A student recently let me borrow her copy of
Painting Sharp Focus Still Lifes: Trompe L'Oeil Oil Techniques by Ken Davies (b. 1925) and Ellye Bloom. It is a classic and very well done. It starts with some exercises, including some useful ones one color. It doesn't go into color theory really at all, so another book would be necessary for this. My favorite exercise in the book is to paint a shiny white ball surrounded by different colors of fabric to practice reflected light. The end of the book goes into demonstrations. I thought the demo on scumbling to achieve wood textures and the small section on turning edges would be particularly helpful to my students. Also his explanation of trompe l'oeil techniques was very well done.
To see a modern master of trompe l'oeil, check out Anthony Waichulis' work at the
John Pence Gallery.
by Juliette Aristides. My favorite beginning exercise, and one I start my new students with, is found on page 10, warm-and-cool studies. Simple paintings are executed with ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and white. This allows the student to focus on value with the simplicity of having only three piles of paint to contend with. She also has an excellent, easy to understand explanation of color basics on page 79 and some step by step demonstrations that I highly recommend all my students work through.
