Fill Your Watercolors With Light and Color [Hardcover]

Roland Roycraft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990

Dozens of step-by-step examples show how to use the special techniques of masking and pouring.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roland Roycraft spent 35 years as a commercial artist and art director with work appearing in national publications such as Saturday Evening Post, Life and Look. He is the author of the best-selling Fill Your Watercolors with Light and Color and teaches popular watercolor workshops throughout the United States. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 134 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891343385
• ISBN-13: 978-0891343387
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Atmospheric Paintings, October 26, 1998

By 

hamsterdance (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fill Your Watercolors With Light and Color (Hardcover)

This is a good book for seeing what effective use of masking can do for a painting. Mr. Roycraft's use of masking is an integral (if not THE prime) technique for creating the numerous paintings demonstrated in this book. The other technique he uses is pouring the watercolors onto the surface rather than painting most of it with a brush.

This is not a painting method for anyone not willing or able to know precisely all the places to mask. The sparkling waves of an ocean in one of his paintings must have taken quite some time to mask and most likely needed a detailed pencil sketch beforehand. While the pouring is imprecise the masking is not.

The book has 1 chapter that gives a step-by-step demonstration of his pouring method. One can tell from some paintings produced that this can be a time-consuming method of producing watercolor paintings if the subject matter is intricate or detailed although the results are breathtaking.

I would like to see more demonstrations from Mr. Roycraft and perhaps more details about the masking as part of the process. Statements such as "I masked only the light areas before beginning the painting. This is negative painting in reverse and makes a beautiful abstract pattern." show the thought that guides the final results.

Most of the book shows paintings in a semi-finished state with the final result and some comments on the process and thoughts in creating it. I liked this book very much and would recommend it to any watermedia painter because it helps thinking in terms of positive and negative shapes and light. It also introduces a unique way of painting with watercolors which I suspect would work with fluid acrylics as well.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Light up your paintings big time, December 23, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fill Your Watercolors with Light and Color (Paperback)

Wow! Where was THIS watercolor book hiding? The techniques Roland Roycraft shares here are seemingly easy; splashing or flowing paint onto paper, masking and more. He also gives some very good hints for composition with clear details. Also value sketches (black and white, showing the density of darks and lights. This is a valuable technique for painters.)

I may not choose to imitate Roycraft's style, but I sure will be incorporating these techniques into my next paintings. If you want to improve your watercolor, I can't recommend this book and his other book on nature enough. They are just great.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful atomshere, superior technique, October 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Fill Your Watercolors With Light and Color (Hardcover)

The book amazes me a lot. I particularly like the effect of the pouring. It seems difficult to learn, how to control the color flowing smoothly across the desired area? Is it time-consuming to prepare the masking(questions for Mr. Roland Rycraft) I would like to know some details of the procedure.