Customer Reviews

Creating Textures in Watercolor

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a great book for those starting out with watercolors. The format makes everything very simple and gives illustrated step-by-step directions that are simple to follow and easy to elaborate on using your own creativity! I love this book because the author doesn't talk down to the reader, but explains everything in a matter-of-fact way that's easy for beginners and refreshing for the more advanced. Sparse on words and full of pictures/illustrations, I'd highly recommend this book for anyone looking to improve their grasp of watercolor painting.

This book will not go into detail of what materials you need to paint in watercolor, nor will it teach you how to compose a picture or prepare you for creating masterpieces.

This book will teach you simple tips and tricks to creating different textures such as a rock surface or the bark of a tree. If one is not interested in painting mother nature, the book also demonstrates ways to create brick walls, animal fur, and even human skin.

The book depends on pictures to demonstrate its lessons but also provides some text to explain the lesson to the reader. All the images are in color and most lessons are in step-by-step format. I gave this book four stars instead of five because I feel it could have provided a bit more information of other textures. However, I did learn a great deal from its lessons and therefore cannot complain.

All in all, this book is a great asset to anyone who is attempting to learn how to paint textures in watercolor. The lessons it provides are most useful to amateurs but may prove useful to intermediate artists as well.

This book is not so much a "how-to" or beginner's guide as it is a useful problem-solver for various texture challenges a watercolor artist may face. From painting fruit to fur, metal to dirt, fields of grass to whitewater rapids, the author presents many full-color, illustrated examples and notes on how to proceed. After a few pages of basic paper and application notes, the book goes right into texturing, sometimes with step-by-step illustrations, other times with notes provided on a finished painting.

What I found most useful out of all of these pages was the idea of how to suggest texture without overdoing detail, a common problem in all painting mediums but particularly deadly in watercolor where a certain degree of spontaniety should be embraced. Planning and layering of colors is illustrated as well as how to use splatter, wash, and other unpredicable techniques effectively.

This book will not lead you step-by-step to complete paintings, but can be of tremendous help when dealing with complicated objects and images and trying to find simple ways to approach them. I would definitely consider it an invaluable reference book for most watercolor artists, as you will surely find something in these pages you can apply to your own work and style.

When Ms. Johnson called this a book of textures, she wasn't kidding. She doesn't fool around with page after page of the oft-repeated list of materials, etc., but gets right down to textures.

Watercolour is the painting medium I spend most of my time in. In general I don't use how-to watercolour books because I can figure it out on my own, and frankly, I don't want to do it someone else's way...but I've found this is a good resource in considering new solutions to make things pop.

I think Ms. Johnson's completed paintings are the best parts of the book. Although I appreciate seeing her "sketchbook" of textures complete with written instructions how to create them, seeing how they are incorporated in an actual painting brings them to life.

I am relatively new to watercolor and found this book to be enormously helpful in being able to recreate what appear to be difficult textures. She makes it seem so easy! Thank you for this instruction book that will help perfect any painting.

This is a great book that I refer to over and over again when I need a quick reference for a technique. While I love reading, sometimes when painting I don't want to have to read a lengthy version on techniques. This is the perfect book to have on hand for that reason. There are other books that may illustrate how to express deeper passion (paraphrased in another review listed here) but this is nice to use when you don't want to read a lot of technical how-to's.

As a beginning watercolor painter (6 months), I find this book to be tremendously helpful when I embark on new subjects. The close up views, particularly the animal fur and tree bark textures, are great!

I've been a collector of Cathy Johnson's books for many years, and this one fills a unique niche as a handbook and easy reference for creating wonderful textures across a wide range of subjects. Whether you need to suggest bark on a tree, falling snow, mossy rocks, weathered wood or one of dozens and dozens of other surfaces you'll find easy to understand and follow instructions that will help take your painting to the next level and beyond.

Clear, straight-forward language and outstanding demonstrations make this a book every watercolorist should add to their library, whether they paint in a photorealistic style or a more impressionistic one. It's a must-have!

Creating Textures in Watercolor by Cathy Johnson is an excellent book for the beginning or intermediate watercolorist. It has been a great source for me while creating many textures in my watercolor paintings. I will buy more of her art books. The price was very good.

Have many watercolor books, magazines in an attempt to start my art hobby.
Finally, took a class and the instructor recommended this book. She brought it to class and just working with it and her added a great deal to learning technique.