Customer Reviews

Watercolour Textures (Collins Artist's Studio)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are familiar with Ann Blockley's flower paintings, you will be surprised by this book. (You can see a gallery of Blockley's paintings on her website.) It is no ordinary, watercolour how-to book, and the cover and title give nothing away. In this book, the author admits that she has stepped well outside her comfort zone to explore an entirely new approach to the painting process. We can be very glad that she did.

The simple chapter headings give no idea of the innovations Blockley presents. There are the usual texture mediums described in other art instruction books, but Blockely applies these mediums in entirely new ways: clingfilm, salt, inks, granulation medium, bubbles and foam, gold and silver pigments, paint resist and more. The beautiful colour illustrations inspire and encourage the reader to experiment, but the text is even more important.

You could approach this book in one of two ways: either you can use it for the techniques alone, or you can use the techniques to move outside your artistic comfort zone as Blockley has done - beyond what is familiar in your established approach to painting. Blockley admits that it took courage to do this publicly in a book. Any artist - of any medium - can take heart - and inspiration - from what the author shares of her out-of-the-zone process.

This book has plenty of demonstrations and includes three guest artists: Shirley Trevena, Moira Huntly and John Blockley, all of whom explored art mediums in daring ways. You can google all three names and take a look at their on-line galleries.

I nearly didn't buy this book because watercolour is not my medium. I am so glad I did. It's one of the best books I've come across for encouraging the exploration of new ways of artistic expression - in any medium. Better still, Blockley makes the process simple, interesting and fun.

If you are looking for someone to hold your hand, forget about

this book. Ann Blockley is a better painter than teacher, since she assumes you know quite a bit about watermedia. However, if you have a good foundation in painting, she can introduce you to some very nice techniques.

I pre-ordered this book quite a while back and it finally arrived yesterday. WOW! Was it ever worth the wait! Every page is inspirational. I am primarily an oil painter but this book has inspired me to get back into watercolor. I must have 100 watercolor books but this is the one I would save in case of fire. What a great book!!!

I have been painting in watercolor for 15 years and have been re-inspired by this book. It gives a new slant to old techniques and is filled with beautiful artwork samples. The demonstrations can be used as a "jumping off place" for paintings in your own style, or you can recreate the sample artwork. It's a refreshing book for experienced artists because it doesn't spend pages and pages on suggested materials, brushes, paints etc. that we already have or know about. It gets right to the meat of the techniques and artwork.

I'm a beginner in watercolor and I really enjoy this book. It gives great ideas for different textures in your painting and the book is also beautifully illustrated. She talks about the different kinds of watercolors you can use, like the ones from a tube or the ones from a palette. She also talks about the different kinds of paper you can use and how that affects your painting. She shows you different techniques throughout the book, like if you're interesting in painting abstract or more realistic paintings, she shows you how.

My watercolors don't look like the ones in the book yet, but I'm getting there.

Could be a more interesting book if description of the basic equipment or photo was done as well for step by step. There are a few step by step demonstrations.

This book shows mainly photos of textures watercolours with a short comment but not real instructions.

Great Book! I have a few other watercolor books. I think this one is the best! It really inspired me to try a few new approaches in my painting!

It would of been a better book if step by step demonstrations were included. The book mainly shows photos of textures and a short comment about the texture with no real instruction.

An excellent book loaded with new and effective ways for creating natural textures. While a certain level of skill is implied, the techniques are not difficult with some practice.

Beautiful and inspirational book! I can't wait to try by myself all the examples and exercises.