The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Keep Painting!: A Treasury of Tips to Inspire Your Watercolor Painting Adventure

by Gordon MacKenzie

Recharge your creative spirit and rediscover the magic that is watercolor!   Every watercolorist needs a creative kick in the pants now and then--to keep seeking inspiration when feeling uninspired, to keep going when a painting has stalled, to keep trying when a technique isn't easy to master...sometimes just to keep painting, period. When your artistic well has run dry, you must replenish it. Whether you have spent decades painting in watercolor or are just beginning, the tips and secrets shared by best-selling author and artist Gordon MacKenzie provide the perfect guide when the going gets tough. Get excited about watercolor again as he shows you how    • Find better approaches to a tired composition   • Engage viewers more fully with color, value and well-placed "wee people"   • Reinvent a scene that outshines your reference photographs   • Dramatize a landscape by focusing on the weather   • Nurture your own growth by sharing what you know with others"You don't have to paint the way you paint now. You don't have to paint what you paint now." --Gordon MacKenzie

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

543 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 27, 2017

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook-Keep Painting!: A Treasury of Tips to Inspire Your Watercolor Painting Adventure by Gordon MacKenzie is just fabulous!
This was a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary.
This is such a delightful and helpful book! There are so many tips and techniques in here that I would never have thought to try. Even different was to compose the picture, ways to ground the picture, points of view, different ways to choose colors for your paintings, gradations and reversals, working with values, negative painting, atmosphere, making small people, changing the season of your painting, and so much more. There are so many pictures on each page and some step by steps. A great book! It is on my wish list! There are cute little cartoon characters along the way that also describe things and they are so cute, what a hoot!

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a level 201 type of book. I plan to revisit it after I’ve spent some time painting and learning along the way.

[Carissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've slowly been collecting some watercolor books to help spark my creativity and give me new ideas when I need them. This is very much one of my favorites to add to my collection! It gives some basic tips and techniques, just enough tutorial to give you ideas, and a little bit of incentive to get back to the painting board if you've been feeling painter's block. Very worth keeping on the bookshelf!

[야일]

This was so detailed and I think a physical copy is a mist for this. Because you may want to keep going back to it form time to time to ace the techniques etc.

Special thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for this review copy.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource. I loved the last section dedicated on how to teach other students. It has a many helpful hints. A great resource for any library.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars.

This is a great book for watercolourists who want more information and maybe some inspiration about the craft. This book can easily overload a beginner watercolourists (also not the main demographic) with all the reading and information it contains but the step-by-step examples could still be useful. I will recommend this book to those looking at growing their landscape paintings but I don't think it is the right book for painters if other subjects (portraits, botanical studies, genre,...) unless they are specifically looking for explanations of some of the fundamentals in this book.

[Susan Underbrink · Rating 5 out of 5]

A big thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. I do not paint at all. I got this book on a whim. I loved it, and truly wish that I could utilize the information!! I am a complete layman about art, and this was written in such a way that I completely understood. Beautiful and inspiring. So jealous of those you with artistic skills. Well worth a read

[Agnes Preszler · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not an ordinary how-to-paint- watercolors book, it is so entertaining, creative and also fun. The level is intermediate, the book helps to overcome creative crisis and offers a ton of useful tips to inspire growth for anyone who has already at least a little practice with watercolor.
There is some really original content, also sections (composition, colors, etc.) useful also for other techniques.
I really enjoyed this book, I've found it very informative. I liked also the layout, and of course the beautiful artwork of the author.

[RedRobinXXX · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reviewing this book for Gordon MacKenzie, F+W Media, and NetGalley who gave me a copy of their book for an honest review.
WOW – I want some free time so I can get my watercolours out and follow some of the amazing step by step guides. It’s bright and colourful and contains lots of pictures and images to help you see what you could be doing. It is a wealth of knowledge which contains so many hints and techniques to help you create your own paintings.