I'm teaching myself to paint with watercolor. I've read half a dozen books in the last month on the topic. I have also been painting with inferior paints and paper and brushes, and then switched to high quality materials.
My suggestion, if you are going to teach yourself to paint using books is to go to the library or a well-stocked bookstore and skim books in person. Or, see if you can really see some examples of the artwork online if you are book shopping online. Google books has some scans of some art books to read some interior pages. See who the author is and do an internet search for them and see if you can see their artwork on their own website. Look for artists whose work you like. Then read those books.
Even in books for beginners, the book authors/artists will tell about their color palette and brush strokes, and if you are looking to make very different art than they make you are being set up for going down the wrong path and wasting your money and time on materials that won't do what you want them to do.
First read a book for beginners from cover to cover. Take notes or mark up the book (if you own it). If the book is not clicking with you get rid of it and find a different book for beginners. Experiment and fool around with the brushes and paint on the paper to see what happens. Force yourself to paint while reading. Do not read a ton of books and let fear of actually painting start to build up.
Then read a book about the techniques for what you want to paint. You may not need to read these books cover to cover, just skim it and if you need advice on painting the surface of the ocean, read that and use the advice.
The canvas size the author uses dictates the brush sizes they use, so be careful when taking their advice for what brush sizes to purchase. You don't want to waste $60 or $40 or even $20 on one brush that's too big for the painting size you plan to make. If the artist uses a canvas size 2-4 times larger than you can afford to work with be sure to buy brushes that are for your painting size. While it is true you should not just buy tiny brushes as they cost less you don't need a 3 inch wash brush for skies if you are going to work on 8x10 inch canvases!
The beginner basic books will cover a wide range of topics in a brief manner. Individual topics can be explored more deeply in subject specific, longer books as you need them or when you have time to read them, and when you feel like tackling that topic. For example, beginner books will tell you a little about blending color to make you realize you don’t need a set of 100 premixed colors to start, but then there are entire books for the intermediate and advanced painter dedicated only to blending colors (or any of the other many topics listed below). Perhaps you realize you are having trouble painting tree bark, so read a book about techniques for painting nature scenes.
If you try to skip the beginner books and read entire books on individual topics of intermediate or advanced painting techniques, you will get overwhelmed. That is because you'll have to read a dozen books to touch upon the various topics that you need to know before buying supplies or using your equipment incorrectly and ruining it with novice experimenting (such as dipping a watercolor brush into masking fluid).
You may also know some of these topics from work with other art medium such as having learned about composition when learning about photography so you perhaps won't need to read a whole book on just that one topic.
The books for watercolor, I broke down into these categories.
beginner basic info with serious tone or
beginner basic info with creative touchy-feely or "just play and have fun" tone
how to paint with specific color tones: earth tones, bright bold color, etc.
how to paint with specific brush techniques --
landscapes: country, remote, town or city
water: ocean, lake, rivers
trees: bark, leaves
plants: grasses, bushes
buildings: siding, wood, roofs
how to blend colors
details about learning about composition
details about teaching value
details about painting mood
details about light and painting
how to paint portraits (detailed people)
how to paint people (more crude figures seen from a distance for landscapes)
how to paint animals (wild animals or pets)
how to paint from photographs
workshop books -- Warning! If you don't like the artist's style or subject matter do not use their books as you are recreating their style and subject matter! This goes back to pick the artist/author whose style appeals to you.
process books (my favorite) -- show paintings by an artist and they tell you what their original vision was, show photos and/or sketches, tell how it progressed as they went along, show mistakes or disappointing paintings and how they resolved it or abandoned the painting and left it 'as is', then show the final outcome of the one they liked the best and why.
--
Beginners feel free to skim books for intermediate or advanced painters for inspiration and ideas or to see what color palette appeals to you.
Go to the art section of your library and scan the stacks for books about master watercolor artist's works and skim them for ideas and inspiration. You may get an idea for what appeals to you and what you do not like at all. This can help give you hints about what your personal preferences and style are before you even put your brush and paint to paper.
--
I hope something here can help the beginning watercolor painter. From one newbie to another, good luck on your autodidact journey!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment