[.ca] 60 Minutes to Better Painting: Sharpen Your Skills in ... (ISBN 1581801963)

A Confidence Builder:
This book is different from the other "how to" painting books. It addresses the greatest artist block--fear. If your canvas is blank because of perfectionist's ideals and being overwhelmed by the "big picture," this book is for you. It takes you through several exercises of timed paintings intended to make you forget about getting it perfect and have fun with your painting. The idea is that with practice you will improve and enjoy painting again.

somewhat helpful:
I thought this book to be somewhat helpful but really didn't learn anything profoundly new. I loved a few of the paintings but overall other than reinforcing the theme of painting everyday it didn't excite me. It's an alright beginner's or entrance level intermediate artist's manual but there are better oil painting books for beginner's or the advanced intermediate artist such as Bill Creevy's book, Vicki McMurty's or Kevin MacPherson's. I found them to be more beneficial and cover more artistic ground in the areas of color theory and painting structure.

Gets you started:
This book is essential for those who need help in getting started painting. Craig recommends items one needs to begin such as paint, palette, mediums, paint colors etc. He recommends 'quick studies' which help to avoid the fear of failure and help you to begin a painting. Also, the quick studies help you to improve on your style and editing. I think as a beginner this has been an extremely useful book.

For beginners only:
This book is all about painting quick studies. I would not recommend this book to professional painters. The author is very particular about what colors to use, what brushes to use, and how much time should be spent on each step of the process. To me, this became somewhat tedious to read. Very little emphasis is given to aspects like composition. The pictures in the book are mostly quick studies with few finished works at the end. The basic message of this book is: paint more, and your skills will improve.

For Beginners:
paintings are mostly done from pictures, paintings look stiff and edge control is not that great in all the paintings. The way the book is written is not all that great.