[.ca] All About Techniques in Pastel (ISBN 0764151053)

all inclusive:
As far as a pastel technique book goes this one is all inclusive. It has the latest techniques including the mixing of pastel with other elements like water and alcohol and so on. Pastel line, color mixing, blending. The strong point of the book is that it gives an example of how to paint in pastel almost any subject like skies, rooftops, water, water in motion, vegetation, fruit, skin, portraits, fur, feathers, metal, drapery, and more. You name it. I did not see another book around that has so many different types of examples. I should know because I just published an art book myself --Creative Painting For The Young Artist. So this is a book I will now use in teaching my students.

Structured approach to get you started:
This is my first pastel book, and I've found it immensely helpful in getting used to the medium. Not only does it suggest elementary exercises to getting underway (e.g. Do a painting in one color, like in charcoal, then do one in two colors, etc.) but it suggests structured approaches to doing more advanced paintings. If you've read my other reviews, if there's anything I love, it's a logical, structured approach to learning something. This book, like the other Barron's series, is originally in Spanish (Spain), so there's a distinctly European feel to it, which I find adds a romance and sophistication that American art book authors don't usually have. (Sorry...) The demonstrations are lovely, without being intimidating, and the information is easy to follow.

a very good guide for pastelists:
There are DOZENS of really good books on pastels out there but this is the one I chose after beginning the the Barron's Pastels book, which is very basic. I recommend this one before you get other pastel books.

Neat book:
It had many techniques to get me started on discovering new ones of my own.

Good book for beginner..:
I am an absolute beginner in pastels and have bought some books which I intend to review. This is a good one with lots of beautiful work and step by steps, The only thing that kept it from 5 stars is it is poorly organized and kind of jumps around.