Customer Reviews

Painting Landscapes with Watercolor

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I've been a professional artist for over twenty years and was looking for some good watercolor books to recommend to a high school class. I came across this one at the library. Out of 35 books there, this is the one I would recommend to new and intermediate students. It discusses the basics in the beginning - materials, set up, etc. Then moves on to many exercises and step-by-step demonstrations. I particularly like his discussions on composition and addressing certain problems, such as, horizon lines, atmosphere, focal points, varying shades of green, etc. It is beautifully illustrated with work by both the artist and other famous painters. It's a great refresher even for an old hand like me.There are no gimmicks in this book, just plain good teaching of basic watercolor techniques.

This is a great inexpensive book to learn a lot about watercolor landscape painting. It is more for beginners and intermediates, but not for absolute beginners, as it assumes you are already somewhat familiar with such things as wet-on-wet, brush strokes, etc.. If you have a little background in beginner painting, you should enjoy this book tremendously. The photography of the examples and exercises is outstanding, and the material is concise and well-organized.

It begins with the usual chapters on materials and studios, etc., then moves on in a systematic teaching method with step-by-step exercises in "Painting a Monochromatic Watercolor", then an exercise in painting a building in sepia, learning more about the importance of value and value distribution.

After the monochromatic exercises, the next step-by-step is a 3-color landscape of a series of mountains over a 6-page lesson, beginning in the background and progressing forward with the darker tones. This is an exciting exercise with beautiful blues, yellows, purples. I was amazed at how such a simple scene with just 3 colors can have the beautiful end-result it does.

Next, a chapter on landscape composition filled with a multitude of paintings by various artists as examples of the components of strong composition such as perspective, creating depth with tone and color, contrast of forms, the horizon line, etc..

The next step-by-step is stunningly beautiful, called "Painting a Colorful Meadow", where the author introduces the lesson by stating, "This demonstration concentrates on composing larger area that dominate with blasts of color. Here we will see how to use color brazenly and to come up with a picture that has all the elements of a more complicated composition. It's an exciting, audacious adventure in watercolor painting." He teaches how to simplify and apply the colors with sponteneity. The end result of this exercise amazed me!!--BEAUTIFUL and LIVELY, and as he states, spontaneous! A great book for you to have fun while you learn!

The exercises then progress in a stepped fashion with stepped exercises in "Composing with Limited Color" "Contrasting Colors", and "Landscape Without a Horizon".

Next, a large series of pages to teach about "warm and cold greens," "shadows," "trees and mountains", "rocks and buildings," summer landscape", "autumn and winter", "the snow".

Then, on to more step-by-steps learning to paint "The Greens in a Mountain Landscape"---again, with stunning results, many tones, few colors used--GREAT TEACHING, relaxing way to learn.

Next, "A Rocky Landscape", "A Study of a Tree" "A Spring Landscape" "Autumn Landscape", more explanations of the "light of the landscape", "clouds", "snow", then on to more step-by-steps--"Painting Sky on a Windy Day"--again with a stunning end result painting! Next, step-by-step "Fog in a Dry Landscape", "Landscape in the Rain," and "Reflections on a Lake".

This is a marvelous book--very exciting, colorful, great teaching, fun step-by-steps, a lot of material for a small price! GREAT BOOK!!