Painting Sharp Focus Still Lifes: Trompe L’Oeil Oil Techniques

Dust jacket notes: “Still lifes of such exacting detail that you feel you can reach out and touch the objects – that you can count the flecks in the wood grain and see your reflection in the glass; this is sharp focus painting, or trompe l’oeil, which literally mean ‘fool the eye.’ The author, Ken Davies, a highly skilled painter and teacher, and master of the trompe l’oeil technique, shows how you, too, can learn to render trompe l’oeil reproductions of any subject you choose. The book is based on his successful course in sharp focus painting and is presented as a series of exercises and demonstrations. After an initial discussion of materials and perspective, the author offers a series of preparatory exercises for you to do: line drawing of simple and complicated shapes; black and white drawing in tone, using charcoal pencil and Conte; black and white value painting in oils; color value painting, in which you paint a color wheel, a color value chart, and a color mixing chart. When you have completed these preliminary exercises, you are ready to actually start painting. Step-by-step, the author guides you through the details of rendering a color still life, an all-white painting, an all-black painting, still lifes made up of objects with rough texture (wood, iron, paper, stone) and smooth texture (clear and colored glass, silver, gold), and a still life with reflected light. Then the author shows how to use different techniques: speed painting, monochrome wet-into-wet, drawing with a brush and thinned oil paint, painting still lifes under colored light, and finally, the techniques of glazing and scumbling. “The author then invites you to look over his shoulder as he paints, from start to finish, trompe l’oeil still life, tabletop still life, and outdoor still life. This section is further enhanced by a gallery of the author’s work reproduced in full color.” Includes 200 black and white illustrations, 40 full-color plates, glossary and index.