Acrylics Workshop II by Karen Keable: Great Book

Published in 2008, I would best describe this book as a working painter’s book.  This is not a typical  learn-to-paint book.  But if you work through demos, by golly … when you are finished you will have learned a great deal about painting with acrylics.

I researched the author, Karen Keable, to discover that she is an versatile and experienced painter with an extensive gallery of work.  I especially like her close-up boat paintings.

Her website makes no mention of her authoring this book.  But I can tell by her artwork that she is indeed the same Karen Keable.  ( – must by an English thing, because Americans and Aussies seem to enjoy bragging about their books and workshops on their art websites. )

I am a fan of DK books.  I grab this publisher’s travel books all the time because they tend to be more visual than lonely planet guides.  If I am wandering lost in the streets of Venice, I am more likely to recognize St. Marks Square from  diagrams and pictures than I am from reading a few text paragraphs about the best restaurant values for your money.

This Acrylics Workshop II book speaks to me in the same way as the DK travel books.  If I read text written about scumbling, it goes in one eye and out the other.  If I read a numbered step-by-step photo guide tutorial on how to scumble, it sticks with me.

Sidenote: Why all the book reviews lately? In case you are wondering if I ever am going to blog about acrylic paint again, stop worrying.  I simply got a boatload of recently published painting books from the public library, and have been feasting on them each night.  My plan: review them for free, then buy the ones I want to keep for my own paint book library.

Acrylics Workshop II (PRACTICAL ART) is packed with step-by-step photo demos. The photography is excellent. Close-up shots allow you to see the brush, the canvas, the paint.

Every few pages this book takes a break from demos and provides a visual feast with a double page collages of finished paintings by various acrylic artists.

Use Or Lose?

I like this book.  So much that I am going to buy it for my permanent library.  While some demos are better suited for a beginner painter, much of the techniques I have never tried before.  I vote USE for this one.

Grab it:

Amazon provides a better look inside this one, as well as a decent price if you want to grab a copy for yourself.  Buy it by clicking this link and I will receive a whopping nickel or so from your purchase!

Previous Edition:

Keep in mind, a previous edition titled Acrylics Workshop, was published in 2006 by Phyllis McDowell.  I haven’t reviewed it yet, but just wanted to mention this in case you get mixed up and purchase the previous edition.  It looks very similar, but the pictures are different.  (isn’t that why artist will buy the book anyway, mostly for the pictures!)

Post written by Cindy Davis. Davis is an abstract expressionist painter and editor/owner of Acrylic Paint Review. Learn more…

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