Oil Painting for the Beginner Author:Frederic Taubes Though by no means the first volume by Frederic Taubes on the subject of oil painting, this present how-to-do-it treatise may well prove his most popular one, addressed as it is to that vast host of novices who have eagerly awaited exactly this sort of guidance and instruction that this artist-teacher here offers. — Taubes has long recognized the... more » need for such a book - in fact he has written it largely in response to a marked demand, among the readers of his lively department, "The Taubes' Page," in the art magazine, American Artist, for the presentation in permanent form of such material as has made that department so popular. In writing the book, he has incorporated the answers to hundreds of questions which that department has received from novices all over the land.
It can be said without prejudice that no other volume performs nearly as well as does this present one the difficult task of helping the beginning over those early stumbling blocks which so frequently prove a deterrent to sound progress. Starting with the assumption that the reader knows absolutely nothing about the subject, the author first describes the necessary equipment, and offers definite exercises in its use. With such elementary matters as the mixing and application of colors disposed of, he leads the reader by easy degrees through the painting of all sorts of subjects - portraits, flowers, landscape, still life, etc. Adequate illustrations from his own hand, some of them reproduced in full color, reinforce the lucid and revealing text.« less