Recommended Books for the Portrait Painter
 

In developing a highly focused, concise resource bibliography for "Painting Beautiful Skin Tones with Color & Light", I have suggested a library "core" for every portrait painter::

1. Dobie, Jeanne. "Making Color Sing". Watson Guptill 1986

2. Quiller, Stephen "Color Choices". Watson-Guptill, 1989. These first two are two of the better color theory books I have seen. Although Dobie is a watercolor painter, she presents theory in a universal way. After reading Quiller's book, I scrapped my old oil palette and adopted his with some modifications for portraits-I'll never go back!

3. Schmid, Richard. "Alla Prima". Stove Prairie Press, 1998. 800.939.9932. Spectacular publication for every painter.

4. Kreutz, Greg. "Problem Solving for Oil Painters". Watson-Guptill, 1986. Each chapter could readily become a semester-long course, the information is so important. Moreover, it's a great resource for other media.

5. Whitney, Richard. "Painting the Visual Impression" Minnesota River School of Fine Art.612-890-4182. The "Little Red Book" is a great "Cliff's Notes" handbook, and completely separates wheat from chaff-no extraneous info whatsoever.

6. Silverman, Burton, "Sight & Insight". Although this is not an instructional book per se, Burt's magnificent imagery is beautifully reproduced and thoughtfully captioned.

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Administrator's Note: Click on any book title to check it out at Amazon.com and, if desired, to order.
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