Apr 14
This is another of Search Press's bind-ups of previous material and I'm still not sure whether I've reviewed it before or not - or maybe in a slightly different guise. They've got very good at this latterly and, rather than obvious joins where one book ends and another begins, the whole thing is now seamless. The material may not be new, but it's still sound and the reproduction is as fresh as it ever was, so this isn't resurrecting a corpse but bringing excellent material to a potential new audience at a very affordable price. As well as some technical pieces on things like perspective and composition, demonstrations from popular authors cover trees, water, snow, buildings and so on (and on). If you have other books by these authors, you'd need to check for duplication but, equally, there's so much here, you probably won't be getting too much cross-over. If you only have a small library and are on a budget into the bargain, you could do a great deal worse than invest in this.
* Artbookreview.net *
July 14
This new compilation offers a comprehensive guide to painting landscapes in watercolour, showing the results achievable with very different painting styles. There is information on materials, colour mixing, techniques - including spattering and dry brush, sketching, composition, perspective and tone. Eleven step-by-step demonstrations put all this information into practice.
* Leisure Painter, The *
Bringing together the work of six renowned watercolour artists, all of them very well-known to Leisure Painter readers, Watercolour Landscapes: Step-by-Step is a comprehensive guide to landscape painting in watercolour using material previously published in Search Press's Leisure Arts and Watercolour Tips and Techniques series. Techniques, such as wet into wet, dry brush, spattering and creating texture, are clearly explained and there are excellent chapters on using colour, tone, composition and sketching before putting everything you've learned into practice with step-by-step demonstrations and nine projects for you to try at home. The experience of the authors ensures that the tuition is perfectly judged to be of maximum help to those wishing to explore and develop their landscape painting.
* Leisure Painter - December 2020 *
