Landscape Painting Books

The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Landscapes

Gordon Mackenzie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Landscapes 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This has some great step-by-step lessons for creating different effects in a landscape watercolor. The only criticism I have of it is the drab coloring in many of the examples.

2008 Review 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

-I last painted with watercolors when they were in paintbox form -40 years ago in high school art.This book has been a valuable tool in getting me up to speed on present day brushes,paints and techniques.I
am very pleased with the results I have been able to achieve in
just a few months time.This book is a definite buy for newbies or as a
refresher.

Editorial Review:

This inspiring guide provides artists with the knowledge they need to paint watercolor landscapes. It features easy-to-follow exercises illustrated in an accessible format that invites readers to jump in and begin painting right away. Artists of all skill levels will learn from:

-30 step-by-step demonstrations

-Chapters that focus on basic landscape elements, such as land, water and sky

-Special mini demos for capturing important details, including trees, mountains, waves, clouds, sunsets and more.

Most importantly, this guide’s instruction teaches artists the foundations of strong composition and encourages them to pursue their own individual style to create landscapes that are compelling and unique.

Landscape Painting Inside and Out: Capture the Vitality of Outdoor Painting in Your Studio With Oils

Kevin D. MacPherson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best book on painting outside that I've ever read...period. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read Kevin's earlier book and mentioned it previously here on Amazon and yes, I thought it was great but THIS one...this one is...is...damn...words fail me. It's just simply the best book on plein-air painting I've ever read (and I must have 30 or more on this subject alone). Kevin has outdone himself with this one. He's taken all the valuable info contained in his previous book and just added to it and added to it. I'm looking and looking but I can't find ANYTHING that he may have left out or not talked enough about.

Years ago, before he established himself as The Man when it comes to teaching people how to paint outdoors, I took a couple of workshops with him and, during the first couple of days outdoors and trying to be somewhat easy in his suggestions to improve my picky little paintings, he finally got frustrated with what I'd continued to put on the canvas and, took his thumb and WHOOSH--smeared out a laborious passage I'd painstakingly put in there and wiped off his thumb and WHOOSH, did it a second time and I'll never forget how much BETTER the painting looked after those two swoops. My biggest mistake was in not stopping right there, putting it away and saving that thing for me to look at again and again. That same mentality permeates his book; you can't help but improve your paintings if you read this book and apply the principles therein.

Another note is the two back-pages by his wife, Wanda, who was only just beginning to paint when I knew them. She can really paint now but she
maintains that being really good (which she is) is not the point, but that just getting out there and not being afraid to fail and just enjoy yourself should be a reward in itself. I found her remarks to be in good juxtaposition to Kevin's solid, on-target prose about well, "Landscape Painting Inside and Out".

Buy it. Better yet, go to his website and see if you can get into a workshop with him. You won't be disappointed.

Editorial Review:

Offers down-to-earth advice on painting gorgeous outdoors scenes through 10 step-by-step demos Teaches painters how to master the art of observation Shows readers how to translate field notes and sketches into fully realized studio paintings The overwhelming beauty of the outdoors is one of the most inspiring - and elusive - subjects for painters. With Landscape Painting Inside and Out, Kevin Macphearson first shows readers how to see like an artist, then teaches them how to recreate their vision into stunningly realistic outdoors scenes. His insightful process encourages readers to focus on the small details to achieve big results.

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

John F. Carlson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Landscape Painter's Bible 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A great reference and interesting reading for all phases of landscape painting, Carlson's guide has been referred to by art instructors, and novice painters alike. If there was only one landscape book you had the money to buy, this would be it. All black and white examples. Easy to understand concepts.

a book you'll refer to again and again 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Carlson's Guide truly is the bible of landscape painting. It's loaded with invaluable information for landscape artists, but studio artists will get so much out of it, too. Over the years, I've returned to the book again and again, and I always find some fresh insights that help me resolve whatever issues I'm dealing with that during that period. If you're looking for a sophisticated text that goes beyond the basic fundamentals like value, color, shape, etc. covered in most art instruction books, this one is for you.

Editorial Review:

The whys and hows of the various aspects of landscape painting: angles and consequent values, aerial and linear perspective, painting of trees, emotional properties of line and mass in composition, light, unity of tone, plus information on canvas, palette, brushes, more. 34 black-and-white reproductions of paintings by Carlson. 58 explanatory diagrams.

Charles Reid's Watercolor Solutions: Learn To Solve The Most Common Painting Problems

Charles Reid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Reid's best book yet? 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

The problem I usually have with Reid's books is that his style is SO distinctive that I feel I don't want to follow his advice. This is because I don't paint in a style at all like his. But unlike many watercolor books, where you pick the book based on the style of painting (realism, abstract, impressionist, expressionist) here, you can follow Charles Reid's advice and APPLY it to how YOU paint.

For example, there is a wonderful section on lost and found edges--how you blend areas of similar intensity and value with soft edges and make hard edges where values (lights and darks) are very contrasty. This gives the effect of diffused light and sharp, angled light where needed.

There is also a very fun section on how to convert a photo to a portrait without it looking like a cartoon--for this example, Reid takes a famous photo of John Singer Sargent and paints it in not only HIS style but in an extremely clever homage to Sargent's characteristic watercolor figure style. This is absolutely outstanding work and when you see Sargent under his parasol, you'll remember his own beautiful "Simplon Pass: The Lesson" and "Reading". This is very clever, very wonderful work and gives you the feeling of double-vision; you're seeing a Reid painting AND a Sargent painting. Worth the price of the book alone for that.

One of the best things Reid can teach you is how to do a contour drawing. This art class exercise, where you don't take your eyes off the subject and you don't lift your pencil from the paper as you draw the outlines of forms seems almost irritating when you first learn it. You get a funny, squiggly drawing that doesn't look like a finished sketch. But Reid shows you how to use contour drawing to great advantage when composing a watercolor.

As always, there are abundant large photos of Reid's work, and also some works of other artists to give perspective on watercolor technique. If you admire how Reid paints, then this is just fun for visual eye-candy. But if you are serious about watercolor, the book has much to offer and is really an excellent extension to the books Reid has written in the past. Highly recommended--in fact, if you own just one of his books, I'd say this would be the one to have.

Editorial Review:

As one of the most sought after workshop instructors, Charles Reid possesses certain skills that set him apart from his students. In Charles Reid's Watercolor Solutions, he shares that knowledge with readers, teaching them how to become better watercolorists. Through before and after photos of various paintings, the author clearly identifies the existing problems in the painting and provides a detailed action plan with solutions to rectify the issue. A variety of topics are covered such as still life, figures, landscapes and more. Readers will appreciate the clear step-by-step format, which makes the solutions easy to understand and implement.

Oil Painter's Solution Book Landscapes: XX Answers to Your Oil Painting Questions

Elizabeth Tolley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The must-have reference for every oil painter!

Spend less time reading and more time painting with award-winning artist and instructor Elizabeth Tolley as she answers over 100 of the most pressing questions artists have about painting landscapes in oil. The handy Q&A format covers everything from basic brush techniques to deciding what to paint first while on location. Learn how to:

• Choose the right materials for you
• Prepare indoor and outdoor workspaces
• Design spectacular compositions
• Select eye-catching color for visual impact
• Paint with new brushstrokes and techniques
• Evaluate your own work

Including 10 mini-demonstrations to help refine your technique and 7 complete step-by-step projects, the Oil Painter's Solution Book: Landscapes is one reference no painter can be without!

Popular Landscape Questions Include:

What type of palette should I use?
How do I divide space in my painting?
How does light change at different times of day?
Can I work back into a dry painting?
How can I see and correct mistakes?

Get the answers to all these questions and more!

Drawing and Painting Fantasy Landscapes and Cityscapes

Rob Alexander

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Artists interested in graphic novels and comic book illustration will find all the guidance and inspiration they need to draw and paint landscapes that evoke myths and legends, lost empires, futuristic planets, dramatic dreamscapes, underwater worlds, and subterranean cities. Easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step illustrations demonstrate techniques for rendering a wide range of fantasy features, whether working in ink, watercolor, or computer pixels. Details covered in this heavily illustrated volume include -- choice of materials, with advice on getting the most from software programs . . . basics of perspective, architectural geometry, color, mood, and seasonal variations . . . landscape features, including skies, clouds, mountains, caves, deserts, snow, and water reflections . . . imagined landscapes from ancient cultures, future worlds, alien planets, undersea worlds, and surreal dreamscapes . . . cityscapes, from medieval towns to the metropolis of the future . . . famous fantasy worlds, from Atlantis to Middle Earth. This good-looking and instructive volume features a gallery of fantasy and science fiction images among its more than 200 color illustrations.

Painting with Brenda Harris, Volume 4: Gorgeous Gardens (Painting with Brenda Harris)

Brenda Harris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Painting with Brenda Harris: Lovely Landscapes 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I enjoy working with her books. She explains everything out. Good for people just starting to paint, learning alot of the techniques.
Great job !!!!!!

Outstanding, down to earth acrylic techniques 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Outstanding acrylic instruction.It's too bad my public TV station in Little Rock doesn't broadcast the Brenda Harris shows.

Brenda Harris Painting Books 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I am an artist who paints in Acrylics and I teach others to do so. I am always looking for ideas and techniques to teach my students. Brenda Harris had a television painting show in the 80's/90's, but I never got to see it as it did not play in my area. I did meet Brenda at a painting convention and got to take some classes from her. She is a wonderful teacher and painter. I have bought most of her books and some of her videos and I use her methods of painting in my work. My students like it when I paint something from Brenda's books. She is one of the few artists left who actually encourages teachers to teach from her books. I like that about her, and will continue to purchase her books and videos because of this generosity. You will not be disappointed if you purchase any of Brenda's books or videos. She's a gracious "southern lady".

Editorial Review:

From a Popular PBS Television Instructor 10 step-by-step projects, each with a template and a shopping list of necessary materials Includes eye-catching full-color illustrations of each finished project

Readers can cultivate stunning garden paintings in just a few hours with the help of popular television instructor Brenda Harris. Each step-by-step project is written with clear, accessible instructions made even simpler by an easy-to-follow template. Readers can choose from a a range of garden scenes featuring charming flowers, country walkways, picket fences, babbling brooks and more. Creating beautiful paintings is as easy as a walk in the garden with the tips and suggestions in this book!

Painting the Impressionist Landscape: Lessons in Interpreting Light and Color

Lois Griffel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I liked it 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

It just didn't motivate me like I wanted it to.... so I sold it. But, it does have some good steps to getting that impressionistic look. I suggest trying out the book by Susan Sarback, Capturing Radiant Color in Oils (Paperback)
ISBN: 1581800614. I've been on her website, and she has some remarkable paintings as well.

awesome 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This discussed painting in a way I needed to hear. It was easy to work with and inspired ideas for me to try. Great book

Excellent Book on Color 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book for learning color theory. You can tell she loves teaching because she doesn't hold back. She is really trying to help you learn the concepts. She paints in an impressionist style, but her methods would work no matter what your style is.

Wonderful addition to any Artists library 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I found this book a valuable addition to my library. As an Artist it proved to be a wonderful learning tool, with detailed explainations, examples, and a number of practical step by step learning project. It has added great depth to my paintings. I would recommend it to both experienced artist and beginners. Beautiful colour photos!!!

Editorial Review:

The secrets of the impressionists' dazzling color are revealed in exercises based on the teachings of Charles Hawthorne, student of William Merritt Chase.

Creating Light (Paint Along With Jerry Yarnell, Vol. 9)

Jerry Yarnell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Painting basics---not! 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book like so many so-called beginner's acrylics books follows the usual pattern: a chapter on materials and then an immediate huge jump into technique. It is interesting to note that the author's suggested palette contains eleven colors, three of which are not particularly light fast. After this chapter he dives into the first of ten demonstration paintings. These painting are all extremely complex and large undertakings on 16x20" canvases. I predict that most beginners are going to get lost early on in the first painting a flick it in. Maybe after I find some way to get the basics down, I'll come back to some of the Yarnell books, though I find his style rather garish.

As my growing collection of unsatisfactory "beginner's" acrylics shows (the nearest big bookstore is almost three hours away) there is a huge difference between a gifted artist and a gifted art teacher, though in fairness what is probably lacking are gifted art instruction authors. When writing these books they apparently don't have any reader feedback (why not?) who could slow them down by asking questions like how do I thin the paint, how thing should it be, what's the best way to mix colors, how do I clean the brushes, how do I keep the paint from drying out on my palette or my painting, etc., etc., etc.

The only painting book I've found so far which can truly claim to be a beginner's book is Jack Reid's "Watercolor Basics: Let's Get Started". That book is full of exercise paintings that let the reader learn a technique on a simple painting; the paintings are simple enough so that the beginner doesn't get lost in the detail yet have some artistic character. There are also beginner's drawing books that really do start from zero and build up the reader's technique.

Editorial Review:

How an artist captures light can make or break a painting. With Creating Light, the newest installment in this successful series, painters seeking to further their skills will learn how to create paintings filled with light. Artist Jerry Yarnell: Explains how to portray form and shadow accurately; Presents the different components of light, including direct, reflected, glowing, and white light, along with silver linings; Shows how light works in specific examples and provides readers with ways to achieve a similar effect; This guide features step-by-step projects, showing Yarnell's methods in action and improving readers' skills and confidence along the way.

Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics

Burton Silver, Heather Busch

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ten Speed Press Amazon Marketplace: 72 new & used starting at $0.51

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A great book to bring to a Party 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I bought this work on the way to a party a few years ago.. It became an instant hit. People who were shy and didnt know anyone, bored children, happy party people, everyone took a few minutes to pore through this book, talk about it to their neighbors.. and debate which cats they liked best, and what they they thought of the idea of cat painting.

A splendid, funny, thought provoking book, that will forever cahnge the way you look at cats.

WHY 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

(As a cat lover) I wish my cat could look at this book. I am sure he would be entertained!! The enhancement of a beautiful animal is much appreciated. I love it when children look at this book. Their comments are wonderful.

fascinating but a little disturbing 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I don't know what I was expecting in this book. I had seen a couple of the pictures out of context and was intrigued by the paint jobs on these cats. My first disappointment in the book came when I opened the package and discovered just how tiny this book was. I had not paid attention to the size listed on Amazon and was very upset that the book was so tiny and the pictures so small. As I flipped through the book, the stories behind each paint job were entertaining. A good number of the paint jobs began to disturb me in their weirdness. Some of the cats were admittedly beautiful enhanced with "naturalistic" paint jobs, but others were quite humiliating and I cannot fathom why someone would want their cats painted in a humiliating way. I have not opened the book since zipping through it the first one or two times and would hesitate at recommending it to a true cat lover.

About a week after posting the above review, I found out that the cat paintings in this book were likely computer generated (check out snopes). If that is true then even the stories behind the paint jobs are a farce. Yet another reason not to bother buying this book.

Editorial Review:

In this volume the authors detail all the contemporary trends in the movement dedicated to using cats on canvas. They raise ethical questions and explore the rights of pet owners to reinvent their cats in the name of art.