Customer Reviews

Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Negative space has long been one of my favorite art principles, but one that few artists truly seem to understand or take full advantage of. So when I saw the title of this book, I was more than a little intrigued. After pouring through this book, I was left with a lasting, positive impression.

Linda Kemp not only understands negative space, but she capitalizes upon it to create bold, stunning and truly unique watercolor paintings. She offers the reader a wide array of creative ideas that develop negative space into focal centerpieces, and clearly explains the various techniques used to pull them off, such as developing lively, bold underpaintings as the basis for later paintings and how to create textures that further emphasize negative space.

I am very impressed with this book. While the author's style of painting is quite different from my own, and may well differ greatly from your's, she offers many fun, exciting ideas to get the creative juices flowing, keep the process exciting and bring liveliness to into any style of painting.

If you want to explore exciting ways to treat negative space, and have an interest in watercolor or other water media, this is definitely the book for you.

Linda Kemp's work is luminous and seems to float off the pages. She recommends EVERYONE to use the technique of painting negative space to improve their art. Negative painting is going AROUND the outline of a subject, the way you might lay down a leaf on a white sheet of paper. Then dab paint around it. Lift off that leaf and you have a white leaf floating on a colored ground.

The book has the following chapters:

Basic Painting Supplies

Underpaintings - laying the groundwork

Getting into Shapes - become aware of negative shapes!

Working with Glazes and Building Layers

Building Nature's Complex Shapes

Picture Planning Made Easy

Assembling the Pieces of the Puzzle

The author says this technique applies to all media (certainly those who do charcoal or pastel are well aware of the importance of negative space, as are sculptors.) As a watercolorist, if you concentrate on line and wash, this will be quite revealing. In fact, this is probably a "must-have" on the technique bookshelf.

I don't know who wrote the other reviews on this book, but I paint and draw and I have purchased a lot of books on art instruction, and this is one of the worst I have ever seen. I sent the book back to Amazon because it was so bad. I have only sent one other book back to Amazon and that includes over a hundred I have purchased over the years.

This book offers nothing to the artist. The book is a presentation of the artist's work and not much more. All the glowing reports of teaching you how to paint negative space are fine, but that is about all the book shows the student. And you can learn a lot more about negative space in Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain and Keys to Drawing than you can learn here.

If you want to look at paintings by this artist (Linda Kemp) go ahead and buy the book, but if you are looking for art instruction look elsewhere.

Many books that offer information to artists who wish to learn are a disappointment. Sometimes they promise more than they deliver. Not this book. It delivers more than it promises. I bought this book because I wished to learn about "negative painting," an elusive technique (to me), but I discovered that it could teach me much about watercolor techniques composition, drawing, color, and more as well. What I like best about this book are the writer's carefully worded and illustrated discriptions of technique. In my experience, the best ever. I have thought that this could be a book for a young person with no experience because it is so clear. I have a lot of experience, but I need this book. Mary Alice Strom

This book is informative, but really does not give any more information on negative painting than the average Watercolor book with a section on negative painting....might be good for a rank beginner...and should be advertised as such.
Over all fair.

I totally agree with the couple of reviews where the book was sent back to Amazon. Some of the reviews are positively glowing and just why is beyond my comprehension, The book offers (as do most watercolor instruction books)considerable sound advice about supplies and composition etc etc etc but the pictures SUCK! It is difficult for me to believe this is a professional artist (presuming making a living on this humdrum output.) She has a vey limited palette mostly autumnal browns and golds and mostly very small (8x8 and 12x12) pictures that are a hash and rehash of weeds leaves and branches,,sometimes a watercolor book is so astoundingly beautiful it is worth having just to admire the pics,,,well,,,not this one! Totally ripped off is the feeling given,,

this book has lots of new ways to use negative painting skills and helps you produce a different style of work.this is very exciting and encourages even the inexperienced painter with exercises to practise.the only downside is the large amount of space given to very basic and boring instruction on composition and page design.

For someone with just a little experience this book is excellent. Several of the descriptions of procedures in the lessons could have been explained a little clearer but over all this book is extremely helpful to beginning and intermediate artists alike.

An outstanding book - so good our Art group have bought and received more copies. Negative approach aligns the brain in the same manner printmaking does. Would highly recommend this book to everyone but more towards those seeking an amazing direction.

I have been looking for a book just like this for a long time. I have always wondered why no one ever put out a watercolor book on negative painting. With this great book I believe I have found a path up the rungs of the ladder.