James Gurney's book - "Light and Colour" is an absolute must. The number of professional artists, illustrators who have it on their shelves and recommend it is countless. Even amateur painters and hobbyist, who have this book have listed it as one of the greatest art books to own. It explains things in an easy to understand way, even complex theories are broken down in to examples and show how to achieve the desired results. More than worth the money, even when buying a new copy, as people tend not to part with it once they have it and often refer back to it.
Light and Color is a great book, but its content is pretty unrelated to the content of this book and frankly I think Gurney's book is a bit over-recommended. Light and Color is primarily an introduction to THINKING about light and color, a sort of semi-structured introduction to the kinds of observations a painter needs to be able to make about the world around them. Gurney's book helps you to see what is actually there in a deeper way, but it's not really a very good "painting" book on its own.
I got that book referral from Andy Evanston and it truly helped my knowledge of shapes and values. It’s a great book. The paper back I got on Amazon isn’t the best print job but reading his instructions are really helpful. Thanks for explaining much of the book. Love your videos and hope to take one of your courses soon.
"Designer of a good shape" - that really stood out to me. I'm going to try to apply that when I paint this evening, see if it makes a difference for me. Thanks!
It took me years to learn this concept but the artist you showcased really doubles down on the ideas and his work is beautiful. I also use shapes when I draw and only try to detail the focal point. This is a tough concept to grasp. For a long time I focused on forms but shapes make artm making for efficient and simply beautiful.
Just ordered the book on Amazon. I'd considered it before from its reputation but your endorsement convinced me. I have so many books. Need to weed them out someday.
Thanks for this priceless info. After many searches, I've been able to find the book in a second hand bookstore. The book is in mint condition and going throught it is a revelation. It will definitely change my way of seeing subjects.
There are phone apps that are Photo to Sketch, which turns photos into black and white 'pencil' sketches of various light values and I've found that printing one of these out and using them to know my shapes, values and outlines as a start really helpful. This book looks really great and in the same vein.
Excellent book! I've read a number of Watercolor books, but my favorite art books are James Gurney's "Color and Light" and Ian Robert's "Mastering Composition."
Great advice. Thank you very much for this succinct presentation of the key points. You are generous with your advice and encouragement. And always a friendly, kind manner. Excellent video.
I thought I had commented on your excellent video when I first saw this, but maybe I forgot to hit the "comment" button. I thought, "Wow, this looks great!" Fortunately, I already have this in my abundant collection. 😀I have the original hard cover and I have seen comments that the 2021 reprint is of poor quality. Recently, I purchased Hazel Soan's "Art of the Limited Palette" of which she gives a long review on YT. It discusses the properties of many commonly used colors and how they work well together for harmony. Amazon will let you download a free Kindle sample. There is only color info in it - no beginner's info like materials, etc. Thanks ever so much for sharing your talent, knowledge and teaching abilities with the world!
Wonderful, that is the essence!, not the big amount of videos about brushes, paints, and other such things, the great thing is to paint ALL the other things just sticking to the focal point, that is submitting all the details, everything is at the right place, at the right distance. Very happy someone told it!! Virgil Mihai
I signed up for your watercolor course months ago and still haven’t started. I have all of my materials ready… I’m just stuck. 😢 Thanks for the book recommendation… If I can’t get myself to paint I can at least get myself to read. ❤
Aw I know that feeling.. I hope you get 'unstuck' soon! This journey is worth taking the leap and even just trying it out, with little expectations on what the outcome on your paper is going to be. Most of the magic happens WHILE you are painting and experiencing the paint flow, so I hope that you will give it a go and just play around a little. It really is worth the emotional rollercoaster😊 you will see that even the smallest exercises will enrich your soul. You got this!!💕
Totally know this feeling. Things that help me (off and on) 1. Reduce barrier to entry - have all stuff setup on easel 2. Take small paper - subconsciously less effort expected 3. Paint small things - people/car/... or just brush strokes - sometimes those create a scene on their own...
@@gitesh Excellent advice, and can apply to other fields of creativity as well. As a writer first, I always start in a small notebook or on my tablet, and usually with a snippet of conversation. Then suddenly it grows! Starting small is my way of telling myself, "This is no big deal. Just playing here."
I have this book and I sort of disagree about some of this book. Obviously he's a fine artist who has taught some great artists... but I just don't think this book teaches people to apply paint beautifully. That's not to say that the whole book is bad; there's some great ideas in there.
Dear Mathew, I started out painting realistic, especially botanical. Then, I found my thought process stuck in it, not able to loosen up the way you talk about large shapes and spontaneous fresh painting. When I began practising loose and shape, I found myself not able to focus on tight realistic painting like I used to do. It's taking a long time to come up with good painting like I used to do before. Caught between two techniques. What to do? Please suggest
@tthomas184 I looked up for this name. So, I found other artists making tutorials based on his artwork. I guess I have to gather knowledge from different RUclips videos and documentaries to learn about John Singer's techniques. Thank you so much for this great reference
@@taheraakter4477 You're welcome. Don't get stuck on a way of painting that might not be right for you. You might just prefer tighter more realistic work. If that's the case, this technique is useful for the initial lay-in of paint. I agree it's good to look at other artists and teachers also. One size doesn't fit all.
![How to Create Texture in Watercolor [step by step]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lU5l9kx-bqI/mqdefault.jpg)
▶︎Free Video Lesson: 7 Secrets of Fresh, Powerful Painting www.learntopaintwatercolor.com/7secrets
James Gurney's book - "Light and Colour" is an absolute must. The number of professional artists, illustrators who have it on their shelves and recommend it is countless. Even amateur painters and hobbyist, who have this book have listed it as one of the greatest art books to own.
It explains things in an easy to understand way, even complex theories are broken down in to examples and show how to achieve the desired results.
More than worth the money, even when buying a new copy, as people tend not to part with it once they have it and often refer back to it.
Based on this video Gurney’s book’s focus is different. I have it and i don’t think it talks much about seeing things in an abstarct way
Light and Color is a great book, but its content is pretty unrelated to the content of this book and frankly I think Gurney's book is a bit over-recommended. Light and Color is primarily an introduction to THINKING about light and color, a sort of semi-structured introduction to the kinds of observations a painter needs to be able to make about the world around them. Gurney's book helps you to see what is actually there in a deeper way, but it's not really a very good "painting" book on its own.
@@ari_isdrawing4293 i have it and yea, totally agree
I got that book referral from Andy Evanston and it truly helped my knowledge of shapes and values. It’s a great book. The paper back I got on Amazon isn’t the best print job but reading his instructions are really helpful. Thanks for explaining much of the book. Love your videos and hope to take one of your courses soon.
"Designer of a good shape" - that really stood out to me. I'm going to try to apply that when I paint this evening, see if it makes a difference for me. Thanks!
Wonderful!
It took me years to learn this concept but the artist you showcased really doubles down on the ideas and his work is beautiful. I also use shapes when I draw and only try to detail the focal point. This is a tough concept to grasp. For a long time I focused on forms but shapes make artm making for efficient and simply beautiful.
can you explain what forms are? I think I have the right unterstanding of shapes, but I thought form is similar/the same
One of your best videos, Matthew. You're providing a great service to the practice.
Just ordered the book on Amazon. I'd considered it before from its reputation but your endorsement convinced me. I have so many books. Need to weed them out someday.
I love this book and agree that it helps you to “see” differently. I like how he connects shapes. Skip Lawrence is a master.
Thank you for recommending this book.
I am buying it for sure.
I have this book, it helped me to loosen up and look at the bigger picture, highly recommend❤
I have James Gurney's Colour and Light but it's not specifically watercolour so will definitely order this one. Thank you!
Thanks for this priceless info. After many searches, I've been able to find the book in a second hand bookstore. The book is in mint condition and going throught it is a revelation. It will definitely change my way of seeing subjects.
I am picking up a brush again, after making my living designing and display. This is my new desire to loosen up and paint light and shape thank you .
Wonderful ..please continue your videos and don't ever stop
Thanks!
There are phone apps that are Photo to Sketch, which turns photos into black and white 'pencil' sketches of various light values and I've found that printing one of these out and using them to know my shapes, values and outlines as a start really helpful. This book looks really great and in the same vein.
Excellent book! I've read a number of Watercolor books, but my favorite art books are James Gurney's "Color and Light" and Ian Robert's "Mastering Composition."
Great advice. Thank you very much for this succinct presentation of the key points. You are generous with your advice and encouragement. And always a friendly, kind manner. Excellent video.
I began to read this book and to try to apply the concepts of each chapter before going to the next. Incredibly useful. Thanks.
The Doors, options number one is amazing.
working my way through this one right now!
I thought I had commented on your excellent video when I first saw this, but maybe I forgot to hit the "comment" button. I thought, "Wow, this looks great!" Fortunately, I already have this in my abundant collection. 😀I have the original hard cover and I have seen comments that the 2021 reprint is of poor quality. Recently, I purchased Hazel Soan's "Art of the Limited Palette" of which she gives a long review on YT. It discusses the properties of many commonly used colors and how they work well together for harmony. Amazon will let you download a free Kindle sample. There is only color info in it - no beginner's info like materials, etc.
Thanks ever so much for sharing your talent, knowledge and teaching abilities with the world!
great book, great artist!
Your 7 secrets are great and helpful. thank you.
Wonderful, that is the essence!, not the big amount of videos about brushes, paints, and other such things, the great thing is to paint ALL the other things just sticking to the focal point, that is submitting all the details, everything is at the right place, at the right distance.
Very happy someone told it!!
Virgil Mihai
I have found it interesting when you have bad time seeing dark shapes inside the darkest shape you can invert photo and suddenly see it easier
Great tip!
Beautiful✨ painting
Thank you for sharing this book
I'm a big fan of your channel. You did a great job, introduced really useful techniques that can lead people to provide quality paintings.
Awesome!
Thank you!
I signed up for your watercolor course months ago and still haven’t started. I have all of my materials ready… I’m just stuck. 😢 Thanks for the book recommendation… If I can’t get myself to paint I can at least get myself to read. ❤
Aw I know that feeling.. I hope you get 'unstuck' soon! This journey is worth taking the leap and even just trying it out, with little expectations on what the outcome on your paper is going to be. Most of the magic happens WHILE you are painting and experiencing the paint flow, so I hope that you will give it a go and just play around a little. It really is worth the emotional rollercoaster😊 you will see that even the smallest exercises will enrich your soul. You got this!!💕
Totally know this feeling. Things that help me (off and on)
1. Reduce barrier to entry - have all stuff setup on easel
2. Take small paper - subconsciously less effort expected
3. Paint small things - people/car/... or just brush strokes - sometimes those create a scene on their own...
Hang in there! Maybe today is the day!
@@mashteeh8691 Excellent advice, especially about the magic happening as you paint. As a writer first, I can say this is true of writing as well.
@@gitesh Excellent advice, and can apply to other fields of creativity as well. As a writer first, I always start in a small notebook or on my tablet, and usually with a snippet of conversation. Then suddenly it grows! Starting small is my way of telling myself, "This is no big deal. Just playing here."
I subscribed this channel when I knew this was useful video for me 😊
Wow I have that book, I have to find, it's in the loft somewhere
Skip ...is the student of the Great Edgar A Whitney
Thank you!
Andy evanson is the master of this. He always recommends this book.
Yes! That's how I heard about it.
I had to have this book too after Andy Evansen recommend it. It's really the best, I'm coming back to it very often.
Very cool
Looks like Andys work without the dark paint
Woooooow wonderfull 👌👌👌👏👏👏👏🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️
Don't see much of his art work online, is he still active painter?
Good
And how did you learn from It? Did you copy the paintings or just reading and trying to apply what It says?
Would this book work for Oils?
I have this book and I sort of disagree about some of this book. Obviously he's a fine artist who has taught some great artists... but I just don't think this book teaches people to apply paint beautifully. That's not to say that the whole book is bad; there's some great ideas in there.
I got one from Amazon recently. I’ve been painting for 5 yrs and it’s too advanced and complicated for me .
Dear Mathew, I started out painting realistic, especially botanical. Then, I found my thought process stuck in it, not able to loosen up the way you talk about large shapes and spontaneous fresh painting. When I began practising loose and shape, I found myself not able to focus on tight realistic painting like I used to do. It's taking a long time to come up with good painting like I used to do before. Caught between two techniques. What to do? Please suggest
Find better paintings to look at. John Singer Sargeant is the acknowledged master of this type of watercolor painting technique.
@tthomas184 I looked up for this name. So, I found other artists making tutorials based on his artwork. I guess I have to gather knowledge from different RUclips videos and documentaries to learn about John Singer's techniques.
Thank you so much for this great reference
@@taheraakter4477 You're welcome. Don't get stuck on a way of painting that might not be right for you. You might just prefer tighter more realistic work. If that's the case, this technique is useful for the initial lay-in of paint.
I agree it's good to look at other artists and teachers also. One size doesn't fit all.
👍🙏 👏👏👏
4:22 faceless ppl... Looks scary😮😢
Ma purtroppo non si trova in Italiano!
Charles reid better
A lot better ….His completed works are hands down better than this … But to incorporate both techniques you could become really good
Which of his books do you mean?
you look purple man, adjust your white balance or the source of lighting, it is mixed: natural and ambience lightning
Please, please, no more clickbaiting titles.
I honestly the best book on watercolor I have.