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How to Paint Like the Old Masters Paperback – September 1, 1983

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 293 ratings

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Generations of artists have learned from How to Paint Like the Old Masters, the classic volume that explores the techniques used by the great artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. Now Watson-Guptill proudly presents the 25th Anniversary Edition. Each chapter is devoted to a different Old Master—Dürer, Titian, Veronese, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Hals, Rubens, and Rembrandt—and is divided into two sections. The first part describes the artist’s techniques and discusses how artists can incorporate these methods within their own personal style. The second part is a full-color demonstration. Author Joseph Sheppard traces the artist’s working sequence, colors and mediums, surfaces and tools, as he creates a new painting. With today’s resurgence of interest in Old Master techniques, this unique, practical, and inspiring book is sure to teach countless artists exactly How to Paint Like the Old Masters.
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph Sheppard is a renowned artist whose work has appeared in various galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery and the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art. He studied at the Maryland Institute of Art and has written numerous guides on art, including How to Paint Like the Old Masters, Drawing the Figure, and Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 082302671X
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Watson-Guptill; First Edition (September 1, 1983)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780823026715
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0823026715
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.06 x 0.38 x 12.03 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 293 ratings

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Joseph Sheppard
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Joseph Sheppard attended the Maryland Institute of Art and was awarded a Guggenheim Traveling Fellowship to Florence, Italy in 1957. His work has won numerous prestigious awards and is featured in nearly two dozen museums and collections worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit the author’s website www.josephsheppard.com.

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4.4 out of 5 stars
293 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book's content helpful for learning new painting techniques. They appreciate the clear illustrations and descriptions that help them understand the painting process. The book provides a good visual reference for procedural steps, creating wonderful portraits worthy of a museum. Readers praise the fantastic material and solid instruction on building an oil painting. The book is well-written and easy to read.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

37 customers mention "Encyclopedia content"37 positive0 negative

Customers find the book helpful for learning painting techniques. It provides a good overview of various methods used to build paintings. The step-by-step illustrations are clear and not confusing. The book provides basic information on glazing techniques and other styles of painting. Overall, it's a great reference book for learning new painting skills.

"...There is a welter of information in this book, but if you are trying to perfectly replicate a certain old master painterly technique, and failing to..." Read more

"...Good drawing skill is essential to success at figure painting; if you can't draw, these techniques will still give you good colors, but your shapes..." Read more

"...a few stages of completion so you can really clearly understand the painting process being demonstrated...." Read more

"This book has a lot of great ideas and techniques in it. Recommended by my art teacher" Read more

12 customers mention "Visual quality"9 positive3 negative

Customers find the illustrations clear and the descriptions concise. They describe the book as a good visual reference for procedural painting, with wonderful portraits worthy of museums. The use of color is straightforward and should suit beginners. The images shown are of a reasonable size.

"...What was really good about the book was that the images shown are of a reasonable size...." Read more

"...The illustrations are very clear, the descriptions are concise and informative, and the process is explained very thoroughly with lots and lots of..." Read more

"...His use of colour is very straight forward and should suit painters just starting to explore classical realism...." Read more

"...but he modernizes the settings and context to create wonderful portraits worthy of museum and has had many shows and sales of his work...." Read more

3 customers mention "Material quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's quality. They find the instructions for building an oil painting solid, and the delivery and condition of the books excellent.

"I was very impressed with the speedy delivery and the excellent condition the books arrived in...." Read more

"...simple ones and complex ones. also solid instruction on building an oil painting in the traditional way...." Read more

"Fantastic material!!!..." Read more

3 customers mention "Readability"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. They appreciate the clear explanations of each technique.

"...The descriptions given of each technique were also very clear and well written...." Read more

"Well written." Read more

"Easy read!..." Read more

Great how-to book
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Great how-to book
This has been a great tutorial. I have a lot to learn but the instructions are clear that I’ve produced amazing results so far.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2006
    The first thing that struck me as I browsed the book is the woeful quality of many of the images, with some being out of focus. This problem is also apparent in the other two books by Watson Guptill that I think compliment this one well. Kreutz "Problem Solving for Beginners" and Cateura "Oil Painting Secrets from a Master". If you are looking to paint in a realistic style in the vein of Caravaggio, Rembrandt etc. then you will find plenty of information in these three books.

    However all three deal with technique and for me the ability to discern the brushstrokes is a critical part of the learning exercise i.e. is the artist using impasto or thinned paint? With these images it's impossible to tell. Hopefully WG will revisit each of these books and bring the images up to scratch.

    Joseph Sheppard provides "how to's" allowing the reader to emulate the techniques of: Durer, Titian, Veronese, Caravaggio, Rubens, Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer. Information on how to create specific paint mediums used by that particular artist, mixing paints, painting surfaces etc. He makes no claims that any of the information offered is absolute. As well as conducting his own studies on how to achieve a certain painterly effect he has also drawn on technical information published by the various "art experts" (listed in the bibliography).

    Results of recent studies of old master paintings indicating that the current thinking on techniques might be wrong. The old masters would typically have a team of apprentices working alongside them, mixing paint, painting parts of the painting that the master was probably too bored to bother with (as well as good training for the apprentice) etc. The Master/Apprentice setup allowed for a continuous stream of knowledge being passed along the generations. However as oil paint technology advanced, in particular the ability to buy premixed paints off the shelf, the painter no longer needed a team of apprentices. He could pretty much get by on his own. Hence there was no longer anyone for the painter to pass on his knowledge to. This resulted in a considerable amount of technical knowledge being lost. (A good example is the recent theory promulgated by David Hockney that the old masters were able to paint such realistic paintings as they used rudimentary projection techniques to place a guide image on the canvas, overwhich they painted. No one knows if he is right or wrong).

    From the 1800's on, technical experts such as Charles Eastlake ("Methods and Materials of Painting") and Max Doerner ("The Materials of the Artist") began to impart their wisdom on how the old master paintings were created. But the techniques thay had available were very rudimentary, more often than not being a case of the expert trying to reproduce a certain style and looking at the painting surface close up. The experts proferred their theories and techniques, often with much aplomb leaving no room for doubt. Unfortunately they were often quite off the mark - they could emulate a style somewhat but never 100%. There are too many variables involved even for a discerning eye. It has only been with recent advances in scientific analysis, chemical and visual, that a truer understanding of the old master technique is finally being determined. Van Wettering's excellent "Rembrandt - the painter at work" book details the findings of extensive research carried out on a number of paintings considered to have been painted by Rembrandt. The book is 340 pages, and they still haven't got all the answers. But what they have done is to throw in to doubt the theories and techniques of the 19th/20th C experts.

    There is a welter of information in this book, but if you are trying to perfectly replicate a certain old master painterly technique, and failing to do so, then be warned the experts might not be such experts afterall.

    All said and done, I do recommend this book for the wealth of information it contains. Numerous recipes for mediums, varnishes, mixing paints, painting surface etc., along with a well presented demonstration of each painters technique. This book might not quite get you to a 100% replication of the desired technique but it will certainly get you close. And as science uncovers more knowledge about the "real" techniques they can be applied here accordingly.

    It is not a book for beginners - a rudimentary understanding of the oil painting process is reqd at minimum. Beginners might want to check out Brian Gorst's "The Complete Oil Painters" also.
    49 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2009
    I am an artist and educator; I use the techniques described by Joseph Sheppard in this book in my own studio practice, and they are the techniques I teach my students in my painting classes. This book is the only one I have found that describes in an easy-to-follow manner, the traditional techniques of figure painting in oil.

    There are two basic types of traditional figure painting in oil: the layered approach, and the direct approach (alla prima). The techniques described in this book are essentially variations of these two basic techniques. The techniques of Rubens and Hals are of the direct type: shadows are painted in gray, the lighter areas of flesh are painted in vermillion, yellow ochre, and lead white, and then highlights are added using a mixture of yellow ochre and lead white.

    The other techniques in this book, including the techniques of Titian, Vermeer, and Caravaggio, are of the layered type. First a monochromatic grisaille layer is painted in ivory black and lead white, this is allowed to dry, then a flesh color is glazed over this. The flesh mixture for the layered approach is yellow ochre, vermillion, and medium, with NO WHITE. The layer should be transparent enough to allow the lights and darks of the grisaille layer to show through. Then highlights are added on top.

    In using this book, it is absolutely essential to know whether one is using a layered or direct approach with a given technique. For the beginner, it is strongly recommended that you pick a technique, then follow it absolutely, without deviation. If you attempt to mix and match aspects from different techniques, the result will be a mess. I would recommend the technique of Titian (the one shown on the cover of the book) for a beginner's first painting, it is of the layered type and is one of the easiest to learn (and gives good results, easily). The technique of Rubens is ideal for learning the direct technique. Trying first one of these, then the other, will give a beginning student a great experience of the difference between the direct and layered types of painting.

    The techniques taught here can be adapted for use with acrylics but the process is complicated by acrylics' faster drawing time.

    The complicated mediums described are not necessary; these techniques can be used successfully with modern painting mediums such as Liquin or Galkyd. If you want to mix a traditional painting medium, this book will tell you how, but it is not necessary.

    These techniques can be used in painting from life, or working from a photograph, with equal ease. Good drawing skill is essential to success at figure painting; if you can't draw, these techniques will still give you good colors, but your shapes will be distorted.

    This book deals ONLY with painting the figure. It will teach you paint handling in regard to the nude, the costumed figure, and the portrait. This book does not deal at all with other subjects such as landscape, still life, animals, etc. (Small elements of landscape or still life are included in some of the demonstration paintings, but the techniques used to paint them are not discussed in any detail.) Therefore, readers should not expect to learn these subjects from this book. However, for the figure, it is the best book I have found on the topic.
    20 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2007
    I bought this book based on the reviews here and I wasn't disappointed.

    What was really good about the book was that the images shown are of a reasonable size. In many books the images are too small to really see the painting technique clearly. Each painting is also shown in quite a few stages of completion so you can really clearly understand the painting process being demonstrated. The descriptions given of each technique were also very clear and well written.

    What I most disliked about the book was that many of the paintings in the book were done in the 1970s and so looked quite dated.

    This is a great book, but I wouldn't recommend it for beginners - you need to know the basics of painting and colour mixing etc. first.

    It doesn't give the final word on painting like the masters, I'm still interested in reading more about it, but this book was a great starting point and well worth buying.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2024
    This book has a lot of great ideas and techniques in it. Recommended by my art teacher
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2016
    The book has some good basic information on glazing techniques and other styles of painting from the "Old Masters" but it seems Mr. Sheppard has a tendency to glorify the old Playboy poses in a lot of his pieces. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the book could use more details on the combinations of layering to achieve certain looks.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2024
    Good book , you learn a lot
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2020
    The author takes you through each one of the paintings and explains the techniques used. I have not tried his technique yet, which is to paint in grey first then place the color, but I have been looking at the works of other artists who use the same technique and it definitely seems to make a difference in the finish painting.

Top reviews from other countries

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  • A.vandeville
    5.0 out of 5 stars Super
    Reviewed in France on November 15, 2019
    Super contente de cet achat! L’auteur explique étape par étape les différents processus de grands peintres italiens et hollandais.
  • giuseppe c
    5.0 out of 5 stars ottimo acquisto
    Reviewed in Italy on September 17, 2019
    regalo apprezzato.consiglio acquisto
  • rajarshi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Its a great book. One of its kind with step by ...
    Reviewed in India on May 8, 2018
    Its a great book.One of its kind with step by step photographic depiction of how to tackle a masterpiece.No step jump at all....Each and every steps are depicted using good quality photograph.Anyone who may purchase this book will be benefited immensely
  • Pablo Alba
    5.0 out of 5 stars Clásico pero prático
    Reviewed in Spain on January 30, 2018
    Para ser sinceros es un tostón, pero es tremendamente útil para aprender diversas técnicas antiguas. Trae ejemplos de diferentes Maestros clásicos en step by step
  • traditionstoday_art
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in Canada on February 19, 2015
    This is a great book. This is for a more advanced artist for sure. The author shows different approaches to painting according to the old masters and their approach towards it. I think this is a great book to improve your own art as well, see what suits you and what result you want to achieve. Of course it is best to use it as a guideline rather than the rule but I definitely recommend this for the professional advanced artist who has some background in history of art and its methods, otherwise this may be difficult to digest. Great book.