Review on Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner

This was a big book for sale at the Learning Expo this past weekend. I could not beat the price since it was 50% off! I did a brief review of it in an earlier post when I did my Learning Expo recap. I think it is a very good book for beginner to intermediate acrylic artists. I use acrylics a lot but don't know as much as I should about their properties. I know less about watercolors but use them. I know nothing about oils. I do not know if an accomplished or very advanced acrylic artist would glean that much from this book. I do a lot with acrylics and I learned some things from it. I know a lot more about acrylics now that will be stored in the back of my head with a ton of other information.

There is some really good information on starting on page 8 in the book called essential acrylic tips. There was some stuff in there that I did not know that is very useful. I also liked how they went into surfaces that you can paint on with acrylics and how to prep them. I am not good with the prepping thing.

There are some simple techniques for you to try. I like that each one has step-by-step picts with it. It also gives you alternatives to try. I liked the section on metallic underpainting with micaceous iron oxide. I have used it before but not like this. Interesting.

There are collage art examples. This book is not directed towards fine artists even though there are some fine art examples. The book is specific to acrylic use not matter who the artist is. There is a small section on assemblage. The pictures are a decent size so you can see the color and textures well.

The book tells you how you can get your look to be more opaque, get rid of brush strokes, how to make soft and hard edges, how to do basic transfers with gel mediums, how to simulate watercolor, do faux encaustic, go from opaque to transparent and the other way around, faux metallic, marbleized skins (I liked this one), marbleized painting layers (this one is one I am going to try), and different finishes. Was that a long, run-on sentence! An "F" on grammar for me. Sorry, I will tuck the teacher part of me away until the end of August (which is coming up wayyyyyy too soon). At the end, the book tells you how to do some pours and there is a short gallery. I would have liked to have seen more art here. What is nice about this gallery is that they give you page numbers so you can find the techniques they used in the gallery pieces.

Overall, I think this is a good reference book for acrylic artists. I will need to sit down with a cup of tea and go over it more thoroughly.

Art Technique members - let me know if you want to do a book study and try the techniques.