Pastels Unleashed

I want to improve my pastel. This book is very inspiring. I do acrylic and watercolor so the colors in this book I pire me.

Very informative perspective for a beginner. Easy to follow, doable exercises rendering results that make you feel like you accomplished something

I bought this book on Amazon having seen it advertised elsewhere for more. It is a beautiful, inspiring book with lovely illustrations of pastel painting, materials and techniques. The book arrived in a timely manner but I was disappointed that the top, right corner was damaged through all the pages, it looks like it had been dropped on its corner, hence 4 instead of 5 stars.

I loved this book. It gives a good introduction to pastels, but then moves on to more advanced techniques. The in depth demonstrations then allow you to work through the techniques, and see how they apply to different circumstances.This book will not get outdated, as Margaret avoids using brand names, instead she is descriptive, of the colours used and paper types.

This is the first time that I have posted a review of a book, and I am motivated to do this because in my opinion there is very little substance to this book. The title suggests that it provides something new, yet the information about the use of pastels and associated materials that it includes is very generalized and common information. In addition, the reader is subjected to rudimentary art instruction that is not specific to the use of pastels. For example, providing elementary steps about how to set up a composition does not seem to me to be appropriate when the book is supposed to be about new or out of the ordinary techniques regarding the use of pastels. If you have no training or education as an artist and know nothing about the use of pastels, this book will help you. If you like to follow cookie-cutter art demos, there are sections you will like. Otherwise, my opinion is that the book's title and descriptions are misleading. It has plenty of good full-color photographs throughout, but I personally found the lack of definitive information to be irritating and the middle-school art primer lessons to be insulting. My viewpoint is that this is simply a beginning artist's how-to book that utilizes pastels as the medium.

The illustrations and examples are gorgeous and the information and recommendations helpful. The explanations are clear and understandable and makes one hopeful of being able to follow them successfully. Alas, that's not always the case but one can try!

Great book! Very informative and excellent pix.

The book itself is well written and informative, and i heartily recommend it as an instruction book. ***However*"* it arrived with chocolate ice cream spilled on the top.