Learning to Paint with Carolyn Berry. Portrait Painting

Customer Reviews

More promotion than instruction

2004-10-26
The first part of this tape was very good -- good demonstrations, clear and understandable. However, the last part was strickly promotional. I feel I got only half a tape. It would have been okay to show a little of her work, but this was too much!

I feel cheated. I would not recommend this VHS.

Moves Quickly, Maybe Too Quickly

2004-09-20
I am not too sure about this video. I did pick up a lot of tips from it, but the artist, Carolyn Berry, moves at a very fast pace. Ms. Berry painted the face of the subject, in a sketch format, in seconds. Then she measured out the face comparing it to the model. Unfortunately for me she had made no errors in her original sketch so she did no correcting. Too bad, because I make a lot of errors at that stage.

Then she went on to paint the rest of the subject in a quick manner, always moving about the canvas and seldom spending much time on any one section. The problem for me was Ms. Berry was making adjustments to the painting every moment (some of them very slight) and she did not talk about everything she was doing. What comes very naturally to her - things that are without thought or effort - are not discussed but make a very large difference in the result.

The same is true of the paint mixing. She mixes colors just off the cuff without a scheme that I could discern. Like a great cook that can smell the stew and know just how much of what to add, but can't tell you why, Ms. Berry moves along mixing and painting and adding this or that to the painting or the mix but we are often not told why.

But this is not a boring video. She is an interesting person and tells interesting stories while trying to give you important ideas about painting in acrylics. The tape goes along quickly. I have watched it twice without any problem. No flat spots.

I think the Lela Harty videos are the best painting videos I have watched. She has an understandable system of painting that once mastered can carry a person a long way. I don't know if you can get them now, but if you can they are worth every moment of your time to study. Lela's videos are slow moving - almost boring - but worth the effort.

This video is harder to call so I gave it three stars. For a beginner it gives a lot of information but can be intimidating because of the speed and finesse with which the artist moves. One is tempted to think they could never do that, and that's the last thing a beginner needs to think.

Wonderful Video

2002-02-20
This is a wonderfully helpful video by a talented artist. A must have.