Painting-the

Twenty-six completely different, gorgeous and remarkably easy techniques are shown in glorious, large photos, and with very complete step-by-step instructions.

If you have (or want to have) anything to do with either working with paper or paint, stamping, embossing, decoupaging, gilding, scrapbooking, or pressing flowers or leaves, you will use these techniques for the rest of your life in millions of ways, and never tire of the creative possibilities uniquely yours with professional, stunning results possible every time.

I've only begun to get into paper crafting in the last few months, and I had no problem re-creating the techniques into projects of my own, and into three of the eighteen projects she gives to kick-start creativity with the demonstrated techniques. This book will be a favorite for years to come! It's for the person who is only thinking about trying this type of craft (by the time you're done perusing this book, you'll jump in and start doing!) all the way to the person who has done this stuff for years, as the inspiration is powerful...

I highly recommend this book to the novice or experienced decoupager. Rhonda Rainey has very thoughtfully compiled a very user-friendly guide. What impressed me most, in comparison to many other decoupage how-to books, was how clearly everything is explained and layed out in order to complete the featured techniques. Not only that, there is an easy to understand, not too technical overview of decoupaging at the start of the book. The print is very readable. All the materials, tools, and supplies needed are pictured and listed which is very helpful. Last but not least, her creative ideas with combining decoupage with faux finishes are the most appealing designs that I have seen compiled in one book. I have many other decoupage books but I regard Decorating with Paper and Paint as my decoupage bible.

Great book for anyone who thinks they can't paint freehand! Donna Dewberry is the master of instructional simplicity when it comes to showing just how easy it is for anyone to do decorative painting. A+

Donna Dewberry is an amazing artist who shows you step by step how to create beautiful decorations on furniture in your home. Decorative Furniture was written with the beginner painter in mind. Everything is made simple, and it starts from square one.

Decorative Furniture starts out by showing you what materials you will need to complete every project in the book. Amazingly, it isn't a huge list of materials. Donna Dewberry strives for simple, yet extraordinary projects. She also shows you what brushes are needed and how to load them with paint.

This book also covers basic one-stroke painting techniques, such as how to make a vine, leaf, or flower. Even if you already know the one-stroke painting techniques, this serves as a very useful reminder of how things should look.

My favorite part of this book is how it teaches you how to do special effects such as giving a piece a textured look, such as the project on page 32. I plan to start this one soon!

As with all Donna Dewberry's books, don't feel that the projects are only for furniture. You really can use the same techniques, and patterns on nearly anything you wish to paint!

This is indeed a wonderful book. Several sections are not about decorative painting specifically, but about painting in general. These sections are clearly laid out with pictures and lists of equipment needed. They were absolutely perfect for my fiancee and myself - we just bought our first home and have a lot of work to do! This book helped us learn how to sand walls, prime, remove wallpaper, and finally, paint. There's plenty in here for decorative painting too, but if you're just starting out and need a great reference, buy this book!

The Home Depot has done it again-- provided homeowners with a practical guide for inexpensive and creative solutions for our painting needs! Reminding us that 80% of project time is in the preparation, the book is chock full of tips such as safety, tool selection and organization, and the basics of painting a surface.

The book is comprised of six main sections, plus safety and paint basics, which more than covers the questions you might have as a beginning or experienced painter. Choosing colors, tools and materials, preparing to paint, room painting basics, decorative painting techniques, and cleaning up are discussed at length, making this a comprehensive resource for your painting success.

I have to say that out of what I have seen in decoupage books and artists, Rubena Grigg has it over all. In my book, sophisticated wins out especially after one is continually confronted with the endless stream of cutesy, mediocrity in so many "crafts" today. This lady is an artisan!

Her pictures are quite good and her decoupaged tabletop along with the black ground floral tin pitchers are BREATHTAKING....no overkill here...they are my personal favorites.

The instructions, although not pictorial are adequate and the pictures will definitely inspire you to get started....I know I want to!

For incredible inspiration alone, this book is worth the purchase.

This is not a book on technique, but I wouldn't sell it for the world. Rubena is truly an artist, and just picking up her book, makes me want to do decoupage. I actually bought it to learn more about varnishing methods, and she does explain that well, but to me it's more a source of ideas.
Every project in her book, she explains in detail how she accomplished it.
If you buy it you won't be sorry if you like decoupage.

The dogs come out of the paintings in the museum one night a year for a party. One year the remnants of a human cocktail party lead them to eat too much food and wine, and when it is time to crawl back into their paintings for another year there is a grand mixup. The paintings are real ones from the National Gallery in London. Great book. We loved it!

With 7 grandchildren, I'm always on the look out for suitable reading matter for them. Today I found a really nice book for the age group 5 to 9yrs. Dogs' Night by Meredith Hooper, fits all the requirements.

The story is set in an art museum : One night of the year, all the dogs in the paintings, jump down and have a high old time, running riot in the museum, when the staff and the public have left. This time things were just a little different! The museum hosted an art lovers function and the dogs had to wait until it was over, before they could escape their paintings and have a good time doing the things dogs do. The humans hadn't cleared away the left overs, so the dogs ate, and drank *fizzy drinks*. When it was time for them to go back into their pictures, 4 of them ended up in the wrong ones! The dog from Jan van Eyck's Painting *The Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, Giovnna Cenami* a cute hairy little beast, ends up in Gainsborough's *Mr & Mrs.Andrews. Their dog, a brown hunting dog with a white muzzle, goes to visit *Madame de Pompadour* by Francois-Hubert Drouais. Her cute little black dog with a wavy tail, finds itself down by the river in *Bathers at Asnieres* by Georges-Pierre Seurat! So...that leaves the red dog with the floppy ears from the Bathers, in the bedroom of the Arnolfini family!

Their mistake is discovered first by a little girl and then by the public. At first the Gallery staff think there is a theft, but realize that the paintings are the originals, with some very odd changes made. The media and the general public flock to the Gallery and it becomes the most popular one in the world.

A year later...it's Dogs' Night again. All the dogs in the Gallery paintings leave their pictures and run around madly doing dog things, but this time there is no *fizzy drink* to muddle them up. When it's time to climb back into the pictures, they all manage to end up in their original paintings. No one knows how it's happened...except the Dogs!

I thoroughly recommend this little book. The story is clever and well told in easy language. The illustrations are enchanting.Reproductions of the original art work have been used with permission from the National Gallery in London. It's a nice way to get kids interested in Art, even if it is looking to find the *dog* in the picture.

I'd give it a 5! Oh...and my *soon to be 5* granddaughter will have it under the tree waiting for her Christmas morning!

Vickie Bowman..Callahan's Saloon at Delphi.com.

Being of little painting talent I was looking for a book that would show me confidently how I could learn! I love my pets and thought that they would be an easy subject. Susie's book showed me how to look at my pets with a different perspective and I could actually replicate what she showed! This book is a must for all aspiring artists! A truly excellent book and well worth the money!

This is an excellent book on not only gaining the ability and skill to draw and paint animals, but also on basic techniques for increasing one's ability to create art. The book is laid out in a logical and easy to understand manner and guides the aspiring artist to create what they bought the book for in the first place (drawings and paintings of their pets or other animanls).

The author, Susie Wynne, really seems to love what she does and that shows through in the book. There's no doubt that she, also, loves animals and that the book came about from that love. As such, it makes the book that much more enjoyable as she is in it for the same reasons as someone who is interested in buying her book.

Highly recommended and sure to increase one's skill level and an even greater love for one's pet/s and animals in general.

"DRAW 3-D" by Doug DuBosque is a friendly and painless introduction to the ABCs of perspective drawing. The text has a conversational feel and is easy to understand, using short words and simple explanations aided by 2-5 very clear illustrations (and an occasional photograph) on every single page.

I went through the whole book, practice-drawing as I read, in about a week, since it's only 63 pages and I was already familiar with some of the principles discussed thanks to the most excellent "How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way" by John Buscema & Stan Lee.

I think "DRAW 3-D" is easy enough for a kid of about 9 or older to understand most of it, and all of it if he or she has an older artist handy to explain and demonstrate (or to console and encourage, because it sure is exasperating when you forget which of those 20 straight lines goes where). It will not teach you to draw a perspective view from an object plan, or to draw a perfect square in perspective, but if you are completely new to perspective drawing and want a good introduction to the subject, this is the book for you.

Try it! If you reach the point where you don't need it anymore, and haven't become sentimentally attached to it in the meantime, it will make a great gift for anyone else interested in drawing.

I bought three beginning drawing books for my 9 year old, and this one was his favorite (one on how to draw cartoons was a close second). The first exercise, which is to spell out your name using 3-D letters, caught his interest right away, and he's been back to the book several times on his own initiative.

This book stands out for two reasons.

First, if you've ever been in the east African wilderness--safari country--the tone of this book will really take you back. The artist/author has captured the intangible awe of the place in a way that makes you know you're looking at the work of a great artist.

Second, the construction of the book respects the quality of the artwork inside it. The paper is beautiful, thick, and textured; the design is tasteful; the cloth cover and box are perfect for keeping the book for years to come.

This book is a treat, a piece of Africa that will remind me of the land I love.

I have never seen anything like this book. I traveled to Africa on safari some years ago and this is the first book to capture my impression of the place. Unlike the documentary photographic books available of wildlife, this artist has managed to illustrate the surreal sense one experiences on these kinds of visits to this wonderful continent. The format makes it a collector's edition; anyone who has ever been on safari or wants to go on one from his/her living room cannot be without this extraordinary art piece and voyage.

As a student of Art History I utilise very many volumes and this one rates highly in my opinon. It is not only easy to use, but it also has the great advantage of explaining art historical details concisely and clearly so that anyone, however unused to art they are, can enjoy and understand what is being said. This book surveys paintings, highlighting those in the National Gallery, London England, between the time of Durer and Veronese. It discusses their function, patrons and the way they were painted as well as having an excellent section devoted to their conservation and restoration.

Apart from being informative, this volume is also very well illustrated and its layout means it can be dipped into and read in sections without the reader loosing the plot. Though it is large, it is not imposing and is the type of book that will definitely become a must have classic for all levels of scholar. If you want a book that covers the 16th century in art in a detailed, concise yet informative way, there is no better on the market at the moment and this one will take some beating. It has the right mix of everything, and is a very necessary volume.

"Durer to Veronese" is a gorgeous piece of art history that transcends the ordinary. This work is a departure from the usual dry discussion of art history interspersed with small black-and-white photos. At the same time however, it offers so much more than the typical narrow view of the exhibit catalog.

Using the National Gallery's (London) collection of sixteenth century paintings, this book offers a thematic arrangement as it explores the various themes (eg "Private Devotion") and methods (eg "Preparing the Panel"). Each theme is lavishly illustrated with the Gallery's collection and several are accompanied by artists' sketches and closeups of important sections of the paintings.

The text is well-written and easily digested by the neophyte art historian. A series of maps showing the sixteenth century European art world and an in-depth timeline for the century are presented at the beginning of the book and serve the reader well throughout the reading of the text. The physical properties of the book are impressive as well. It is an oversized book, but not to a point of being unwieldy and the binding is quite sturdy as well.

A beautiful work. I highly recommend it.

this book really should be reprinted. It's a landmark.

OUT OF PRINT??? This is one of, if not, THE preeminent texts about Early Netherlandish Art, a virtual Bible for those studying the subject. Along with its companion volume (Volume 2, the Plates) Professor Panofsky gives the reader not only information that is vital to the understanding of the field, but his language is a joy to behold as well. Along with Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages (sadly, another oop title???!!!???), these two scholars give one a full look into an age of not only unrivaled artistic achievment, but a profound glimpse into the spirituality, politics and history as well. NOT TO BE MISSED!! PLEASE REPRINT THESE SOON!!!