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Gwen Scott
Search Press
October 2010/ ISBN 184448548X
How-To Books/Painting
Amazon
US
|| UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
This is a book
that stresses the “color” part of watercolor painting,
and also the sheer joy of the act of painting particularly well.
The author conveys not only her deep love of the hobby but also
what fun you can have doing it which is something that sometimes
gets left out of other books on art instruction.
Not that this book is long on enthusiasm but short on teaching as
it is anything but. Unlike many other books in this series it only
has two staged pictures but these have a lot of stages making it
almost impossible to get it utterly wrong. The rest of the book
is filled with shorter projects so you learn how to get various
painting techniques right before combining them in a whole picture.
I like the way it really does start from scratch, showing you not
only what makes a good beginners’ kit (and yes, it actually
does include student quality paints) but also how to set up your
palette. I have not often seen this in a book, most authors taking
it as given that the “beginner” will already know this
but of course there is no reason to suppose it. Lay in a flat wash,
get to grips with masking fluid, how to mix the landscape painter’s
colors such as a good gray, and make your own color wheel. I found
that this makes the whole idea of color theory less daunting than
merely looking at pictures of other people’s mixed paints.
Discover how to practice painting a new subject by making worksheets
you can keep and refer to and what makes a good composition. I don’t
say it often but I would recommend this book to a complete beginner
as well to somebody who can paint a bit but wants to learn more
about landscape painting. It not only teaches what you need to know
from the ground up, but it is also good at inspiring enthusiasm
and stressing the fun part of painting.
Reviewer's
Note:
These Search Press titles are not "old" books by the way
- this one doesn't
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