Books in Barron's Complete Course series are heavily illustrated, highly detailed, and written primarily for advanced art students or ambitious amateurs who already have some preliminary art training. This volume is devoted to general techniques, methods, and underlying theories that apply to all media and styles, whether abstract or representational. Detailed instruction is offered in the use of various tools and media, including oils, collage, stained glass, mosaic, frescoes, gouache, and others. Also included are methods for creating textural effects, drawing figures on canvas, achieving good resemblances in portrait art, using and controlling the air brush, mastering methods of engraving and etching, creating compositions with stained glass, and much more. Examples are given in step-by-step illustrations of artworks in progress at the Parramon studios, and in famous finished works by master artists including Giotto, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Gauguin, Pisarro, Constable, and others. See Backlist page 30 for five additional titles in this fine series.