Portrait Painting in Watercolor (Hardcover)

by Charles Reid (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (October 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823041921
• ISBN-13: 978-0823041923
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #268,545 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wet and wonderful watercolor expression, July 10, 2003

By	Beverly Bell (Vista, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is one of the most sought after books on watercolor portraiture. Reid suggests the face and still gets a likeness. He leaves something for the viewer to fill in and be a part of the painting. It takes practice and intuition to bring out the aritists innate intuitive abilities expressed on paper. Reid shows step by step how he approaches his subject. He focuses on contrast and value and immediacy to give the painting life and spontaniety. A valued book to read over and over.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Charles' best book -- but quite good none the less, July 16, 2002

By	sir_isaac_newton (UK) - See all my reviews

...The book is brown, in colour and concept. Charles' book on Natural Painting is much more appealing. However this book is well written and illustrated although not colorfully. There is some interesting insight into portrait technique -- but realistically, I doubt if Charles learned to paint this way himself ... his talent is inborn and self-taught. His portraits are startling and unique in their ability to capture likenesses from a swirling mass of tone and/or color sometimes using only subtlist details of shade and highlight. The facial details that we plebians see (2 eyes, nose, mouth, chin, hair) have little to do with Charles' images -- sometimes many key features are ill defined or undefined ... however he always manages to capture the likeness. He sees in a different way -- I think he sees primarily tones (shades of gray) more than anything -- color seems to be secondary to him (this is apparent in his Natural Painting book too) -- yet he also has a unique and insightful perspective on colors, especially skin tones. A good book.