Customer Reviews

Fill Your Watercolors With Light and Color

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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.

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.

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.

I bought this book hoping to learn how to paint in a similar style of the author. There is a great deal to learn in this book. It is far beyond my painting abilities at this point, but I love the book and the very detailed explanations of the many wonderful watercolor paintings of Roycraft. He very thoroughly walks you through his painting process, so an already skilled painter will enjoy the challenge of this technique. Knowing how he achieved such beautiful painting puts me in awe of him. Almost the only time Roycraft uses a paint brush is to apply the masking fluid to the painting. The color effects are created by pouring the paints on to the paper, and then manipulating the paper to control the color. He makes several pourings, letting each one dry before applying the next. He is a master at composition. The atmospheric effects he creates through basically using a palette of red, blue and yellow are amazing! The book is filled with beautiful color reproductions of his paintings, and a thorough explanation of how he created each piece.

This is a wonderful book, but beginning painters will find it very difficult to achieve satisfactory paintings using his technique.

I started reading the book but since it's an art technique book, it takes time to study and then to apply the skills.
It looks to be a well illustrated and documented study on the art of pouring watercolors.