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Rating: 
Summary: Useful Book
Review: I've owned this book for a couple of years now, and it has helped me many, many times. The "ideas" themselves are okay, but I love this book because of all the paintings. I have tried new techniques, design elements and subjects because I find something inspirational in a painting contained within the book. I browse through it often. The paintings are all very different, which is a plus, not just one style, subject or medium.
Rating:
Summary: Useful Book
Review: I've owned this book for a couple of years now, and it has helped me many, many times. The "ideas" themselves are okay, but I love this book because of all the paintings. I have tried new techniques, design elements and subjects because I find something inspirational in a painting contained within the book. I browse through it often. The paintings are all very different, which is a plus, not just one style, subject or medium.
Rating: 
Summary: Ho-Hum...
Review: Sigh...I was rather disappointed with this book. I expected so much more from it than what was delivered. For a book that purports to give ideas for increasing originality in your own paintings it is surprisingly unoriginal.You get suggestions such as "Add a Still Lake to Your Landscape", "Paint a Wild Animal", "Capture Animals in Their Natural Habitat", "Paint a Season of the Year" and "Paint an Arrangement of Dried Flowers", etc. etc. etc. I'm not kidding. This is what is passed on as expanding creative boundaries. It is filled to the brim with cliched themes that are supposed to help spark creativity and originality. Some suggestions begin to show promise but there were just too few overall. One of the good things about the book is that at least many of the paintings were beautiful (although boring in my opinion - victims of the cliches they were illustrating). Which frankly leaves me baffled as to why it was felt to be neccessary to publish this book. Save your change and get books that showcase award winning paintings such as one of the "Best of" books for watercolors, oils, pastels, colored pencil or other media. You'll get plenty of inspired ideas from these type of books and a lot more original ideas for inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for artists in all media!
Review: This book has great ideas for subjects of paintings (and drawings), not matter if your medium is oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, pencil, or charcoal. The examples are very good artwork. Good for beginners who do not know what to paint and experts who are "stuck" without inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful tips
Review: This is a fabulous book. It helped me to see and want to paint the magic and beauty in ordinary objects. Katchen shows a wonderful selection of artist's works. This book is full of inspiring ideas for choosing and arranging objects and colors for delicious paintings.
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