Paint Along with Jerry Yarnell Volume One - Painting Basics

I am a big Jerry Yarnell fan. He is an excellent teacher and it really shows in his instructional books. I had the good fortune to attend one of his workshops, and really learned a lot. I expect to be able to continue to learn from these books.From what I can tell, the books do not have to be followed in a specific order. I have the first four volumes in the series. What I plan to do is to work on the techniques presented in this first volume and at that point, I'll just pick paintings from his other books that I like.The paintings are selected to help you develop specific techniques that will be of good general use and he gives step by step instructions and includes color photographs of the paintings at each stage to give you an idea of what each step should look like.He gives instructions for mixing the colors required at each step too. He doesn't give an exact formula for the colors since brands and grades of paints vary so much. What he does do is to give you the colors and a relative idea of how much to use of each. You then can develop your eye by mixing until the color looks right. It doesn't take long to figure it out and it is much better for developing your color mixing skills than a rote formula.Jerry also uses a limited number of colors in his palette. This really help with developing you color mixing skills too. He tell you what brushes you need and how to use them as well.If there is another set of instructional books that is better than these, I haven't found them.If you go to his web site [...] and click on Books, you can see slide shows of the paintings that are taught in each book. This will give you a better feel for which ones you want to try.

Jerry Yarnell picks beautiful spots to paint and this book is no exception, it is full of tips on how to paint nature and bring it to life on your canvas. Great reference book for an artist that likes to paint nature.

Best ever!

I like all of Jerry Yarnell's art books, and this is no exception. He discusses the basics, similar to information in his other books, especially in this series. Then he has different ten step-by-step painting projects (in oils, but useful for most other mediums as far as much of the basics). He covers mountains, skys / clouds, trees, buildings, birds, water, and similar, with his techniques readily transferable to a painting with your own subject matter. His techniques are more advanced compared to Bob Ross' Joy of Painting and similar, so could be considered a next step in one's painting education. Obviously I don't agree with some of the low ratings for this book. I've painted for decades, taught and sold oil and watercolor paintings in the past, and still value these books.

This book like so many so-called beginner's acrylics books follows the usual pattern: a chapter on materials and then an immediate huge jump into technique. It is interesting to note that the author's suggested palette contains eleven colors, three of which are not particularly light fast. After this chapter he dives into the first of ten demonstration paintings. These painting are all extremely complex and large undertakings on 16x20" canvases. I predict that most beginners are going to get lost early on in the first painting a flick it in. Maybe after I find some way to get the basics down, I'll come back to some of the Yarnell books, though I find his style rather garish.As my growing collection of unsatisfactory "beginner's" acrylics shows (the nearest big bookstore is almost three hours away) there is a huge difference between a gifted artist and a gifted art teacher, though in fairness what is probably lacking are gifted art instruction authors. When writing these books they apparently don't have any reader feedback (why not?) who could slow them down by asking questions like how do I thin the paint, how thing should it be, what's the best way to mix colors, how do I clean the brushes, how do I keep the paint from drying out on my palette or my painting, etc., etc., etc.The only painting book I've found so far which can truly claim to be a beginner's book is Jack Reid's "Watercolor Basics: Let's Get Started". That book is full of exercise paintings that let the reader learn a technique on a simple painting; the paintings are simple enough so that the beginner doesn't get lost in the detail yet have some artistic character. There are also beginner's drawing books that really do start from zero and build up the reader's technique.

The book could use a bit more detail in the instructions. If you've seen his show(s), or had some art instruction, you'll have a better understanding of the technique and what he's talking about & be fine. Someone starting from scratch may have a few questions, but will be able to figure it out or contact Jerry on his web site. Photos are clear. The paintings he's demonstrating in the book are chosen from TV or DVD's/videos he has available. I'd suggest buying the books & DVD's together as they are a great compliment to each other. Jerry is an accomplished artist and a wonderful teacher. There's always something to learn from him and he's always willing to share the tricks of the trade to help make his students better artists.

I haven't started painting yet. But reading thru it and for an acrylic artist of at least 15 years, I find good tips like using gesso for white and mixing! I've got tons of gesso! I have trouble making believable clouds which I am sure Jerry would help. Instructions seemed to be absolute clear and helps the pupil not to be bogged with terminology which would make me put the book away.

This book was bought for my husband who says it is excellent. Easy to follow and very informative. Would recommend.

great help on getting me started

The book has some very easy to understand and easy to follow, step by step guide for beginners and intermediaries in painting. Good comprehensive knowledge on the do's and don'ts of painting.

Good starter book. I don't like the paintings very much. I am someone who has been painting animal portraits in oil a long time and now I want to put nice landscape type backgrounds behind them and use acrylics, which is why I bought the book. I think it will be good to work through the book and learn a few techniques. The instructions are really clear and well written.

Libro utile, ben illustrato, andrebbe aggiornato con dei quadri piu' attuali ma nel complesso e' utile per imparare una tecnica di pittura tradizionale.