Learn how to create a great selection of abstract paintings using mixed media and a few simple guidelines. Combining distinctive style with colour and texture, Dani includes clear step-by-step demonstrations to help build up skills with easy-to-follow explanations about all the techniques she uses.
Dani Humberstone shows how to create a great selection of abstract paintings using mixed media and a few simple guidelines. Combining her distinctive style with colour and texture, she includes clear step-by-step demonstrations to help build up skills with easy-to-follow explanations about all the techniques she uses.
Oct 09
At first sight, the idea of including abstracts in a basic series that's mainly aimed at the beginner with little or no previous experience seems a bit optimistic, to put it mildly. However, with previous books on abstraction concentrating more on the creative and philosophical aspects of the style, it's rather good to find something that deals with the actual process of getting ideas down onto your surface. The author's mixed media approach means that you're not tied to one particular style and she's absolutely sound on the techniques you need. As well as the basic introduction, there are also four demonstrations showing how the final results are built up.
* Artbookreview.net *Nov 09
As the introduction says, until the camera was invented art was the only way of depicting reality. After its invention art was free to go to places no camera could go, depicting images not of reality or even fantasy, but to evoke moods and show our inner world. It can be a daunting style to attempt for a beginner, so there are books like this one to lend a helping hand. I like this book. There is nothing daunting about it at all, being rather on the thin side and unlike other books on abstract painting it actually has some staged projects to work through. Maybe some people might say that this goes against what abstract art is all about but I am not one of them - a beginner needs all the help they can get to understand the anatomy of a subject. The first project for example shows how a study of a pot of geraniums can be reduced to a picture which is all about their vibrant shapes and colors, and then rendered down further and depicted again as a series of bright shapes. There are ideas to free up the imagination as a painter, and these include using your other senses for stimulation. Experiment with unusual materials such as kitchen paper to add dimension and a feeling of movement, and have a go at working with different types of paint. All the paints in here are water-based so if you get a bit carried away getting cleaned up won't be too bad! Of course there is a brief chapter at the front to introduce you to what you need, and even this is less daunting than in many other art primers. On putting the book down I felt thoroughly inspired, and like the author's idea that the book is like a High Street that can be returned to when you need something. If I was buying somebody a book on how to get started in abstract painting I rather think that it might be this one.
* Myshelf.com *Dani was born in London and educated at Michael Hall School in East Sussex.
She trained as a fashion designer in Brighton and developed an award-winning design business, before working in graphic design and book illustration for a number of varied clients, including nightclubs, magazines, offices and schools.
As well as producing greetings cards used worldwide, working as a freelance gallery manager and curator and sitting on the board of a prestigious Sussex based fine art exhibition, DanI has been a professional artist for ten years and exhibited in galleries, art fairs and group exhibitions.
She works from her art shop/studio on the High Street in Wadhurst, East Sussex.
Introduction 6
Materials 8
Getting started 16
DEMONSTRATIONS 30
Sonnet 32
Spiritus 40
Echoes 48
Reflection 56
Index 64