Book Review: One Painting A Day: A 6-Week Course in Observational Painting: Creating Extraordinary Paintings from Everyday Experiences

One Painting A Day is more of an ideas book rather than an instructional book. There are some tips here and there but not much on the more technical stuff, the techniques.

The drawing subjects are split generally into three themes: still life, landscape (private and public spaces) and finally portraiture. The suggestions on what you can draw are like things inside your home, the scenes around your neighbourhood, inside cafes or shops, portraits of yourself, friends, colleagues, family, etc. I suppose there's no difficulty at finding things outdoors to draw even if you can't follow exactly the suggestion, for example, I don't have a studio or backyard.

The last section on portraiture has 12 days which I think is too much. Most involve painting different people in your life, and portraits of celebrity, strangers, pets.

Author and artist Timothy Callaghan uses mostly gouache and acrylic for the examples, including those from guest artists. Most of the examples presented look like they are observational drawings. You definitely need the basics on drawing before you can get started.

Making one painting a day is a challenge. Tremendous motivation is required. Maybe this book can provide you with some, and also some ideas along the way.

Also check out One Drawing a Day, One Watercolor a Day, Freehand: Sketching Tips and Tricks Drawn from Art and 男の絵日記―15分で描くライフスケッチ for more ideas.

4 out of 5 stars.

One Painting A Day: A 6-Week Course in Observational Painting--Creating Extraordinary Paintings from Everyday Experiences (One A Day) is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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