David Bellamy's Skies, Light & Atmosphere in Watercolour

by David Bellamy

Skies, light and atmosphere are perfect subjects for watercolour, and David Bellamy's mastery of the medium shines out in this inspiring and practical book.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

David Bellamy is a full time artist and author. He specialises in painting mountains and wild coastal scenes. Through his painting and writing he hopes to bring about a greater awareness of the threats to the natural environment.

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Dominic Tiberio · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love art books, but this one is pretty hard to love. Mr. Bellamy is more like a talented amateur trying unsuccessfully to teach at a higher level. Don't get me wrong, in a few places he has some fine artwork however none of these are the subjects of his actual instruction. His leafless deciduous trees are consistently cringe-worthy, all uniform muffin-like "trees" are a feature of most paintings... even more strange seems to be his propensity to make these cookie-cutter-like trees match up exactly with the hills/mountains behind them. Very odd. Some of the most compelling techniques shown in his art are given zero coverage or a short blurb with no detail. He does convey some information which one could use but there are precious few step-by-step paintings included that dig into technique and process and they are the least inspired of the lot. This book seemed to be more like a viewing of some of the author's work along with some half-hearted attempts at instruction thrown in. There are much better books out there on these topics and techniques.

[Fiona Cano-lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book but not for complete beginners, you will need a basic understanding of watercolour painting. But having said that, this book does give you lots of ideas and helpful tips on painting light and shade. It doesn't have lots of step-by-step demo's but in depth guidance on a variety of landscape pictures. I found it a very inspirational read and a book I keep dipping back into when I get one of those "now how do I paint that!" days.

[Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Numerous examples of ideas for exploration and practice, with a few step by step tutorials. It is less instructional and more inspirational.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The work is beautiful but it was lacking something for me. Maybe it was the writer's voice or the softness of every picture. Needs more variety.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some good techniques in it, but somewhat beyond my aspirations at this time.