By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) –

  

  

  

The problem I usually have with Reid’s books is that his style is SO distinctive that I feel I don’t want to follow his advice. This is because I don’t paint in a style at all like his. But unlike many watercolor books, where you pick the book based on the style of painting (realism, abstract, impressionist, expressionist) here, you can follow Charles Reid’s advice and APPLY it to how YOU paint.

For example, there is a wonderful section on lost and found edges–how you blend areas of similar intensity and value with soft edges and make hard edges where values (lights and darks) are very contrasty. This gives the effect of diffused light and sharp, angled light where needed.

There is also a very fun section on how to convert a photo to a portrait without it looking like a cartoon–for this example, Reid takes a famous photo of John Singer Sargent and paints it in not only HIS style but in an extremely clever homage to Sargent’s characteristic watercolor figure style. This is absolutely outstanding work and when you see Sargent under his parasol, you’ll remember his own beautiful “Simplon Pass: The Lesson” and “Reading”. This is very clever, very wonderful work and gives you the feeling of double-vision; you’re seeing a Reid painting AND a Sargent painting. Worth the price of the book alone for that.

One of the best things Reid can teach you is how to do a contour drawing. This art class exercise, where you don’t take your eyes off the subject and you don’t lift your pencil from the paper as you draw the outlines of forms seems almost irritating when you first learn it. You get a funny, squiggly drawing that doesn’t look like a finished sketch. But Reid shows you how to use contour drawing to great advantage when composing a watercolor.

As always, there are abundant large photos of Reid’s work, and also some works of other artists to give perspective on watercolor technique. If you admire how Reid paints, then this is just fun for visual eye-candy. But if you are serious about watercolor, the book has much to offer and is really an excellent extension to the books Reid has written in the past. Highly recommended–in fact, if you own just one of his books, I’d say this would be the one to have.

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Another great colourful intelligent book from Charles Reid, who is willing to share all of his knowledge with fellow artists! It’s hard to find a book for intermediate and advanced artists, most are for beginners, but this book is highly recommended for those painting over 2 years. Do the exercises! They really help. A must for watercolourists and for Reid fans.

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