Oil Painting Secrets from a Master

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One of the best books I've found on classical painting

The printing quality is so fun that i forgot to laugh

Written from class notes

Leffel At His Best

The Best

Oil Painting Secrets from a Master
Linda Cateura
Manufacturer: Watson-Guptill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Painting | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Oil Painting | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0823032795

Customer Reviews:

One of the best books I've found on classical painting.......2007-06-15

This book, along with the other one by Greg Kruetz on problem solving for oil painting, is absolutely a must for those looking to learn the real power of classical oil painting using form and lighting. It is excellent and covers classical principles of oil painting including lighting, composition, and use of muted color. It is richly illustrated and features David A Leffel's work and masterful style with still life, mainly table top items, and lots of portraits. There are no landscapes featured and atmospheric perspective and plein air is not covered. However, David can make even the most simplest of items appear rich and strikingly important. I love this book and refer to it often. Truly beautiful and classical and an absolute must for those looking for traditional classical principles in the Rembrandt genre where a limited color pallet and the power of cascading light is important. This is NOT a modern art book and although the brush strokes are stylized with the impressionists' flare, it visually has the realist and Rembrandt look to it.

The printing quality is so fun that i forgot to laugh.......2007-04-26

This book provides several great composition ideas for me, the paintings theirself are outstanding, but I can't grade it 4 stars or more because the printing quality is so BAD.
Some painting photos are fuzzy, I can't look for clear details.
It's ironic to see a realistic work lost its details, and not fair to the reader. If you are an art student who wants to learn skills from "eye-looking "as I am, I won't recommond this book.
Another painting book, Problem Solving for Oil Painter, by Cregg Kreutz, which is the original book I planned to buy, will be a much better choice for great works and printing quality.
I wish there is a word to describe how bad the printing can destroy masterpieces.

Written from class notes.......2007-03-09

David Leffel has been referred to as a "modern day Master" in the class of a Rembrandt. He has been painting and teaching for about 40 years years now, and this book is a compilation of class notes written by the author while in one of David's classes. And while there is much valuable information presented, some of these notes are disjointed and refer to illustrations not even included in the book. David has since written his own book entitled "An Artist Teaches" which, while much more expensive, is probably a better investment.
That being said, however, the illustrations of David's work are worth the price of this book, and I would buy it for that reason alone. If you are a careful reader, you can pick up some solid, useful information.

Leffel At His Best.......2007-01-11

In "Oil Painting Secrets From A Master," author/art student Linda Cateura shares her class notes from two years of studying under prominent artist/teacher David A. Leffel. New York based Leffel paints in the classic tradition of the early Dutch and Flemish such as Rembrandt and Chardin. His compositions are inspired by the human form and still life. The quality of light and its relationship to the objects under observation are most important to him. Known for his visual clarity, David encourages his students to paint from life in order to perceive each subject differently from the next. Well versed in technique, he transcends method painting in order to convey dimensionality, quality of surfaces and illumination.

From Cateura's point-of-view, Leffel has the ability to transform the temporary into the eternal. He is always able to find something in any subject to lift if our of the literal into the realm of poetic. "The functional use of light is one of the most distinctive qualities of a Leffel painting. His use of light leads the viewer through the painting toward the central image. When it reaches this focal point, the light is usually at its most intense...and enables the eye to come to rest there. The light does not just illuminate the scene - it is an active participant in the drama."

Leffel believes that an artist sees what is significant and a painter sees only what to paint. In "Oil Painting Secrets From A Master," Cateura, with Leffel's help as the teacher shows us how to move from the safety of being a painter to becoming an artist. Learning is the difference. The quality of our ambition and how much or how little we learn stems from our motivation - to be an artist? To be a great artist? Fame and fortune? Relaxation and fun? And real learning requires one to abandon security and take risks - new colors, new brushstrokes, and imaginative compositions.

"Oil Painting Secrets" is amply filled with Leffel's work and is organized into four basic sections:

Artistic Thinking (seeing, the concept)
The Painting Process (materials, brushstroke techniques, massing, chiaroscuro)
Basic Advice (light and shadow, values, edges, color, still life, portraits and figures, backgrounds)
General Observations (attitudes that can hold you back)

Cateura has created a useful for book for the beginner, intermediate, advanced, and professional. It will cause you to think and rethink the your entire approach to painting...not as painter but as an artist.

The Best.......2007-01-10

I am 67 years old and have been taking art lessons for 10 years.
Oil Paintings Secrets from a Master, is the best book I have read
about oil painting "ever" it explains a lot that I have not picked up in my painting class, or missed. I have recomended it to my fellow artist
and others. It is well written and the pictures makes you feel like you are right there in the artist studio.

John Fritter

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Oil Painting Secrets from a Master
Linda Cateura
Manufacturer: Watson-guptill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQC4OQ

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful instuctional book.......2003-01-01

This acclaimed book is full of informative text, photos, illustrations and diagrams on how to give any aspiring artist basic and intermediate skills in learning the techniques of the great painting masters. Written in common non-technical terms, the book is really a useful and practical reference book. Original editions have two wonderful large gatefold inserts.

Book Description

This text provides a survey of the most innovative techniques and methods for managing operations in services and manufacturing. It presents all concepts with a real-world perspective based on the extensive global consulting work of the lead author, Dick Schonberger. This text is unique due to its customer-focused approach. Using the authors 15 principles as a framework for organizing the text This text stresses teamwork, quality, and customer service in both manufacturing and services, as well as traditional topics such as product and service design, purchasing, inventory, location and layout, and scheduling are also included. Quantitative coverage is de-emphasized.

Customer Reviews:

The best general undergraduate treatment of operations management-4.5 stars.......2006-01-26

Knod and Schonberger have written the best general text available on production/operations management at the undergraduate level.The text has very good chapters on Capacity Planning(aggregate capacity planning),Scheduling,Design(reliability and serviceability),Quality and process control(especially pp.318-322 on mean and range charts and pp.327-330 on process capability analysis),Inventory control,Timing(waiting lines and queues),and PERT.A minor weakness is that a discussion of the use of the Beta distribution in PERT analysis is omitted from the book.Anyone who covers this book throughly will be very well prepared to take senior level undergraduate courses and graduate level courses in operations management.

Mixed - good survey and quan, weaker on soft subjects.......1999-01-06

Fairly good survey book. Having an undergrad operations background, I found this book mirrored the strengths and weaknesses of a more detailed operations curriculum. Book is best in framework and quantitative model overviews, weaker on softer subjects like staffing, project management, & holistic quality.

Highly over-rated . Full of fluff.......1997-10-22

If your MBA professor offers Schonberger as the answer to 21st Century Operations Management, seek a transfer quick. Obsessed with a touchy-feeling "quality paradigm", there is not enough meat here to frighten off the most zealous vegetarian. The chapters on "managing projects" and "facilities management" are especially shallow.

Introductory Business & Economic Forecasting

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Introductory Business & Economic Forecasting
Paul Newbold , and Theodore Bos
Manufacturer: South-Western Educational Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Introductory Business Forecasting
Paul Newbold , and Theodore Bos
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ASIN: 0538802472

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The INSIDE story

Less is more: the ascetic culture of a low-cost retail giant

Bare Essentials: The ALDI Way of Retailing
Dieter Brandes
Manufacturer: Cyan Communications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

A former company executive explains the guiding philosophies of the global retail giant ALDI, whose 50-year history and successful spinoff Trader Joe's has made it a corporate leader on the scale of Wal-Mart and General Electric. Simplicity, not discount, is discussed as the answer to the company's driving question Why should customers visit your store? The corporate culture, philosophy, working principles, and organizational methods of ALDI are explained as the major factors for the company's extraordinary growth and success. This insider's perspective on the company offers lessons on consumer retailing and management that will be useful to aspiring business professionals.

Customer Reviews:

The INSIDE story.......2005-09-15

Brandes worked as a ALDI director and set up ALDI in Holland amongst other things. I read the book in German and it is great. A must if you work in retail. Brandes worked at Aldi and wrote this book to strengthen the company's "institutional memory".

Less is more: the ascetic culture of a low-cost retail giant.......2004-10-12

This book is the untold inside story from a former executive of German retail discount giant Aldi. Some of the advices that I recall from the German edition are the following (they are all interrelated):

ASCETICISM AS A BASIC PRINCIPLE. This word is usually connected to people avoiding physical pleasures and comforts, esp. for religious reasons (e.g. monks). In this context, it's more focused on what you can do without: headquarters, external market study, management consultants, and highly complex information technology. Instead Aldi focuses on a simple price strategy (everyday-low-price), undifferentiated product assortment, and avoid luxury.

THRIFTINESS AS A GUIDING PRINCIPLE. Everybody's talking about cost consciousness, but at Aldi this is second nature. There's a continuous avoidance of unnecessary costs on all levels.

INTERNAL RECRUITING OF HIGH-LEVEL MANAGERS. This principle is also recognised in bestseller "Good to Great". It's also a strong signal to internal candidates that they can expect to be next in line ... so be patient, you're time will come. The principle makes sure that top-managers fit the company culture. The negative effect is that you occasionally will be lacking the fresh eyes from outside.

LIVE THE DECENTRALISED ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE. Aldi believes that the most efficient enterprise exists, when the overall direction set by the central unit is clear and remainder of the decisions are left to the decentralized organization - closer to where the action is.

MAKE A VIRTUE OF A NECESSITY. Many firms focus on doing some things unusually well. That's not necessary. The best service is often just doing the obvious and necessary tasks in a simple way.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTS. Instead of believing in huge cost cutting exercises or grandiose concepts like business process reengineering, Aldi believes in all employees' ideas to reducing costs. They are close to day-to-day work and can best evaluate what needs to be done to continually make things simpler and less expensive. This idea is closer to the [Japanese] quality concept of continuous improvement (evolution) than any [American] management fads on cost reduction based on organizational revolutions or merger-mania.

STICK TO YOUR KNITTING. Do only what you can do really well. Retailers are to trade with consumers; producers are to produce. Don't diversify, stick to the core business. Concentration is important for efficiency.

NO PUBLIC APPEARANCES. The attitude is that the public information is useful only to the competition. The managers' self-manifestation won't bring any competitive advantage for Aldi. This principle probably only works, since it's a private company. In the brave new world of war for talent and capital, this attitude probably will have to be adjusted.

SIMPLICITY IN PRACTICE. Avoid strong central staff and a big headquarters. The practice in the line of business is much more important than any theoretical staff work. Line managers do all special tasks. Focus on lean organizational hierarchies, clear decision authority, clear targets, and simple execution.

If you want to understand some of these productivity principles by low-cost companies better, let me recommend that you also check out "Less is more" by Jason Jennings. The companies cited in that book are Ikea, Ryanair, The Warehouse, Nucor, etc.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Book Description

With about one half of all marriages ending in divorce today, it is safe to say that nearly everyone will be or has been affected by divorce in some way. For many, it does not mean the end to a family. Focusing on the consequences of divorce for children, The Postdivorce Family examines the stressors that divorce can create; adjustment problems among children of divorce; the issue of resilience for children; and individual differences in the psychological adjustment to divorce. The authors also examine the parentsâ€™ responsibilities after divorce, including custody issues, child support orders, and nonresidential parenting. This book concludes with a section that explores the effects of a high divorce rate in society, including how the prevalence of divorce has changed the family form and structural factors that have contributed to various social problems. With this volume, the authors hope to incite analysis and reflection of the issues surrounding divorce and their implications for public policy. This book integrates the empirical research and policy perspectives of several scholars in various disciplines including psychology, sociology, human development, law, and social work.

Book Description

Philip Katcher provides an overview to the conflict that engulfed Vietnam following the division of the country into two along the 17th Parallel in 1954. The uniforms and insignia of the US forces, including the army, Special Forces, air force, navy and marine corps, are dealt with in detail, together with those of the ARVN, the Allied Forces (such as the Royal Thai Army and Korean troops), and also the Communist NLF (Viet Cong) and NVA forces. Mike Chappell's colourful artwork provides plenty of detail to accompany this authoritative text.

Customer Reviews:

Quickie overview of Vietnam-era Uniforms.......2003-08-07

I found this 40-odd page booklet to be a great disappointment. Mike Chappell has a decent ability to depict uniforms and equipment, but his faces are truly bizarre. The handful of colour plates, most of which do not depict issue uniforms, are not nearly sufficient to cover the various armies that fought in Vietnam. There are no separate depictions of weapons or equipment. There are tables of U.S. and Vietnames rank insignia, but they are in black and white.

If you are looking for a first-hand account of modifications to U.S. uniforms, this booklet would be useful.

Superseded by Later More Detailed Works.......2001-12-23

Though I have had this book for a long time, I have seldom looked at it. As a specialist in this period and a veteran of the Cold War Army I have studied this period in real time since the fifties.
In any case, the book is now obsolescent except for the color illustrations. At the age of 23 it has long been superseded by the works of Shelby Stanton (c.f.) and others.
The author did serve in Vietnam but since we were there for eight years, as often stated, due to the replacement system, we fought eight different one year wars, not one eight year war.
Those who were there in 1965 and earlier looked like those who served in the 1950s, by the end of the war, the soldiers' clothing and equipment was totally revised and had gone through two cycles of development and entering on a third which began during the last years of US participation and remained in use till the late eighties.
So you cannot generalize about VM, you need to know where someone was, and most important, when.
This book is simply not comprehensive enough nor is its companion in this series (#143), which was an attempt to fill in the gaps left by this one.
Every national contingent who served in VM could well support its own study, the Australians and the South Koreans come readily to mind.

Book Description

This is a collection of twelve scholarly yet accessible essays that examine the history of the University of Hong Kong, from the laying of its foundation stone in 1910 to its reestablishment after World War II. The book provides fascinating insights into one of Hong Kong's most important and
prestigious institutions, as well as scholarly contributions to the history of Hong Kong itself.

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FROM BAUHAUS TO BIRDHOUSE: IMAGINATIVE HOUSING FOR THE FEATHERED COMMUNITY
Garisto Leslie
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J4WJTM

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From Bauhaus to Birdhouse: Imaginative Housing for the Feathered Community
Leslie Garisto
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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From Bauhaus to Birdhouse
Leslie Garisto
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OE8XW4

Average customer rating:
From Bauhaus to Birdhouse: Imaginative Housing for the Feathered Community
Leslie Garisto
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLTCMW

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