Excellent book. I've found many helpful tips in this book and a lot of inspiration.

This book stands alone within its janra. The author is well qualified to speak on the Classical Atelier approach to painting and makes the approach and goals of the atelier accessible to many. However, this is not a book for the beginning artist. It is geared more toward the seasoned artist looking to improve his/her skill within the realm of Classical Realism.

If you fit this mold you should definitely add this book to your library. Also, if you wish to stay true to the atelier approach, you should go through the Classical Drawing Atelier book first. Happy painting...

Now I know why most artists revolted in the mid-nineteenth century. This approach dehumanizes art in so many ways. The approach is more craft than art. Anyone is capable of creating great art and it doesn't take a lifetime to learn nor does it takes months to create a drawing or painting. The issue here is this artist feels it's very important to expend extraordinary energy to create something as ordinary as a $20 camera can do in 1/60th of a second. Also, the emphasis is to churn out artists one at a time who can render really well but ultimately because of the way they are trained will never explore the most important aspects of art. I think Robert Henri said it best, 'The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.' In other words if you aren't interested in exploring whatever is fascinating about a plaster cast you probably aren't going to get much out of art with this atelier idea. But I give this book two stars because everything looks like a plaster cast and that's a point of view just as the impressionists gave us a different point of view and ironically she has included a number of impressionists in her mix although I highly doubt her training approach would actually produce an impressionist.

Update: I was a bit harsh first go-round with this book. Training in technical aspects of painting are important. Particularly if you are intending on extending knowledge in this area. But seriously, I'm not changing the rating because this book is very dull. As someone else observed here, this book seems to be advertisement to join an atelier. Because of this the book falls short on any compelling knowledge. It's mostly an overview of persons who take classical approaches to painting. And even the overview is a bit weak. The author is a better painter than writer. So still 2 stars.

I bought this book based on other's reviews. Upon receipt, I can only concur with the reviews and add that I am delighted with the info and presentation format. It is information that the younger generation should ingest.

As the Creative Director in an agency with high profile clients, I can humbly say that I learned a lot from this book.

I can only wish Juliette all the best; thank you for writing this book and getting it published.

I am a current art student and heard about this book from a couple of other students. It has some amazing pointers on how the masters composed paintings and has many great observations and exercises with a natural progression of areas to master before moving on. Great book, great price.