I highly recommend this painting book. This book is great for beginners with everything you need to know about the supplies you will need to begin painting in any medium.

This book briefly covers color theory. The author also shared a trick to control weather your color is vibrant or dull when you are mixing. They didn’t just suggest adding the compliment after you mix the color. They explain how you choose the correct two colors to achieve this result. If you need more information on color theory I highly recommend another book in this series, “Artist Toolbox-Color and its Uses in Art”.

The book ends with step by step painting demonstrations. Two landscapes are done in watercolor, one acrylic example, two oil, and one mixed media.

This book is excellent for the beginner and as an intermediate painter, I found a lot of useful new information as well.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

4 Stars! This was a very informative book! I’m a beginner in the art world & I found a lot of the info in this book to be very helpful. It did make me feel a bit overwhelmed after awhile. It’s just got so much information & I didn’t know where to begin!! I tried to keep to the acrylic painting info since that’s where I’d like to start & that made it less overwhelming. Plus this book gives the reader a few step by step demonstrations at the end of it & I tried out the acrylic painting demo- I need the practice!! I recommend this book for any beginner painter & suggest you just focus on one style of painting (acrylic, watercolor, oil, mixed media) at a time.
*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own!*

"Painting Tools & Materials" is a very basic, beginner's art instruction book about painting. They covered the basics about using watercolors, acrylics, and oil and explained which media work well together for mixed media. They talked about the types of brushes and how they're used, supports, mediums, easels and other work surfaces, lighting, storage, and safety issues. They covered color theory, color mixing, and various painting techniques including those specific to a certain type of paint (like watercolor). They provided good pictures of the various materials and techniques.

At the end, they provided six step-by-step demonstrations (2 watercolor, 1 acrylic, 2 oil, 1 mixed media) that used the various techniques discussed in the book. While most art instruction books cover tools and materials, they usually do so quickly and often assume you understand more about the materials and techniques than complete beginners really do. This book goes in depth into these basics so that you can better understand art instruction books and know what tools and materials you actual need for the painting you want to do.

I  recieved a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This is a nice basic collection of tools, supplies and different mediums for the modern day artist. I loved how the book broke down the different types of the same kinds of paints. (Who knew there were so many different kinds of acrylic paints?) I also loved how they showed the different brush techniques.

This book, along with its sibling (Artist’s Toolbox: Color) are great textbook style books for those just starting traditional art. If you are new to painting and wanting to learn the basics for a bunch of media and not just one particular style of painting so you can experiment and find what kind of paint works best for you, then giving this book a read is a good idea. It includes useful information about tools used in painting and also includes painting demonstration.

This book is very basic, if you have any experience at all with painting it will seem like a rehash and not present anything new, but if you have never picked up a paintbrush then the information is a good beginner, however you will eventually need to hunt down more advanced and specialized books/tutorials, so I would honestly advise going after a book that is a little more inclusive if you are serious about learning to paint. Though if you are just curious if painting is something you are actually interested in then this book is a good choice.

This is a very good book with plenty of detailed explanations for all types of tools and mediums that anyone learning about painting can use.   I also loved the step by step instructions on different paintings some of which I have already copied for practice.