Master Strokes Pastel: A Step-by-Step Guide To Learning from the Masters - Tapa dura

Budding artists have always looked to the masters for inspiration. With his lushly illustrated volume, filled with close-up images of techniques in action, students can learn from their best paintings how to create evocative, beautiful pastels of their own.

"Harrison has created [a] unique and exciting book...It may seem odd at first to study an oil by Courbet to learn pastel techniques but it works beautifully."--Library Journal.

Through the work of the masters, this visually stunning guide will inspire and teach home art students to create evocative, beautiful pastels. Seven richly illustrated "tutorials each present a painting by a great artist, with an in-depth focus on technique, a breakdown on the use of color, points on composition, background information, and a discussion of the work as a whole. On display are atmospheric landscapes by Turner, Constable's impressive skies, portraits by de la Tour, urban scenery by Monet, nudes by Degas, and still lifes by Courbet and Van Gogh. In addition, paintings by modern masters show how to apply time-tested principles to contemporary art. An invaluable technique section covers blending, hatching and crosshatching, feathering, scumbling, and much more.