Artist Toolbox Surfaces & Supports, A New Reference for Serious Beginners

If you’re serious about beginning to learn to paint or draw, you might focus on one medium, like colored pencils or acrylic paint. However, the surface you use with your chosen medium has an equally large impact on your results; for example, imagine the difference between painting on stretched canvas and on silk. Walter Foster Publishing is here to help you choose the right surface for your desired result, with the release of a new book in their Artist Toolbox series, Surfaces & Supports: A Practical Guide to Drawing and Painting Surfaces—from Canvas and Paper to Textiles and Woods.

* Complimentary book received for review. This post contains affiliate links.

We recently posted a review of another book in the series, Drawing Tools & Materials, which gives an overview of the pencils, pens, erasers, and other tools used in drawing. Surfaces & Supports works in concert with that book to provide detailed information about the surfaces commonly used in drawing and painting, giving the beginning artist a fuller understanding of how the equipment and materials they choose can impact their artwork.

Five different artists have collaborated to author this book, each with his or her own expertise on the topic. Together, they cover all aspects of the many types of surfaces and supports used in drawing and painting, ranging from different papers and canvases to panels and textiles, and even alternative materials like metal, stone, ceramic, and glass. They describe how to prepare the surfaces as well as which media work best with each surface. The illustrations and examples clearly demonstrate the different textures and techniques used to produce a wide variety of results. Honestly, it’s amazing!

The final chapter, called “Demonstrations,” takes the lessons of the preceding chapters and incorporates them into three detailed examples, each using a different set of materials and surfaces. The step-by-step instructions and illustrations are a guide for reproducing those projects, but even further, they provide inspiration for you to create your own artwork. The fundamentals presented in Surfaces & Supports give you a springboard for your own creative ventures.

The Artist Toolbox series is published by Walter Foster (an imprint of Quarto). They describe the series as “useful, practical reference guides designed for beginning artists and art hobbyists interested in fully understanding the focus and function of essential art tools of the trade.” Walter Foster specializes in books on art instruction, so if you enjoy creating your own artwork, you’ll enjoy browsing through their many books about drawing, sketching, painting, lettering, illustration, and so on.

* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!

Giveaway: One lucky winner is going to win their own copy of Artist Toolbox: Surfaces & Supports, thanks to the generosity of the publisher, Quarto Knows. Good luck!

Giveaway Details: This giveaway is open to residents of the US ONLY age 18 and over. Please read our Terms of Service & Disclaimer Policy before entering. This giveaway will close on April 5th, 2019 at 11:59 pm EST time. No purchase necessary to enter or win.

Disclaimer: A. Bailey received a complimentary product for review purposes & feature on The Classy Chics blog. No monetary compensation was received. A. Bailey’s thoughts, opinions and words are 100% her own. Your thoughts may differ. Please read the blog’s terms of service policy before entering any giveaways. The Classy Chics are NOT responsible for prize fulfillment or shipping of any items won from this blog. This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through an affiliate link, we may or may not make a small commission which helps to support this website. Thank you!!!