neither does he have the painting technique. There are some interesting ideas you can take from this book but I am not convinced these techniques were the actual techniques used by the painters he is trying to emulate. In fact, to claim he can paint like Titian, Caravaggio, Reubens AND Rembrandt is a wee bit delusional.Another worry is the weird painting medium he makes which creates some kind of jelly substance. I don't believe it is a medium that will imporve your painting skills and I suspect the medium might cause yellowing or darkening to your painting over time. This is why I cannot recommend this book. Although, there are some useful ideas in it, it encourages to many bad techniques.I found  Stem's Oil Painting Guide: Oil techniques for the contemporary painter  a much more useful book. It provides a general technique that you can adapt for your own needs and he makes no claims to be able to paint like any of the old masters. The other thing I like is that the mediums in the book are simple oil and turps mediums.