Customer Reviews

How to Paint Watercolor Landscapes: From Photograph to Sketch to Your Very Own Masterpiece in 6 Easy Steps

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

 

 

Photos are wonderful, the demos really help one to see how to get from your photo to a painting - to see from both the photographer's eye and the painter's eye. For those of you that sometimes get stuck in the detail of the photo and want to loosen up - this is a very helpful demonstration. A wonderful kickstart if you're having a "block" too - you do WANT to paint from these photos! Happy Painting!

I would say that this book is really not aimed at a flat out beginner. It assumes you are comfortable with the basics of watercolor. The "six steps" thing can lead to some pretty big jumps from one step to another (the author shows each painting from start to finish is six steps). However, the photographs are very nice and the steps DO give you a place to start on some fairly complex pictures. I like the spiral binding, the fact that you can see the photograph and the six steps all at once on two pages, and the large number of pictures. This is much better than most other books like it on the market. Similar books spend more time talking about what makes a good photograph, cropping, etc; this book focuses on the actual painting. I got it from the library and plan to buy my own copy.

This book has been taken out of the Library several times since I purchased it for our collection in Jan. My hobby is painting, and I thought the directions and examples were well written and illustrated. A very good book for the beginner to intermediate watercolor enthusiast.

This book covers painting scenes you would see in a photograph (versus vignettes or impressionistic). The 60 8x11 photographs each and collectively provide a wide variety of landscape subject matter from the U.S., Europe and other locations. Each painting's six step-by-step, 2x3 illustrations include good accompanying text information. Many of the finished paintings leave out some of the photo detail - but give you enough results to add more features on your own if you wish. A nice section on watercolor techniques includes more discussion than typical. Light section on design (cropping, moving/omitting objects) though also is briefly discussed in some painting examples.

Beginning artists can be overwhelmed by a landscape. Sometimes there is just too much to include. This book demonstrates how to capture the landscape. I was impressed with the clarity of directions and the beautiful examples. It won't make you a perfect artist, but you will pick up some tips. I find myself going back to it often.

I really should ask for my money back on this book....it was poorly written, vague in description, the cover is great and appears appealing....this is not worth the price of admission.
Sorry.!!