Reviews for Portraits from Life in 29 Steps

The average rating for Portraits from Life in 29 Steps based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-07-28 00:00:00 Ian Mackay Good grammar makes for readable texts the same way good technique makes for acceptable paintings. Neither makes for artistic achievement. The author insists on truthfulness and not wasting time with aesthetics. -one senses a certain contempt for anything too experimental or modern- and he certainly can’t be accused of too much philosophical baggage when painting the scions of American society as proud shopkeepers with leonine manes, self satisfied smirks and endless strings of pearls. Sanden manages to create such stale, lustrous figurines -all with the same final highlight in the eyes- that they look stuck in the Reagan years for eternity. There are some not terrible portraits in this book which surely pleased the sitters but Sargent it isn’t. Not by a long shot. In short, there’s nothing here a run of the mill illustrator can’t do. Nothing stands out as a unique take on portraiture. The logical steps are ,well, a bit arbitrary . The colour theory is messy - most alla prima pieces are lobster red with flashy highlights and spelled out bravura rubs. You are much better of starting your palette with Richard Schmidt pre-mixing. That said, there is nothing that would lead one horribly astray It might be a useful starting point. He uses the Asaro head for example. I don’t believe his examples should be hard to follow but one would do well to ponder some aesthetics once you reach a certain point should you be stuck making glossy fluff. There are worse things, that’s for sure, and he seems to be doing ok economically even if any piece at the BP annual portrait exhibition is far superior.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-03-12 00:00:00 Suji Wolff This a lot of information in a short book. The painter walks you thru doing a portrait with structure, color and texture. Very good notes of what colors to mix and how to add strokes from dark to light. The hardest thing for me is still learning values. I will need to reread and practice, wish I had the model of the head used in this book.