The New Oil Painting

This book was a wonderful surprise! I expected it to be a quick glazing of terms and instructions on how to paint in the modern day with lots of the authors own works shown step by step and instead what I got was a stage by stage, thoroughly detailed instruction guide on how to begin painting! I should mention that it is also useful for those who have been painting and want to detoxify their studio practices. As a baker, I could compare this to the rarely seen, fully instructional guides to cooking that doesn't assume that everyone knows the difference between types of oils or eggs and which pan to use when. I left this reading excited by the thought of diving in to a new hobby and confident to go to the store and know what I was looking to purchase rather that just scanning the unknown. I loved that Kimberly Brooks kept this NON-TOXIC, what a welcome perspective and she describes her reasons for doing so compellingly in the book. She gives advice as well as options and I really like her style! At first, it took me a bit to get used to the almost hand written, journal style of the book with little doodles marking chapters and columns but just as I was getting into that vibe, boom.. she drops page after page of gorgeously staged photos of the simplest of materials (I mean how gorgeous is paint coming out of the tube) without fussing too much. This book publishes May 4th, 2021 and I recommend this brilliant book for the beginner or for anyone looking to modernize their practices!

The New Oil painting is a great guide for beginners as well as skilled artists, as it gives some really good advice and tips. The New Oil Painting covers materials (what you should have in your studio, brushes, substrates, solvents, mediums, etc) Digital Technology (Photoshop, art software), mixing colors, cleaning supplies, varnishing, and safety. The New Oil Painting also includes a handy Glossary of terms and a list of additional resources. 

Thank you for the advance copy, I enjoyed it.

As someone who enjoys oil painting, I thought that this book was instructive and interesting read. This book goes over the basics for oil painting, from brushes and canvas types to the paint and cleaning solvents you should (and shouldn't) use. It even goes over the best way to store your work, and talks about the importance of documentation! It is true that oil painting is much more complex than water-based acrylic, and it was great to have a quick crash-course to reintroduce all of this information to me. I thought it was an excellent book and am so thankful to NetGalley for the free ARC!! Thank you!

This is a really helpful book for painting beginners. Really informative and very very helpful, from what paint you should buy it shouldnt buy, that is really helpful, I struggled also from that when I tried to paint. Contents of this book is amazingly crafted, highly recommended to artist. especially beginners, and for the people who would like to enter and do something unique, people who are interested in oil paintings. It's very very helpful.
Thank you So much Negalley, Kimberly Brooks and the publisher for the advance copy to read and review.

Review ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the Publisher. 
The New Oil Painting book has actually gotten me one step closer to taking actually using the oil paints I own to...paint with oils. Not to be glib, but as someone who studied art history, and who has a solid background in materials and studio/archive safety, oil painting intimidates the hell out of me. I have two small cats, I don't have a big studio to paint in with a good air vent system in place aside from "open my window," and I absolutely know too many stories about artists being poisoned from toxic materials, especially with regards to inhalation or exposure via the eyes. I'm not the only one - a friend of mine who got a BFA had a professor tell a horror story of knowing a woman who covered herself in blue paint for an art project, and then unsurprisingly got heavy metal poisoning. Now, I'm not saying I intended to ever coat myself in lead white oil paint, but the bottle of mineral spirits and paint thinner I *thought* I needed concerned me. Would I only be able to paint outside for short periods? How much flammability would I have to worry about? I had already begun looking into Gamblin's solvent free gel/fluid and the possibility of (very minute) use of Gamsol (Odorless mineral spirit). I've bought water-miscible oil paints as well as "regular" oil paint. But I still haven't taken the deep dive. 

This book did a great job of laying out how to do away with thinner and solvent *entirely*. Kimberly Brooks explains in thoughtful, concrete ways how to avoid using toxic materials like turps (turpentine) and instead practice a safer, less dangerous method of oil painting. One that also A.) isn't married to the arguments of the 19th century about what the "old masters," did or didn't do, and B.) is not exceptionally complicated or inherently more expensive. I deeply appreciate the in-depth discussions of what certain components do, and how safe they are for use. 

I've never taken an oil painting studio class - only gleaned best practices from internet resources, other books, and my academic studies. But this book does handily describe not only the "what" of safer, less toxic painting, but also the "how," it's done, step by step. The descriptions of cleaning brushes without using harsh chemicals were great. Things are broken down, and there are some minimalist diagrams/illustrations. My biggest complaints would necessarily be that there could certainly be much more in terms of photos and illustrations that would be useful. I'd certainly appreciate seeing more of them, since I suspect many of the ideal audience here are "visual learners." I also might have liked just a little more relating to palette set-up and color theory, but otherwise I found this book to overall be very helpful and hope to use what I learned from it soon. (Now if only I also new how to contain and best dispose of my watercolor "water"...)

--Artists: Know Your Pigments & So Much More!--

I received an advanced review copy from the publisher through NetGalley and here are my thoughts.

This book is eye-opening! Get ready to put down your assumptions on what "has" to be used in order to paint, period.  The author has painstakingly researched and tested and tells you how to paint without having to use any toxic solvents.

You'll learn how to make your own mediums and use essential or other oils to slow down drying or keep things from growing mold. 

Detailed information about how to select tools such as brushes and how to care for them so you can use them a long, long time.

And even more detailed information about all the materials you're likely to use while painting, and how to use EVERYTHING in the most efficient and eco-friendly, artist savvy way. And the author discusses all kinds of paints and mediums, not just oil paints.

Basically, this is the GET SET UP TO PAINT properly book that you've always wanted, regardless of whether or not you were concerned about solvents. 

Big Thumbs for this book.

When I first started painting, I used oils, and had a jar of turps near by, but some years back when I decided to take a painting course, oil painting was considered too dangerous and I had to settle for acrylics. The acrylics never had the same pull for me or created the effects I wanted. Since then I discovered water based  oil paints and am happy with the choice.
This book will opened your  eyes to the why and what for about the oil painting medium, how to create your own,  discover the basics of commercial safe oil paint and a lot more including safe canvases, extenders and mediums.
This book has been a long time coming, and should be read by all new and experienced oil painters - the information is extensive and really worth knowing.
Highly recommended

I'm very disapponted by this book. Yes it has very much useful information, specially on materials,, but very few colored images (only on 15 pages of 214). The rest is text, text, text, with very simple little symbols or objects in black (no color),,  Painting is visual art, we need pictures, illustrations, give us colors please. This book reminds me of some 100 year old art instruction books, a lot of text, very few unexciting black and white images. They are too boring for the modern reader, so is this one, despite the good information it contains. Art needs excitement and inspiration,

I really liked that the book introduces how to paint solvent-free with oils. Oils are weird to try out because at the start you just dont know what to buy and this helps alot.
There also is some great knowledge about pigment in here.

This is an excellent guide for artists to use nontoxic, safe oil painting supplies. Brooks points out that many artists mistakenly believe that they need to use toxic cleaners, paints, thinners, etc. and it's completely untrue. The book is really designed for serious artists and there were times when the talk was over my head, but I appreciated the wealth of information.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.