Search  for anything...
Watson-Guptill

Oil Painting Secrets From a Master

    • Based on 229 reviews
Condition: New
Checking for product changes
$20.95 Why this price?
Save $9.04 was $29.99

Buy Now, Pay Later

As low as $5 / mo
  • – 4-month term
  • – No impact on credit
  • – Instant approval decision
  • – Secure and straightforward checkout

Ready to go? Add this product to your cart and select a plan during checkout. Payment plans are offered through our trusted finance partners Klarna, PayTomorrow, Affirm, Afterpay, Apple Pay, and PayPal. No-credit-needed leasing options through Acima may also be available at checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Selected Option

Free shipping on this product

This item is eligible for return within 30 days of receipt

To qualify for a full refund, items must be returned in their original, unused condition. If an item is returned in a used, damaged, or materially different state, you may be granted a partial refund.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

Availability: Only 10 left in stock, order soon!
Fulfilled by SuperBookDeals---
Arrives Dec 19 – Dec 20
Order within 17 hours and 41 minutes
Available payment plans shown during checkout

Format: Paperback


Description

Some of the most popular art instruction books ever written have been based on student notes culled over the years from actual workshop sessions, with all their power and immediacy - and with practical, on-to-one contact between student and teacher. This is such a book. For more than two years, Linda Cateura has pursued teacher / artist David A. Leffel, notebook in hand, as he critiqued the work of students. Linda Cateura's succinct notes capture his insights, philosophy, painting hints, and general comments. Leffel's classic, painterly, twentieth-century old master style, much in the manner of Rembrandt or Chardin, affords ample illustration of the ideas expressed - through his many paintings, details, demonstrations, and diagrams, almost all in color. No matter what your level of ability, there is something here to apply to your own work, ideas that will cause you to rething your own ways of painting, hints to save you effort, or solutions to persistent painting problems. Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ Watson-Guptill; NO-VALUE edition (September 1, 1995)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0823032795


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 92


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.28 x 0.4 x 10.99 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #170,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #31 in Oil Painting #49 in Walking (Books)


#31 in Oil Painting:


#49 in Walking (Books):


Frequently asked questions

If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Dec 19 – Dec 20

Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

  • Klarna Financing
  • Affirm Pay in 4
  • Affirm Financing
  • Afterpay Financing
  • PayTomorrow Financing
  • Financing through Apple Pay
Leasing options through Acima may also be available during checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Similar Products

Top Amazon Reviews

    • Comparative review of painting books
I want to attempt a comparative review of six instructional books for the beginning painter, which I will eventually rank. Before I go into this, here are a few words about where I'm coming from. Needless to say, if your background and expectations are different from mine, you may well arrive at a completely different evaluation of these books. I am relatively new to painting, but had some drawing skills already. I was looking for a book that starts at the very beginning (what supplies to buy etc.) and then introduces me to a range of techniques for painting in realistic style. More specifically, I would like to see the following in my ideal book: (a) Reasonably specific step-by-step instructions that don't leave me guessing how the author got from A to B; at the same time, I would like to be treated as an adult and have clear explanations of why I'm doing what I'm doing throughout; (b) exposure to a variety of techniques such as painting in layers, alla prima; (c) demonstration artwork in realistic style that inspires me to learn what is needed to get there. One more general remark: four of the books I'm reviewing here work with oils and two with acrylics, please keep this in mind if you have already decided on what your favorite paint is. I'll note this below. (I used both oils and acrylics at an early stage and would actually recommend this approach.) (1) Still Life Painting Atelier: An Introduction to Oil Painting (oil): For me, this is head and shoulders above the rest. It succeeds in all three criteria (perhaps the author's artwork is not the most stunning I've ever seen). I'll give it a clear A. (2) Painting for the Absolute and Utter Beginner (acrylics): Pretty good in my opinion, with many useful little tips in it, though sometimes it could be a bit more specific (rather than "work on the shapes, refine the colors") and it wasn't always clear to me why the author made the choices she made (why glaze here, use opaque color there?). I'll call it a B+. (3) Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide (acrylics): This is actually an excellent book, just a bit different from what I described above. It works great as a reference book (and as a coffee table book, fantastic artwork in it). I won't grade this one. (4) Lessons in Classical Painting: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier (oil): A pleasure to read and look at, and similar in approach to Friel's book actually in the instructional parts, but it has a rather different feel to it, much chattier and philosophical and light on the actual hands-on instruction. That's a B for me. (5) Oil Painting Secrets From a Master (this book, oil): Sorry, but advice such as (random example, the book is full of this) "it's not how to paint what you see, but how to see what you paint" doesn't do it for me. Also, much of Leffel's work (the "master" from the title of the book) is too loosely painted for my taste. I'll give it a C-. (6) The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons for Beginners and Experienced Artists (oil): This seems to be a popular book, but I honestly can't understand why. The instructions are unmotivated and too vague, and the author is an abstract painter whose attempts at realistic demonstration painting in the book are unconvincing (especially the portraits). Some useful information, for example on color mixing, but the book just didn't work for me at all as a course. I'll give it a D. By the way, the drawmixpaint videos on youtube are another wonderful resource, in my opinion. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2016 by a customer
    • Good information but poor images
The first thing that struck me as I browsed the book is the woeful quality of many of the images, with way too many being out of focus. This problem is also apparent in the other two books by Watson Guptill that I think compliment this one well. Kreutz "Problem Solving for Beginners" and Sheppard "How to Paint Like the Old Masters". If you are looking to paint in a realistic style in the vein of Caravaggio, Rembrandt etc. then you will find plenty of information in these three books. However all three deal with technique and for me the ability to discern the brushstrokes is a critical part of the learning exercise. Hopefully WG will revisit each of these books and bring the images up to scratch. David Laffel is the subject of this book, his approach, technique etc. Leffel is a realist, painting in a style emulating Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Chardin amongst others. His style places great emphasis on shadowy backgrounds with well lit subject matter and the use of light to tell the story. His genre is still lifes, portrait and figure - you won't find any landscapes here. Linda Cateura shadowed Laffel collecting together his classroom teachings, over a 2 year period, at the Artists Students League NY. (It's comparable to Robert Henri's "The Art Spirit" but with illustrations. Henri's book should be on every artists bookshelf). Rather than being a "How to" guide it's more a series of bullet points/concerns/hints & tips etc. for each stage of his painting process. He opens with a treatise on how to think like an artist followed by the "concepts". The concepts are whatever point is of interest in the painting i.e. brushstrokes, building mass, use of light/dark, colour, values, still lifes, portraits etc. Hence I wouldn't consider this to be a book for beginners - more for someone who understands the rudiments of oil painting allowing them to understand each of the concepts. Beginners might want to have a copy of Gorst's "The Complete Oil Painter" on hand. There is plenty here to digest - I give it 5 stars for content and 2 for image quality. Recommended all the same along with all the other books mentioned in this review. And if you really want to get in to the nitty gritty of Rembrandts technique then De Wettering's "Rembrandt, The Painter At Work" is highly recommended also. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2006 by Brian Asquith
    • Fascinating instruction, fascinating art
This book is worth it's price just to see the artwork. At the same time, I have learned a lot from the material in this book and I am inspired by the artist's work. You can tell he's mastered a technique unique to himself and his teaching methods are quite clear and informative. It's fun to see someone so talented who wishes to pass on that knowledge to others. I've read quite a few art improvement books but this one is different in that it really seems to get down to important fundamentals of art in a clear and instructive manner. I imagine I'll re-read it quite a bit as it has a lot of critical detail that I haven't run into before. It is obvious that this artist has great skill and insight and he uses an equal amount of those talents presenting clear and helpful information to those who strive to improve their art skill. I highly recommend this one to anyone with a serious desire to become an artist or who want to better understand real art. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2009 by J. M. Williams
    • GREAT BOOK, BUT CONDITION IS NOT AT ALL AS ADVERTISED
This is a classic book on painting, but I purchased a book advertised as Very Good Condition...and it arrived with water damage at the bottom of all the pages and very heavy highlighting and underlining throughout the whole book.
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2023 by Blane Barber

Can't find a product?

Find it on Amazon first, then paste the link below.