A book to recommend

Today I want to talk about a book I recently purchased. I have a very large personal library of books of all types on all sorts of subjects. Of course, a lot of them are art-related books. When I came back from our retreat where I took the pastel class, I wanted to learn more about pastels. I found a book titled: Collins Painting Workshop Pastels by Jackie Simmonds


This is an excellent book, not just for pastels, but as a general art book as well. Unlike many of the books we purchase that have a little bit of information and a lot of photos, this one is a whole art class in one not-very-big book. She has chapters on the supplies you need for using pastels of all types, techniques used in pastel painting, and other pastel-specific information. Then she includes chapters on color theory, perspective, choosing a subject, setting up a still life, painting still life, landscape, florals, people. Every chapter has exercises for the reader to do to explore the topic in the chapter. I have read most of it (not typical) and I'm getting ready to work my way through the chapters to do the exercises. I am so very glad I purchased this book.