The Acrylic Painter ─ Tools and Techniques for the Most Versatile Medium

A complete course on acrylic painting covering classic approaches and new innovations in this medium widely embraced by both beginners and experienced artists for its versatility, quick-drying properties, and non-toxicity.
Noted artist and School of Visual Arts instructor James Van Patten shows how acrylics can provide all painters with a vast range of possibilities for producing highly expressive art. Readers will learn how to use acrylics to create a wide variety of effects--from watercolor-like transparency and the flatness of tempera and gouache, to the buttery quality of oil and collage adhesive and varnish--in everything from non-representational works to painterly realism to photorealism. Van Patten offers guidance on materials, processes, balance, and composition, and focuses on effectively using color in painting. Replete with detailed step-by-step technical demonstrations and a catalog of inspiring works by notable past and contemporary artists, as well as the author himself and his students, The Acrylic Painter provides a classic art instruction manual for painters of all abilities.

JAMES VAN PATTEN teaches acrylic painting at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He has been a practicing artist for over 50 years and his acrylic paintings have been exhibited throughout the US and Europe. His paintings have been featured in several publications, including most recently,Exactitude: Hyperrealist Art Today (Thames & Hudson, 2009).