[.ca] Harley Brown's Eternal Truths for Every Artist (ISBN 1929834314)

Helpful pastel portraits, slightly disappointing otherwise:
Harley Brown provides a motivational work with attitude whose goal is to provide you with eternal truths for every artist. However, I found that the very heavy slanting of his own work towards "classical" pastel portraits to be disappointing (and something you wouldn't anticipate from the title). He does occasionally demonstrate some concepts in oil, but note that watercolors and acrylics aren't mentioned anywhere in the book. To some extent, that's not a problem when it comes to issues of composition, color, and design. However, when it comes to techniques it's not clear to me that how Mr. Brown goes about doing his pastel paintings applies if you're working in acrylic (and almost certainly not if you're doing watercolor). So don't expect much in the way of technical discussion of paints, mediums, glazing, scumbling, mixing colors, choosing a palette, etc. Also, for instance, in the section about "edges", he doesn't go into detail on how to physically paint edges, but rather he focuses on which edges to "hide" or which ones to make visible for reasons of composition. Mr. Brown's paintings themselves are beautiful and the book is chock full of them; if you enjoy bright, figurative paintings then you'll enjoy the book just for its art value. If you want to do portraits, his examples will be particularly helpful and provide lots of ideas. Although he vigorously stresses drawing skills & measurement, from the demos in the book it seems that he often works a pastel painting from top-to-bottom or from the face outwards, without any preliminary drawing on the paper or canvas (it works for him, and he does mention once that you can do this once you get good at it). Note that Mr. Brown is very focused on realism in his paintings (he makes it clear up front that he does not value "modern art" and doesn't think much of abstract impressionists, for example). I mention this only so that you know that you're reading a book by someone who is very focused on representational paintings, especially figurative ones. He is against working from photos but eventually relents and gives you permission (plus some tips on how to not simply render a photo in paint). He is also against working from your imagination since inevitably you'll get things wrong (clearly he values realistic, representational painting over other styles). There are quite a few helpful general hints throughout the book, especially when he talks about the importance of a picture's design and the use of value. Other useful tips pop up in the side text, though you might not find them again later on as they're not always in the chapter you'd expect. His tone throughout is very encouraging and motivational (and opinionated). Remember, that other than for pastel work, the tips will be general art & design tips, not technique tips. The book itself is of high quality with fine color reproductions, clear and readable type, and only a few editing mistakes. There is no index but the book includes a detailed table of contents.

misleading title, lacks depth and objectiveness:
Artists working in a figurative, representational way, especially if they work with pastel and need some advice for portraits and figures (in my opinion, the other subjects done by the author are less convincing, artistically speaking) will probably find this book usefull, even though I would rather recommend "Painting beautiful skin tones with color & light in oil, pastel and watercolor" by chris Saper in this case. For the others, be aware that you may be disappointed and not find the treasure of universal "truths" within the book, as the title suggests. In fact, I don't think there are something like "eternal truths for every artist". Just compare the work of Arcimboldo, Vermeer, Miro, Mondrian and Klimt and then we are just talking about painting... Many of these "truths", for example about edges to name one, work for M. Brown's type of work, but may not always be applicable for example for abstract art. This kind of book would have gained a lot if the author had discussed the paintings of other artists, especially those from a different "school of thought". In this respect I would say the book's style is too dogmatic and lacks some sense of humility and nuance. Art has more to do with originality, emotion and the expression of one's personality than with craftsmanship, for example the quality of a drawing. Of course it is very useful when other artists are willing to tell you some tricks, as long as these "tricks" are recognised as such and are not given the status of "universal truths" applicable to every piece of art in every movement of art. I bought this book based on the reviews because I thought it would be motivational, but in fact it had quite the opposite effect, because my kind of work(ing) is just too different from the one described in the book. Still I gave this book a 3, because the book is nicely illustrated and presented, introduces concepts like value, composition, edges, etc. So, if you are working in a figurative, realistic way with pastel, have acquired a certain ease (because the book doesn't always explain the "how-to" part of the things, for example, when merely presenting soft and hard edges, but not telling the different WAYS to create soft edges with your medium), if moreover you have had art classes or work shops (because at some points the book presupposes an academic background which autodidacts lack, without them therefore being "beginners" in their artistic expression!), but if you need strong directions to progress, this book may work well for you and actually disserve a 4. If your work is of a different kind from that of the author, and if you usually prefer to confront different points of view in order to define your own, you may remain disappointed by the content of the book (as compared to the promising title)and the unilaterality of the speech. One book that overcomes this risk of one artist overrating his way of expressing art as the only one being right is "design & composition secrets of professional artists" by "international artist", where 16 painters of different backgrounds and styles explain their way of working. So, with a more appropriate title, with an index (to facilitate looking up specific items), with a less authoritative and clear-cut way of presenting things and with more "practical" tricks to put the concepts immediately into practice, and with a more "scientific" way of approaching a subject and constructing a book,the book would have got a 4 or 5.

Reviewing the Reviewer:
I feel badly that the "reviewer from New York," found this book slightly disappointing. Perhaps he doesn't know what to look for because the wealth of information in this book is beyond most others. If we look hard enough we could find fault with virtually everything. I like to see the positives in life. I'm sure Harley Brown doesn't worry about the nitpickers of the world, but I want to have a go at this one. A. He's disappointed that Harley Brown is "heavily slanting his own work towards classical." Does the reviewer not think that it's Mr. Brown's right to paint and think as he pleases? The title does say Harley Brown's Eternal Truths and not Sam Black's. B. He complains that watercolors and acrylics are not mentioned in the book. Once again, he missed the title of the book. It's TRUTHS, not techniques in watercolor and acrylic or oil. There are plenty of those technical books around. I suggest he get them. TRUTHS apply to all mediums of art. C. It would appear that there wouldn't be enough room to go about describing, "paints, mediums, glazing, scumbling, mizing colors, choosing a palette,etc" as the reviewer had hoped. As for me, I'm thrilled that Mr. Brown kept his comments to the elements of good art. D.The reader warns us that Mr. Brown is "focused on realism in his paintings." That's pretty evident from the covers alone. Keep your focus, Mr. Brown. E.We are also told by the reviewer that Mr. Brown doesn't think much of "abstract impressionists." I've never heard of them; maybe he means "abstract expressionists." F. Another quote, "He, (Harley Brown), is also against working from your imagination since inevitably you'll get things wrong." If one really reads the words in the book, what Mr. Brown means is the problems of working from memory instead of going directly to the source. A world of difference. From this book, Mr. Brown urges artists to use more of their imagination. G. This reviewer notes that Mr. Brown is "opinionated." Don't we buy books to get an opinion? H. Personally, I was so taken by the book that I didn't notice, as the reviewer did, "a few editing mistakes." I. I must compliment the reviewer for the many good things he did say about the book. After all he gave it four stars out of five. J. Another person writes that Mr. Brown is her "favorite artist and author." It turns out that the vast majority of people agree with this lady. They were able to find the great wisdom and art flowing from this book's pages. I'm one of that bunch.

Probably the most helpful art book I've ever read!:
In this book don't expect to be taught every technique for every medium. No, that's not Mr. Brown's goal at all. Instead he's going to share the things that make a painting more interesting, more full of life and quite simply 'work' in a way that draws the viewer into the art. I've been amazed as page after page has been loaded with things that I never knew - that no one ever told me before! - even though I've read dozens of books on technique and have taken classes. These are the eternal truths of composition, dominate tone and color and the list goes on. I can tell that this will be a book I will refer to endlessly throughout my journey as an artist.

Great tips:
There are some good tips. It is like a classroom. You just take it a step at a time. So, you gotta be patient and have to time to try out some of his techniques.