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Sought-after tutor, and The Artist contributor, Rob Wareing, draws on 40 years of experience for his first book, Painting Portraits in Oils. Working from life, Rob encourages students to complete their painting in one sitting. His alla prima method is explained here in great detail, from the initial overview of the subject and preparing your work area to how to post and light the sitter. Every stage of the process is covered – composition, proportions, colour mixing and skin tones, to finishing touches – with clear step-by-step demonstrations and plenty of the artist's work included throughout.

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The Artist

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Acclaimed portrait artist Rob Wareing shares more than 40 years of experience in his first book, Painting Portraits in Oils. If you're ready for a new challenge, discover how to paint a subject from life, beginning with the materials needed, how to light and pose your sitter, to the painting process itself.

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Crafts Beautiful

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Portraiture in Oils. Difficult, messy, best left to the professionals. And, you know what, I wouldn't disagree. Until now, right up to the moment I discovered this amazing guide.

Rob is a portrait painter with an international reputation and some four decades' of experience. 

What impressed me most about this book is how Rob breaks what is indeed a complex subject, down into easily-understood parts. You can (and should) get the sense of a book by flicking quickly through its pages. This one is not just phenomenally unintimidating, but actually welcoming. So how is this sleight of hand achieved? Simple lessons – one thing at a time, carefully graded stages. Let's look at the first few: Materials (of course), Planning, Preparation, Composition, Lighting, Studies. There are plenty of examples and illustrations, but this is about getting to know them. This not only puts both of you at ease, but also helps you understand character and expressions. Groundwork, you see.

The rest of the book proceeds in the same way. Rob teaches specific painting skills – facial features, hard and soft edges (even how to keep the sitting the right length) through examples and simple exercises. 

Rob is nothing if not a patient teacher and we're some 100 pages in before a full sitting appears and, by now, you'll be ready for the heavy lifting. Even here, Rob takes things slowly (you can with oils), taking time over drawing, initial paint layers, construction of features and the final refining.

This is a careful and believable book; perhaps its greatest trick is to convince you that you really can do what you thought wasn't possible.

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Henry Malt, Paint Magazine

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This beautifully produced book takes us through the stages of painting oil portraits from life. From materials and equipment, choosing a model, composition, lighting, achieving a likeness, values, edges, and colour, to step-by-step demonstrations of the whole process, the book is packed with great tips and advice.

The sections showing how to avoid common mistakes, like making the nose too long, are particularly useful.
Everything is well illustrated with photos, and explained clearly. Anyone wanting to learn to paint portraits from life, or to improve their skills, would find lots of advice and inspiration here.

Although the book is primarily concerned with painting 'alla prima', (in one sitting), there's plenty of information which would equally apply to other types of portrait, and to other subjects and mediums.

It's a book that I'm sure will become a well used friend in future.

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Sarah Ledger, Amazon

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Oil portraits are often regarded as the highest form of art, certainly one to be taken with the utmost seriousness. Capturing a likeness as well as the character of yout subject requires planning, preparation and persistence and is not for the faint-hearted.

Rob's four decades of experience have imbued him with a deep understanding not merely of the subject, but of the processes involved. This is a thoroughly researched and presented course that teaches you everything you need to know progressively. Explanations are succeeded by exercises until the final sitting, so that you understand what you're trying to do and how to work before getting to grips with real people. Such a solid grounding can only lead to confidence and success.

Rob makes light of learning and his thorough approach is never hard work, but rather a journey of discovery. If you've ever wanted to try your hand at portraiture, there's no better place to get started.

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SAA, SAA

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I am quite new to oil painting and have only ever attempted landscapes. This book is well written and contains just about everything you need to know about painting portraits. I can’t wait to get started.

Illustrated with lovely coloured photos the author gives step-by-step instruction on how to construct your painting with whole chapters on composition, materials, mixing your colours, using light and dark values, capturing light, angles, edges, proportions and common mistakes.

The only other thing that I felt could have been included is a section on the painting's background, how and when to paint it without distracting from the main portrait etc

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Lyla Horley, Amazon Customer Review