Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines (Hardcover)

by Linda Kemp (Author) "Painting in the negative is the main focus of this bookhow to manage this approach and how to succeed at it..." (more)
Key Phrases: building multiple layers, descriptive edges, staining pigments, Cerulean Blue, Burnt Sienna, Quinacridone Violet (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This is the only title on the market that gives readers a comprehensive look at negative painting. Linda Kemp shows beginning and advanced artists how to harness the power of these often overlooked areas around a painting's focal point.

The book is brimming with easy-to-follow, interactive elements, including:
*Step-by-step techniques, exercises and projects
*Do-it-yourself tests and worksheets
*Troubleshooting suggestions and secrets
*Straightforward diagrams for color and design

Whether they want to paint florals, landscapes or patterns in nature, readers will come away with the skills they need to make their next work more striking than ever!

About the Author
Linda Kemp's award-winning artwork has appeared in International Artist, Watermedia Focus and Preview Magazine. She has taught painting for the past 20 years and currently lives in Ontario, Canada.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581803761
• ISBN-13: 978-1581803761
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #44 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Painting > Watercolor
  #72 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Instructional & How-To > Watercolor Painting

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Painting negative space does positive things for your art, April 26, 2004

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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.

61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Use negative space to positively improve your watercolors., July 20, 2004

By	Andrea A. (Florida) - See all my reviews

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.

67 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No Good, December 27, 2004

By	Alan Dale Daniel (St. George, UT, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.