Painting Light in Oils Hardcover – September 6, 2011

A great book for intermediate to advanced painters. This guy is worth looking at for how he gets all the important information from a subject and then stops before he robs it of emotional impact with unneeded detail. I suppose that's a good reason for beginning painters to own it too. Possibly absolute beginners would benefit from the companion video - to see how he gets to the result he does. If you get this it will eventually benefit you at some stage of your development.

After reading previous reviews, I was a little anxious about ordering this book. I shouldn't have been worried. It's a magnificent book and it includes far more text and explanations than I'd expected.The paintings are brilliant -- no pun intended -- and inspiring. Turning the pages, reading the artist's comments (and some of the step-by-step sequential photos of his work as it progressed), I kept saying to myself, "Ah-HA! That's how he gets those effects!"The idea of using the last 90 minutes of the day for one kind of painting... that was worth the price of the book, all by itself. Also, as admirer of Brian Ryder's landscape techniques, I was delighted to learn exactly how both artists prepare a surface before painting. That preparatory work can make all the difference.Time after time, Mr. Wileman's insights were affirming, and helped me understand his artistic process. When he talked about exactly how to get from the visual impression to the finished work... superb! He reminded me of things I'd been successful with and then backed off from, or simply dropped out of practice. I'm restoring those, now.Experienced artists will probably get the most from this book. It's more about the process than a guide to specific painting techniques. Though it's very accessible and a worthwhile purchase for beginners, some other reviews made it clear that some people needed more information than what's in this book. For them, I recommend this book plus Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color.Speaking only for myself, I understood exactly what Mr. Wileman was talking about, without extensive explanations. Maybe there's a language, perhaps a shorthand, that experienced artists use when referring to color, tone, and some techniques. I'm not sure. All I needed to do was glance at his work, in the context of what he wrote, and I could see the play of yellows against purples, or blues against browns and oranges. The patterns of the tonal design leaped off the page, as I learned from his insights and sketches.As I read this book and looked at the gorgeous artwork in it, I was impressed with how much Mr. Wileman shared. I'm probably buying one of his DVDs, next, to glean even more. His information is that helpful to me, and it's a profound inspiration of color and light.

I really enjoyed this book. The reproductions are very good and the text was well written. There is "how to" information for more advanced painters but more importantly, examples of work that go beyond the common place landscape paintings. If you are an artist struggling with the problem of making your paintings stand out among the many, this book might be helpful. I will return to this book for ideas and inspiration again and again.

I was happy to receive this book and was looking for great insight on painting light. There are a few good 'tips' in here but I was really disappointed with the lack of explanation. I wanted more color theory, some words on transparency and maybe even more on the behavior of light itself as it occurs to the painter. My main question was how does one make light shine into every color in the picture? There was no answer. There are some great pictures in the book and I will definitely refer to it for some ideas on color schemes.

The great color work and written material about his working methods. As some have commented, there aren't many step-by-step examples at all, but that's okay when you consider how much he tells us in his written info throughout the book.

Peter has 7 demonstration with 3 to 4 steps and mentioned the colors used during the steps. His paintings are outstanding and beautiful. I would have liked the materials used list at first such as the different color of paints. Like in his demonstration on Building a Composition on pages 26 and 27. He starts with stage 1 where how talks about elements in the composition but not the colors. In stage 2, he mentions colors at the end of the summary of stage 2 but not where he puts them or how he mixes them but instead what he felt at the moment while painting this scene. I can follow him by seeing the pictures of his work in progress, but for the less experience reader they would find this difficult to follow. I also bought 2 of his video, which may so him selecting his colors as he goes along and how he mixes them and where he places them. I just got this book and brief looks through to see how many demonstrations (7) are in the book, how many steps do they have (3 to 4) and if the material is listed such as the colors (no, but mentioned sometimes in stage 2 some of the colors) as well as the organization of the book and the quality of the paintings. His paintings are excellent.

I totally love this book! Have ordered dvd too. Peter gives the kind of info I can use (I'm an intermediate artist). Beautiful paintings. I have a lot of art books, have a special feeling for this one.

Peter Wileman's paintings will quite simply take your breath away. They are stunningly beautiful, & Wileman is technically brilliant, painting both very realistically & quite abstractly. If you have any interest at all in art, in painting, in beautiful things, you must have this book.