Focusing on simple and swift sketching techniques, the purpose of this text is to enable any artist to visualize a natural landscape before putting brush to paper. Sections on finding subjects and designing compositions are followed by demonstrations of how to paint certain subjects.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Watercolor is one of the most fragile and frustrating of media, in which hours of work can be ruined with one brush stroke. Since watercolor books rely heavily on the style of the artist/author, no two books are alike, and new additions to the field are welcome. Ward, whose book teaches the art of quick outdoor sketching, wants beginners to learn how to see and then to experience the freedom of such work--a freedom encouraged by the fluidity of the medium. While some paintings in this vein can stand as complete works, they are meant to be germs of ideas for later, larger endeavors. This is an exciting concept for a book, which works well in combination with more traditional and detailed manuals like Tony Couch's Watercolor, You Can Do It! ( LJ 6/1/87). Koser has created perhaps the most sophisticated and challenging of watercolor books for general use. This intermediate text delves deeply into the intricacies of composition, the science of working with color and texture, and creative experiments with the media. Koser clearly guides and encourages, on one page displaying the three colors he uses for a realistic stone surface, on another demonstrating nontraditional splashes of color for a waterfall. Ward's book makes a good prelude to Koser's, and both will attract wide circulation.
- Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib. Inc., Amherst, Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib. Inc., Amherst, Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Serves a specific purpose well, as titled,
This review is from: First Impressions: Sketching Nature in Watercolor (Hardcover)
If you want to loosen up your work and/or paint outdoors efficiently and effectively, then this book will be a big help--as it has been for me. Even if you want to paint in a more representational, detailed style, than is represented here, getting the basics first as this book presents them could still greatly simplify things to make your process easier.
Edward Norton Ward's watercolor "sketches" (They are signed, so I assume he considers them completed paintings.), which are abundant throughout the book, at first might appear more simplistic than they are. In other words, there is experience and knowledge behind creating an effective, yet simple, watercolor. Mr. Ward has been generous in sharing this knowledge and the thoughts that are behind each painting. His discussions about simplifying the subject and the effects of light on color are particularly good. He also explains his painting process. This book is useful in any case, but more useful if you paint outdoors, as that is its focus. His tips on traveling lightly and the materials he uses/prepares, has a couple valuable tips that I will use, even though after painting for a number of years I have already gone over the endless supplies combinations for painting outdoors. The painting on the cover is a good representation of Ward's work and one that I like (although not my favorite). I admit that some of the paintings in this book do not appeal to me as the parts seem too detached and there are too many isolated dabs of paint. Others, however, elicit a sigh of appreciation, because they represent what I would like to be able to do: paint directly from nature in a very direct(impressionistic)style that doesn't involve a lot of fussing in the studio later--if I do not wish to do that--and still end up with a painterly thing of beauty. This book shows me how to achieve that goal more than any others I have studied. I have just sorted through my rather extensive library on painting in watercolor with an eye to thinning down the collection to about half--to the ones that I deem most essential. I am keeping this book over several boxes of other watercolor books, a number by better known artists, simply because there is something valuable here that I want to learn, and I feel that I will use it as a reference for some time.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the instruction hits the mark,
By janie m. (Montana) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: First Impressions: Sketching Nature in Watercolor (Hardcover)
I find myself reading this book thoroughly. I usually jump around in art instruction books. The author, painter, presents each concept clearly in a one or two page format. Many are presented and they all are important and helpful. They are illustrated by his works. His style is loose and direct. There is no fussiness to it. I like his sketches and enjoy looking at the works. I am getting a lot out of this book. I have tried some of the concepts and approaches and they have really worked and I feel energized and advanced thereby.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
pleasantinstruction,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: First Impressions: Sketching Nature in Watercolor (Hardcover)
This book was all that I had hoped it would be.The looseness of the paintings has always been of interest to me, and this book has fully satisfied that interest. It makes painting like this appear to be within the reach of anyone willing to learn it.
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