Agathe Singer

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I like this book. I'm a complete beginner when it comes to painting. I didn't even know what gouache was when I started reading this, and I don't think my drawing/painting skills have much improved since kindergarten. This book makes it seem do-able to paint something I might not want to throw into the garbage immediately.

There's some quite brief info on tools (paints, palettes, brushes, paper) and then the book show more dives into painting techniques with a short detour through color theory before presenting 12 project-based lessons.

Some of the instructions are a bit too brief, though. One the page about layering and texture (p.14 in the proofs), for example, there are 16 boxes, each with two colors. I imagine they have something to do with the layering the author is talking about, but she doesn't explain so you have to guess. Are these examples showing what it looks like to apply a darker color on top of a lighter color? Vice versa? No way to be sure. Across all the lessons, I would have liked to see more info on how to choose an appropriate brush for a given task.

I also didn't care for was the chapter on how to outfit yourself for painting outdoors (or at least outside your usual painting place). It seemed out of place in a book about techniques for how to learn to paint - can't most people figure out how to put paint and brushes in a backpack by themselves?

Overall, I like this book but I think in future editions, it could be fleshed out a bit more in the instructions and techniques. Either that or market it towards beginners with gouache but who aren't necessarily beginning painters. show less