Oil Painting Techniques and Materials

About the book

In any exhibition of amateur work . . . it is not at all unusual to find many charming water-colour drawings, but . . . it is very rarely that the work in the oil medium is anything but dull, dead, and lacking in all vitality and charm. -- Harold Speed Such provocative assertions are characteristic of this stimulating and informative guide, written in a highly personal and unique style by a noted painter and teacher. Brimming with pertinent insights into the technical aspects and painting in oils, it is also designed to help students perfect powers of observation and expression. Harold Speed has distilled years of painting and pedagogical experience into an expert instructional program covering painting technique, painting from life, materials (paints, varnishes, oils and mediums, grounds, etc.), a painter's training, and more. Especially instructive is his extensive and perceptive discussion of form, tone, and color, and a fascinating series of detailed Notes analyzing the painting styles of Velasquez, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Franz Hals, and Rembrandt. Nearly 70 photographs and drawings illustrate the text, among them prehistoric cave paintings, diagrams of tonal values, stages of portrait painting, and reproductions of masterpieces by Giotto, Vermeer, Ingres, Rembrandt, Titian, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hals, Giorgione, Poussin, Corot, Veronese, and other luminaries. In addition to these pictorial pleasures, the author further leavens the lessons with thought-provoking opinion. Clear, cogent, and down-to-earth, this time-honored handbook will especially interest serious amateurs studying the technical aspects of oil painting, but its rich insight into the mind and methods of the artist will enlighten and intrigue any art lover.

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Harold Speed Biography

Harold Speed (11 February 1872 – 20 March 1957) was an English painter in oil and watercolour of portraits, figures and historical subjects. He also wrote instructional books for artists that remain in print. Born in London, the son of Edward Speed, an architect, he studied architecture at the Royal College of Art, but soon took up painting, and continued his studies at the Royal Academy Schools between 1891 and 1896, winning a gold medal and a travelling scholarship in 1893. In 1896, he was elected as a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Speed was a member of the Art Workers' Guild and was elected as its Master in 1916.He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1893, and held his first one-man exhibition in 1907 at the Leicester Galleries. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics. In 1930 he provided paintings for the new chapel of Wesley House, Cambridge. Speed lived in Watlington, Oxfordshire and London, where he died on 20 March 1957. Because of their intelligent combination of useful advice and sensitive reflection on the nature and meaning of artistic practice, Harold Speed's instructional manuals on drawing and painting have long been considered valuable resources for artists. There are editions of his manual "The Practice and Science of Drawing" (1913) in the public domain. His other publications include The Science and Practice of Oil Painting (1924) and What is the Good of Art? (1936).

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"Biography". ArtMagick. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2009. Waters, Grant M. (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950. Eastbourne Fine Art. ISBN 0-902010-05-0. Speed, Harold (1913). The Practice and Science of Drawing. London: Seeley, Service & Co. ... Read full biography