Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopedia (Dover Art Instruction)

If you are ready for it, this is a book of magic. A very good background in life in general and already being familiar with painting oils, solvents, oxides and reductants will help. On the other hand, all that stuff is in this book. You might just have to be patient and read it like a novel.That's what I did. Great old book, entirely worth of the reprints.

Serious old school knowledge and tec data. Hard to find info was very helpful

This is an oldie but a goodie.Some of the information contained within it is out of date or hasn't been fully explored.But most of the book is filled with very good, concise and short descriptions of the basic and also more esoteric aspects of traditional art making, given with enough scientific clarification in order for it to fill the 'quick reference' category.

All you pretty much need to know about materials for conservation or for artistry. an essential reference all my career

This book provide you with a large amount of information and varied research in permanent materials and methods of painting.

Interesting for those into the craft of oil painting.

Exactly what it says it is.

Excellent reference book for painting materials thru the ages. If you are into painting things, it helps with understanding pigments as well as tooling.

This is a marvellous resource for any painter or art historian. It is a reprint of a 1942 classic so can't be seen as up to date but it is nonetheless packed with fascinating historical and technical information. It was aimed at curators and conservators so is quite technical but most painters will probably be fascinated by how little some aspects of art have changed since this was written. I was delighted to discover how various raw pigments were processed before they could be used as paints.It is carefully referenced throughout so provides a marvellous guide to further reading. Obviously one also needs to check a more modern reference book like Mayer before taking the advice about toxicity of materials in this book and some of its opinions are inadvertently amusing. This said I found it fascinating and recommend it.

If you really want to get into the finer details of paint chemistry this is the book for you. Although quite an old publication (1942) the information in it is probably the best available. Additional information would be required for later developments in paint chemistry.

An old book but it is still valid, except a few terms.

This is a brilliant resource.

Excellent resource on artists materials and pigments