Watercolour Painting
by Jean-Louis Morelle
Published by New Holland Publishers
Perhaps it's their school curriculum or the land itself that breeds painters. For whatever reason France just seems to give birth to good if not great painters. This is perhaps the 2nd book I found that gives great instruction on the subject of watercolor.
I've only just begun to read it myself and I can't help but recommend it to watercolor enthusiasts. It starts off with a precious topic that most art books tend to overlook. An in-depth instruction and explanation of color theory in pigments and light waves. Which then proceeds to color mixing. Don't know much about water color papers? The author sites examples of them and even gives the properties of some. Two of the papers present in this book can be found in National Bookstore Outlets (I'm a Filipino and this is our ... well... national bookstore. :P). One is made by Montval and the other by Arches (140 Php? will post weight later). The middle of the book deals with detailed techniques in both wet and dry methods.
The most interesting part and perhaps the one that I liked best would have to be the step-by-step pages where the artists (this part of the book seems to be a collaborative work) show their works and then a step-by-step, complete with commentary on how they did it.
This is a very helpful book on watercolor but like all things in the art of painting... the only way you truly learn and improve is thru practice.
4 comments:
Sounds very thorough! I wish more books gave good coverage of colour theory. Actually I personally have a hard time reading about painting... I took these art books out of the library and never read them... and they were overdue for a big fine :( Also I got some books on drawing & painting as gifts and I just can't get into them!
I think I need to be more disciplined :P
The thing that scares me about watercolours is that you can't really fix your mistakes, right? The paints are transparent?
the book's section on colour is really extensive. it's really worth buying just for that and the rest of the topics are a great bonus. :D
painters do tend to be moody so don't push yourself when you're not feeling motivated. ;)
you're right. mistakes done with watercolor are seldom repairable. even if you manage to 'fix' it it will not be as clean or neat. the great thing about it is, and this is especially true if you work in a somewhat impressionistic style, you can use those mistakes to add style and life to your own paintings.
personally i'm scared of it too... water is so hard to control and being a warhammer player... i am a bit of a control freak. however, it's pretty much like all the other arts... once you know what you're doing even water will follow your orders... atleast to some degree anyway. :D (not that i know what i'm doing but practicing is really giving me the idea. lolz! )
good painters/artists are not endemic to any race.
i agree. :D
depends on the individual and how far he is willing to pursue his art.
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