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A**N
Extremely Essential Excellent Book.
No easy read, this book is blowing my mind with method as well as philosophy on landscapes and art in general. It is changing the way I see the world around me. I took a workshop with a master landscape painter who told me it was the ONE absolutely essential book to any student or artist. He has several copies and rereads it even to this day after painting for over 40 years.It is in the school of abstract expressionist design to express what you are seeing. It encourages the artist to use nature as a well spring for inspiration and a starting point, and is not at all about dry literal copying of exactly what you see. There are valuable insights as to how to pick an "idea" you are supporting in your image, as well as the tools to render it, because art is an expression, first and foremost. It is technically and spiritually wonderful. Much of the advice could cross over to other styles of art. There are so many lines in the book I would like to quote, but here are two:"Art is a thing of the imagination. The underlying principles, the fundamentals, should be so hidden away by the beauty they are eventually to support, that it would require much digging to disclose them."and"There is no irresponsible or accidental child's play about the composing of a fine picture. Men like Leonardo, Michelangelo or Rubens were men of fine intellect as well as of sensitivity. Pure beauty is an orderly quality which seldom emanates from imbeciles or charlatans."While you will find very useful basic information on materials, etc, do not expect a "How to draw fence posts" type book. This book is a masterpiece. I plan to read it many many more times. If provides a vehicle for total self expression, which only years of tireless application can yield, yet spares the reader years of trial and error with timeless instruction on elements of atmosphere and technical laws known to the masters, thus delivering hope and inspiration.No serious artist should be without this book. I'm so grateful for it, and I sprang for the hard copy.
M**I
An absolute MUST have to paint landscapes
There is so much important information contained with in this book you will be astounded. From mountains, to clouds, to trees, aerial perspective, to choosing subject matter, you will learn something you didn't know before or didn't understand as well. This book is the bible to painting landscapes.There isn't a lot of color theory, and only a bit on design, but the portions on value, contrast, and light are what will knock your socks off! He talks at some length on working from memory and how to approach painting which is information which isn't in most books.This book was written in the first half of the twentieth century so occasionally the lexicon is a bit dated, but it is still easy enough to tease the meaning from. Certain words may be unfamiliar in the usage to people who haven't studied art before such as 'motif' (subject matter), but the meaning is usually quite clear by reading the rest of the sentence.There are black and white drawings to illustrate the concepts, however, no color prints. Never-the-less, the drawings are outstanding and make clear the thrust of the text. This author had the chops to paint at a world class level and yet still make the information accessible and clear.
J**G
Well done.
Good explanation of concepts and techniques.
S**.
Great info--needs an update to add some color photos
Excellent information, but it would be improved by color photos. Maybe it was published in a time when using color was prohibitively expensive, but I was surprised to see that this iconic book was in B&W. That said, you don't need color photos to benefit from the info on composition, perspective, values, and (especially in the case of values) sometimes color makes it more difficult to see. OTOH, it would be helpful to have at least a few examples showing how colors are mixed to create that value change. Beginners tend to think that some colors (like brown) are dark, while some (like yellow) are light, and they can't see the fact that every color has light and dark values until someone shows them exactly how that works by converting a colored image to grayscale. It's a shame that examples of this aren't available in this book. Still, it's a small flaw in an otherwise excellent amount of information.
L**Z
Buen libro
Me encanto.
K**N
A book that explains WHY you paint values a certain way
I am a novice pastel artist and particularly interested in painting landscapes. When I first got this book, I was disappointed and set it aside. All the pictures are in black & white -- not what I expected from a book about painting. But after my pastel teacher recommended it in class, I took a second look & read a few pages. This book is a real gem. I've been frustrated when instructors have told me to change something in my work, but not WHY I am changing it in a certain way. This book helped to answer a lot of my questions. The black & white illustrations are actually ideal, because they convey the information about correct values without the visual confusion of color. And I finally believe that you can use any colors you want if the values are correct. If you want to make your landscapes more believable, this book really helps. Now I have some concepts to give my landscapes depth and dimension. I think I might have avoided a fair amount of frustration if I'd found this book earlier. The language is a bit old fashioned, but it's a quick read and it contains immediately useful information. It may be too basic for some, but for beginning artists, it's wonderful.
S**H
One of the best "how-to" art books ever published.
Although this book was written years ago and the illustrations are in black and white, it is still the go-to book for landscape painting. Every landscape painter should have it in their library.
V**N
Sent damaged book.
My book arrived with two chunks of the back cover missing. It did not happen in the mail, it was put in the box this way.The book itself was just what I wanted.
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