Watercolor Basics: Learn To Solve The Most Common Painting Problems

by Charles Reid

Problem Solved! Expert fixes for not-quite-right watercolors.

As one of today's most sought-after workshop instructors, Charles Reid knows the most common stumbling blocks faced by artists and the best ways to overcome them. With expert advice on everything from drawing and design to fine-tuning figure and landscape paintings, Charles Reid's Watercolor Solutions will help you identify shortcomings in your paintings, fix recurring problems, and become a better watercolorist—no matter what your skill level.

Inside, you'll find masterful insights from one of North Light's best-selling

   • Advice for successful color mixing, tips to avoid overworking and other straightforward information you can take straight to your easel
   • 10 step-by-step demonstrations make the lessons easy to understand and implement
   • Student work with critiques that call out strengths, weaknesses and tips on how the paintings can be improved
Whether your portraits feel contrived, your landscapes lack depth, or your colors look unnatural, this book holds the secrets to stronger, looser and livelier paintings.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts

128 pages, Hardcover

Published July 30, 2008

About the author

Charles Clark Reid

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very specific style of watercolour painting that isn't for me. I was hoping for a troubleshooting book, but most of it is a basic instructional book. Most of the troubleshooting is for figure painting.

[James Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the way Charles Reid paints, and he is famous and has won many awards. However, I recommend this book only if you like the way he paints and/or want to paint that way. I would explain his technique like this: he draws very well and he encourages you to learn how to draw well. Then he paints very loosely in many respects. He mixes warm and cool colors, he lets objects blend together uses half sharp edges and half loos edges. He understands and uses direct and bounced light and displays those effects well. In the book he suggests that brushes are very important and paper less so. My experience is the reverse of that, but I'm not famous for my art, so perhaps I missed something. Also materials have changed over the years and he admits he hasn't used synthetic brushes. He also suggests trying Arches paper And I certainly agree that is one of the best, if not the best. Sorry to hear Charles died recently.
I watched the companion video (twice) and found it interesting to watch and listen to him and it is instructive to see how he uses values and how he connects brush strokes. So my conclusion is that the book in a sense is for the more advanced painter. However, if you want to paint like him (like he did) especially his figures and portraits it is highly recommended.

[Judi]

This is probably a fantastic book for a pro who wants to get in depth knowledge; it is just beyond the scope of what I’m looking for right now.

[Parka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is rather similar to Charles Reid's other book The Natural Way to Paint: Rendering the Figure in Watercolor Simply and Beautifully. The topics here are like continuation from that book but the drawing subjects are different. The instructions are not 100% duplication though, but some of the examples are from that book.

This is a book of watercolour tips. While there are instructions, they are mainly a look at Charles Reid process of painting. The insightful commentary talks about values, composition, colour mixing and planing. There's a useful tutorial about contour drawing, which talks about how to draw what you see. It has a nice loose style.

There are a few paintings created from photos which demonstrate that artists' interpretation is more important than just trying to duplicate the photo realistically. Those lessons are quite helpful.

Charles Reid has a very unique style but nowhere in the book is there any mention on how you can mimic his style. That's great because the instructions are applicable to any artists with their own styles.

Nice book but if you've already have the 'The Natural Way to Paint', this might not be an obvious buy.

You'll need some basic knowledge on watercolour to get learn more from the book. It's not for beginners.

[Pat Loughery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two books in one, really.

The first half-2/3 is a summary of Reid'sThe Natural Way to Paint: Rendering the Figure in Watercolor Simply and Beautifully This includes an excellent exploration of skin tones for painting figures and portraits.

The second is a summary of landscape watercolor tips, which may very well be a summary of another Reid book I haven't yet purchased.

I've found it more helpful to buy a copy of The Natural Way to Paint than this one (after reading both from the local library), but only because this book is now out of print and it's getting expensive to track down used copies.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charles Read has a specific style. His palette is deliberately limited and he is of the one stroke school. I find his under drawings to be rather amateurish. The book is rather dated and that is forgivable if there was some worthwhile instruction here. But the book is just Charles being Charles with little instruction beyond his specific process.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title on this is misleading. It is really a book on portraits and landscapes; however, a small part of it is Reid's analysis of his student's work. This part is compelling and I wish the book had been more focused on this part. Still, an excellent work.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for learning watercolor.

As a beginner watercolor painter I gained a lot of insights from this book. I especially appreciated his tips on not overmixing paint in your palette into a muddy mess of dead colors. Highly recommended.

[Donlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as his DVD, but good illustrations.

[Cristiane Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book have good instructions for begineers and experts!!!
He explain how to solve many mistakes.