"Many painters enjoy working outdoors when the weather is good (and they need to know how to deal with it when the weather changes)! This book includes the best instruction on the special challenges of painting landscapes outdoors from a variety of the best plein-air artists working today in all major media-oil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic and gouache. - Materials, site selection and practical tips - Values, shapes, composition, color and elements of landscape painting - Bringing outdoor studies back into the studio - Complete start-to-finish demonstrations - Hundreds of gorgeous images"--
Spring is the perfect time to go outside and experience the wonders of nature through painting, even if social distancing. Plein air painting, the art of painting outdoors, offers possibilities artists can’t find inside the studio. When painters set up easels outside, they put themselves in direct contact with nature. Responsiveness to the landscape’s changing light, forms, and colors yields work that’s lively and spontaneous. However, plein air painting also poses a set of challenges not encountered in the studio. There are matters of choosing a location, rationing the number of supplies to bring, working within a time limit, adjusting to sudden changes in weather, and possibly even testing physical endurance when transporting equipment to a painting site. The Art of Plein Air Painting presents the full picture of what painting en plein air requires. Devoted plein air artist M. Stephen Doherty guides readers through how to choose the best spot, which materials and tools to bring, and the basics of mixing colors and preparing canvases and panels ahead of time. Sidebars and step-by-step demonstrations cover topics that range from sketching out a composition to starting a painting with washes or lines, toning a surface, and doing a cityscape. Doherty even teaches how to do a nocturne—a painting made after the sun has gone down. Works by famous plein air painters, such as Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent, are discussed, along with works by some of today’s best plein air artists. Doherty interviews contemporary masters Mark Boedges, Clyde Aspevig, Kathryn Stats, Michael Godfrey, Joseph McGurl, and Clive C. Tyler to gain a deeper insight into the plein air process. Finally, the book contains information on plein air events—workshops, county festivals, and juried shows—now being held across North America, as well as advice on selling finished work.
Learn dynamic sketching and watercolor techniques for creating cityscapes, landscapes, figures and faces, still lifes, and more, enhancing the story you want to tell with form, line, and color. Discover incredible methods and tips for creating dramatic street scenes and vivid landscapes, and capturing dynamic figures and graphic architectural details. Artist Alex Hillkurtz—a top Hollywood storyboard artist, international workshop instructor, and Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society—presents fundamental concepts of sketching with pencil and pen for a number of popular genres. Discover simple ways to jot down spontaneous ideas in pencil, capture rough details in ink, and add watercolor for extra depth and interest. Make sketching more enjoyable by adopting innovative techniques that will make a difference in your practice, and your artwork. No matter your experience or skill level, you’ll benefit from learning: Compositions that draw the eye How to avoid common sketching mistakes Ways to create light and shadow to define shapes and add interest Successful ways to use negative space The importance of perspective in creating depth Easy color washes that create drama Get started today, and fill your sketchbooks with unique drawings and paintings you will be proud of. The For Artists series expertly guides and instructs artists at all skill levels who want to develop their classical drawing and painting skills and create realistic and representational art.
Because nature is so expansive and complex, so varied in its range of light, landscape painters often have to look further and more deeply to find form and structure, value patterns, and an organized arrangement of shapes. In Landscape Painting, Mitchell Albala shares his concepts and practices for translating nature's grandeur, complexity, and color dynamics into convincing representations of space and light. Concise, practical, and inspirational, Landscape Painting focuses on the greatest challenges for the landscape artist, such as: • Simplification and Massing: Learn to reduce nature's complexity by looking beneath the surface of a subject to discover the form's basic masses and shapes.• Color and Light: Explore color theory as it specifically applies to the landscape, and learn the various strategies painters use to capture the illusion of natural light.• Selection and Composition: Learn to select wisely from nature's vast panorama. Albala shows you the essential cues to look for and how to find the most promising subject from a world of possibilities. The lessons in Landscape Painting—based on observation rather than imitation and applicable to both plein air and studio practice—are accompanied by painting examples, demonstrations, photographs, and diagrams. Illustrations draw from the work of more than 40 contemporary artists and such masters of landscape painting as John Constable, Sanford Gifford, and Claude Monet. Based on Albala's 25 years of experience and the proven methods taught at his successful plein air workshops, this in-depth guide to all aspects of landscape painting is a must-have for anyone getting started in the genre, as well as more experienced practitioners who want to hone their skills or learn new perspectives.
Paint with passion, purpose and pleasure What do you want your landscape painting to say about this place, this moment? How do you use the visual vocabulary - line, shape, value, color, edges - to say it? With this book, your conversation with nature will direct your brush. With an exhilarating, synergistic combination of indoor and outdoor painting, Kevin Macpherson shows you how to create personal, poetic landscapes that capture the feeling of being there. Learn how to: • Use a limited palette in a way that is more liberating than limiting • Experience nature to the fullest and capture its vibrancy back in the studio through photos, sketches and outdoor studies • Cope with the fleeting qualities of atmosphere and light by establishing a value plan early and sticking with it • Incorporate impressionistic touches of broken color to give your landscape a depth and vibrancy that enhances its realism • Approach painting as a layering and corrective process that encourages non-formulaic solutions Stimulating warm-up exercises in the studio prepare you for your adventures outside, while eight step-by-step demonstrations show you how to put these methods into action. Throughout, Macpherson's own light-filled landscapes illustrate the power of these techniques. Full of fresh air and fresh art, Landscape Painting Inside and Out will guide and encourage beginners while challenging more accomplished artists to bring greater vitality and a more natural, less formulaic finish to their paintings.
"The Landscape Painter's Workbook takes a modern approach to the time-honored techniques and essential elements of landscape painting, from accomplished artist, veteran art instructor, and established author Mitchell Albala"--
Dust jacket notes: "Vibrant, fresh, immediate! The direct oil painting technique is an intense reaction to nature, a race with time to capture the color, the light and shadow, the design and the spirit of a subject in a few short hours. And now, Emile Gruppe - master of the direct oil painting technique - shows how you can use the broad strokes and lively colors of this spontaneous approach to infuse your own paintings with vitality, vigor, and on-the-spot freshness. A firm believer in using the best materials for the best results, Gruppe begins with a quick review of his favorite brushes, colors, easels, and painting surfaces. Next, he covers the basics of good design, what to look for and how to orchestrate what you see: masses, lines, values, and relationships. Turning to color, a fundamental element of his painting technique, Gruppe discusses complements, color harmony, color vibration, local color, reflected color, and using color to create atmospheric perspective. He explains how color appears on various kinds of days - foggy, clear, cloudy - and under different lighting conditions - front lighting, backlighting, sidelighting. In subsequent chapters, the author focuses on composing seascapes and landscapes; he explains how to paint rocks, ocean, lighthouses, boats, piers, pilings, roads, trees, streams, snow, mountains, valleys. Then, in full-color step-by-step demonstrations, the author shows how he captures a subject in his unique, exuberant, on-the-spot style.
Learn the core concepts of painting on location with En Plein Air: Acrylic, the definitive resource for experiencing the peace and rewards of painting with acrylics in the open air. En Plein Air: Acrylic introduces beginning artists and fine-art lovers alike to the core concepts of painting on location. This hardworking guide features everything you'll need to get started, including expert tips on what to pack and how to maximize your time outdoors. You'll also learn how to choose a subject once you're on-site and then interpret it for a complex and pleasing composition. Painting on location in the open air is a unique challenge, but with En Plein Air: Acrylic, you will learn to deal with the challenges of shadows and natural light and hone your skills in a fun, refreshing way. Perfect for artists looking to grow beyond the studio, this one-stop guide is an excellent resource for expanding upon the peace and joy that comes with painting.
"From award-winning artist Aimee Erickson, Plein Air Techniques for Artists presents the step-by-step process for plein air for landscape, still life, and the figure, along with exercises to strengthen skills"--
7th Edition, 8th printing of the original 1941 publication, many added color plates and addenda by Evelyn Payne Hatcher, the artist/author's daughter. A must for art collectors, artists, teachers and art dealers.
