ALLA PRIMA IIÂ
COMPANION – Softcover
Richard Schmid’s Materials, Tools and Techniques
By Katie Swatland
The path to creating great works of art begins with knowing the capabilities of your materials and tools…
Contained within the pages of this book are detailed descriptions of the processes that go into the creation of a painting. Learn the importance of a quality working surface and how to customize it to suit your needs, and the demands of your subjects. Explore how to handle pigment washes to achieve color harmony in your paintings. Understand the considerations involved in choosing a palette, and discover ways to create and maintain it to ensure clean, beautiful color. Read about brushes and brushwork exercises you can practice to assist in achieving mastery over them. Discover the nature of light and why an understanding of its properties is crucial to successfully expressing your subjects in terms of paint. Learn to stretch canvases, varnish paintings, photograph and ship them safely. Take a studio tour and explore helpful setups and designs. Learn the benefits of keeping a portable studio and how to custom build your own. Join Katie Swatland and Richard Schmid in this adventure as they dive into all the little nuances of painting technique one needs to know to create the paintings that live in the far reaches of the imagination.
A Special Message From Katie SwatlandI am filled with excitement to share this book with you. The past five years have been spent researching, documenting, studying, and compiling this extensive information on the technical details behind the processes that go into the creation of paintings. This book is a celebration. Contained within its pages are the discoveries, experiences, and contributions Richard has nurtured over a lifetime dedicated to the art of painting. May these intimate details of creative expression serve to assist you in your artistic endeavors as you make your own discoveries and contributions—carrying forward and building upon the Great Library of Knowledge.- Katie Swatland 2014
FORWARD
BY RICHARD SCHMIDÂ
“In the new expanded edition of Alla Prima II, my initial intention was to include a large section on all of the things I use to make my paintings. That, however, would have made the book far more cumbersome than I envisioned (it is already one hundred pages longer). In order then to provide a detailed account of my materials and methods, this companion volume was essential. Katie Swatland was the clear choice to make this happen.
Katie was raised in a family surrounded by art. Her mother is a professional painter and her first art teacher. Her father, a skilled craftsman, gave her proficiency with tools and a love of craftsmanship. In her college years she earned a degree in mechanical engineering and later taught mathematics and physics before devoting herself entirely to art.
This Companion is a comprehensive guide, never before brought together in one volume. It not only shows the how, but explains the reasoning behind my choices of canvases, brushes, solvents, mediums, and painting equipment—so when faced with your own opportunities, you may draw upon the same problem-solving ideas to make decisions about what will work best for you and the task at hand. This book is essential to any art library. It completes the expansion of my book and offers a full account of all the technical aspects of my teachings and methods I have spent a lifetime perfecting. It is indeed a necessary companion to Alla Prima II. “—Richard Schmid
