Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting (Paperback)

~ John F. Carlson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The whys and hows of the various aspects of landscape painting: angles and consequent values, aerial and linear perspective, painting of trees, emotional properties of line and mass in composition, light, unity of tone, plus information on canvas, palette, brushes and other materials and techniques. 34 reproductions of paintings by John Carlson. 58 explanatory diagrams. Index.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486229270
• ISBN-13: 978-0486229270
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,352 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic must have for landscape painters, April 9, 2002

By	Douglas Moench "F Rider" (Fort Collins, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an essential how to guide for landscape painters. Carlson addresses the real nuts and bolts of how to paint a landscape and effectively deconstructs all aspects of the painted landscape into digestible principles and points. It has many B&W illustrations and examples of Carlson's work. In this day and age, however, it suffers from a complete lack of color pictures. It has been in print for decades and would get five stars and more if the publisher would find a landscape painter to add color reproductions of current painters who incorporate Carlson's principles, into the book. Or a companion book showing how other artists paint, using Carlson's points. There are many contemporary plein air painters, for example, who cite Carlson's tome in their list of recommended books. Any of them would add a great deal to this book and bring it into the mainstream of technique books that painters clamor for.

But for pure technique, it can't be beat. Richard Schmid's book, Alla Prima, is also highly recommended, with more personal philosophy and some fantastic color reproductions of Schmid's works.

Carlson's Guide is, however, noticeably cheaper and too inexpensive not to have on your studio bookshelf.

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VERY HELPFUL BOOK, November 14, 2005

By	James (st louis, mo) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting (Hardcover)

After reading some of the other reviews I must say that I can understand some of the frustration that some of them voice. I think this book is best for those who already have some practice with painting. I don't think this book was aimed at the very most beginner. If I'm remembering correctly he wrote this book for a class that he taught to art students for and out-of-doors painting class in upstate New York around 1915 or so.

The book contains many many things that you will have to know in order to paint landscape well. There is a lot of good information to consider here. There is a great section on the importance of capturing the correct values of your landscape. A section on the effects of light, on color, on sky, perspective, composition, trees, clouds, basic materials needed and some very sound advice on varnishing and medium, plus more.

Some mention and criticism has been made that Mr. Carlsons work is presented in black and white, but this matter is addressed in the book where Carlson states that, it does the student a great service to study B&W photos of good paintings. The point here is to become familiar with a masters use of value to establish a painting rather than the student getting carried away by the color. Anyway, there are about 20 works of Mr. Carlsons in the book and each are used to teach a particular point. My opinion is that his work is pretty damn good. If you are really interested in seeing them in color just do a Google image search using his name.
I paint two to three times a week out-doors and this book has been a real help. I have learned a lot.
Highly recommended. Best wishes and Good Luck!!!

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A classic! A bit outdated but still useful, June 6, 2004

By	Michael (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

The book is old, but it's still popular because the advice contained given by Carlson is timeless. Unfortunately the pictures are b&w. One thing I liked is Carlson gives guidelines which help to make realistic landscapes. A teacher such as Hawthorne (highly recommend his book) would say to forget rules and just get the color right. But I find that's not easy to do. Carlson's guidelines, especially comparing values between foreground, trees, mountains, and sky are very helpful. I read his book on the beach while on vacation and I was able to see for myself a lot of the things he claims, especially about clouds. This book is so cheap there's no excuse for not reading it at least once!