A guide to landscape painting for complete beginners with simple exercises.
Hazel Soan is a hugely successful painter and an outstanding teacher and author of art books, which have introduced the wonders of art to a generation of amateur artists. In this book she teaches you how to get to grips with watercolour landscapes in the space of an afternoon.
The book explores the basics of watercolour landscapes with lots of simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations that are perfect for beginners. That life-long ambition of painting somewhere that is important to you can become a possibility with the help of this nifty little book.
Topics covered include creating space, composition and focus, light and shadows, colours of the landscape and the mixing of watercolours. Watercolour painting techniques such as painting en plein air, brushwork, creating texture, wet into wet and wet on dry are explained. The book also explores specific landscape themes such as skies, foliage, forests, gardens, seascapes, wilderness, sunsets, urban landscapes, panoramas, sunsets and many more.
While I can appreciate every aspect of this book, especially for beginners, I only gave 4 stars. I would have given 4-1/2 if it allowed that. I believe there are no perfect books written or perfect paintings painted for that matter. It was a wonderful book for beginners and I feel will help many. Personally I would have liked a little more local landscapes but I understand the Artist also has much experience in African Landscapes. It was a very well presented introduction to landscapes and in understanding the basics.
I think that video demos on youtube do the teaching job pretty well and are the best resource for painters. Here there are only a couple of examples with any steps at all. Definitely not for beginners, But it has many examples of work, and each lists her primary triad that she used to begin/set the mood in color. So I can see myself flipping through as a reference if say, I don't know where to begin painting a desert southwest scene or a snow scene or a mountain with snow so that I can use that triad to begin. There is not even any clear advice on a beginner palette for landscape. So overall feels like many landscape paintings from this artist thrown together in the book, with a one line note on triad of colors that is the base for the painting. That said, her paintings are simple yet have punch, and you can learn a lot from studying each and trying to copy the effect if you admire her work. If you follow her guideline, you get the interest from not using premixed colors
Landscapes simplified. Yet, so much practical HOW TO wisdom given here! 5 stars! Thanks for laying it out like this. East to read, will take a lifetime of practice!
Good beginners book for landscapes. I appreciated the very create way that Hazel provides instruction so that I am able to practice techniques. Definitely a book for starting out.