Watercolor for All: A Practical Guide for Beginners & Improvers

Paint watercolors that glow with clarity and freshness, and tantalize the eye with their beautiful composition. If you've been discouraged from painting -- or feared this medium because of its supposed "difficulty" -- noted artist and author Ray Campbell Smith offers inspiring and helpful advice that will help you discover your own talents and a newfound joy in watercolor.

The authors of these two books approach watercolor with radically different philosophies. Smith believes firmly in painting in direct contact with nature: he believes that painters should either complete their work on-site or, at the least, return to the studio with sufficient sketches and color notes. His loose, atmospheric brushwork, limited palette, and carefully described methods are sure to please anyone interested in the traditional British landscape style of painting. This is a good companion to Jack Reid's excellent Watercolor Basics: Let's Get Started (LJ 12/98). Seslar, a contributing editor to the Artist's Magazine, has produced the first comprehensive watercolor book for beginners on working from photographs. The advantage to his method is that it trains the eye to visualize the transition of live objects to luminous paint on paper. He surveys different methods of photography and the uses of grids and pantographsAand, finally, provides 12 nicely varied demonstrations. Highly recommended, perhaps in conjunction with reference works like Bart Rulon's Artist's Photo Reference: Birds (LJ 3/15/99).
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