Customer Reviews

Painting What (You Want) to See: "Forty-Six Lessons, Assignments, and Painting Critiques on Watercolor and Oil"

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
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I have been painting for about a year and have had a lot of trouble composing paintings that flow as well as I would like them to. This book has helped me tremendously. So many of the books I have read talk only about technique and do not thoroughly address the important issues surrounding composition as this one does.

There are 46 lessons and assignments in this book, critiques included. Reid covers not only painting but, more important, seeing.

Reid begins by reviewing the basics: Contour drawing, value scales, seeing shapes, adding values to drawings. Then he goes into detail in working with values, handling color, directing the eye, composing with color, and interpreting light. The last two sections of the book deal with critiques, solutions and learning from the masters. There's also a useful bibliography that's divided into books about painting and those on drawing. Then there's a list of artists whose work the student should study to gain insight into different techniques.

This book is a fresh look at working in watercolors and oils. I'd recommend it to photographers, too. These ideas and information could be easily translated to the film medium.

All that said, it's a gorgeous coffeetable book, too.

"Painting What You Want To See" covers a slew of topics of tremendous importance to improving your artwork that are slighted by most authors and most teachers. These topics include the understanding the propper proportion of light & dark values, the importance of distinct colors, how to get better looking colors (e.g., lights, darks, greens, skin tones), why some edges should be blurred and which ones, how to (and not to) arrange objects in a painting, how to tie objects together into a cohesive whole, the relative importance (or lack thereof) of propper perspective, techniques for better looking shadows, the importance of sketches, and many more topics. For each topic, the author includes one or more generally worded exercises that will help the reader practice the technique. These are not those awful step-by-step-reproduce-my-painting-exactly sort of exercises, either, but well thought out tasks that will help you see the importance of the technique in your own work. There is a very nice section at the end which demonstrates common problems and how to fix them. I only wish this section were longer.

Although the book focuses on watercolor and oil, most of the lessons are applicable to all mediums. Many of the demonstration pictures are sketches suitable to the lesson at hand, not final works, so don't expect every drawing to be "amazing". Many of the paintings focus on people, and several the topics covered are of particular value to figure painters. I would highly recommend this book to any artist.

...much as you would expect from Charles Reid. For me, this book seems less focused than some of his earlier output -- such as his portrait & figure painting books and his portait video -- and less compelling, as was his floral book, although I suspect they might both appeal more to a female viewer/reader. It is also possible that there is a certain amount of repetition/overlap/familiarity about the book. That said, the color and quality of the images are admittedly wonderful and superior to the mainly mono-tone portrait book mentioned previously.

If you're a Reid fan, than you'll want this book. If your'e not a Reid fan, you'll still want this book. Even though it's a bit older (published in 1987) the material presented is timeless. Reid is a wonderful teacher and provides solid information regarding color, value, drawing, composition, etc. I particularly liked this book because it doesn't waste valuable teaching space discussing paper, brushes and pigments. That information can be found in so many other watercolor books. This book teaches you how to look at your subject, artistically review it, and then translate your visions to paper. Even though Reid has such a distinctive style, his teaching can be used to bring out the best in any artist's personal style. This is not a how to copy Reid book, but a book that was written to help painters express their own visions.

Charles Reid is mostly known for his watercolors. I almost overlooked this book because I am an oil painter. There is a lot of value in his lessons no matter what your medium.

What I learned most from this book is how to group values to create a more pleasing design, to create emphasis and drama.

Reid covers color mixing, use of edges, composition, seeing shapes and a lot more.

There are plenty of color illustrations. There are lessons, and assignments for you to complete.

I recommend this book. I'm sure I will refer to it often.

May be the author wished to speak about painting in general, but the pictures shown are mainly watercolors. So if you are interested in oils... Moreover Reid's oil paintings seem to me like watercolor ones, and his oils are not specially beautiful.

Another important fact about this book is Reid's painting philosophy: "I know I see a spot of (let's say) white color there, but I know the local color of this object is (let's say) blue, so I paint it blue". In my opinion he just paints the tones and values he wants, with no relationship to reality. This is the way the title of this book should be interpreted.

The paintings shown on the book are beautiful (I mean I like them), the explanations are clear (for me) and the examples are illustrative (I find them so). But I don't like the way he changes the light and atmosphere of scenes.

Bought this book at a used book sale for $10...one of the best books I own. His explanation and examples for simplifying value structure are really helpful, and easily understood. Great tips on color, and composition...many which I hadn't really seen in other books. At least not explained as effectively as they are in this book.

It's really useful book containing plenty of great advice and detail about how to look at a subject.
It's detailed enough to learn stuff but not so that it gets boring. recommended.

This is a good book, but other books by Reid are more informative.