Title: Moderately helpful, but nothing special
Product review: This book focuses mainly on still life and landscape painting, and is not at all a comprehensive guide. While it contains some helpful tidbits, it does not really elaborate on the fundamentals of painting with oils. Containing the cursory beginners chapters, Oil Painting for the Serious Beginner waxes lyrical on the intangible je-ne-sais-quois of art. This is hardly helpful. Also, it strongly pushes alla prima painting, while basically ignoring any other style. Not at all comprehensive, and on the whole mediocre. Definitely one of the lesser books in my oil painting book collection - especially considering the price. I would recommend Frederic Taubes' "Oil Painting for the Beginner" for those who want to really understand the fundamentals of oil painting: the interaction between the oil paints, what paints to use for what, comprehensive color theory in an easy to understand manner, etc. This book is mediocre at best
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