Painting-the

The title "Chinese Painting Techniques for Exquisite Watercolors" is, by all accounts, an understatement! Of the countless dozens of art technique books I've read over the years, this one is by far the most captivating, beautiful and unique.

Rarely have I ever been this impressed by a book on any topic, let alone one on art techniques, of which I'm generally rather critical. I'm so used to art books that leave too much information lacking, are unoriginal, show sloppy technique, or simply cannot keep my interest, that this book left me salivating for more! It is truly an exception!

The author, Lian Quan Zhen brings to life an interesting blending of Chinese painting techniques and Western watercolor methods to create a style of painting that is simply, well... exquisite!

The author begins by covering the basic tools and techniques of Chinese painting, from materials and supplies, to mounting of completed paintings. He covers the difference between Chinese paints and watercolor paints, painting in ink, and even shows the *correct* way to hold a paint brush!

Zhen goes on to give one of the best explanations of effective painting composition that I've seen yet. He covers everything from linear perspective and establishing the focal point of your painting (which he refers to as 'establishing priority'), to geometric organization of objects in arcs, circles, triangles, rectangles and s-shapes, and provides clear examples of each.

Next, the author beautifully conveys the three basic styles of Chinese painting, which he identifies as "detail-style" (gongbi), "spontaneous" style, and a blending of the two which he simply calls "half-detail, half-spontaneous," and throughout the book he gives many beautiful examples, and techniques for creating each of them.

Through the rest of the book, Zhen shares the creation of many beautiful compositions, not only in Chinese ink, but also in watercolor using many of the techniques he uses in his Chinese paintings, and showing how the two different methods can be used to create very original, beautiful works of art.

I cannot recommend this book more to anyone with an interst in watercolor, but I must warn that once you see this book, its very likely you will be equally drawn to Chinese painting.

As for myself, and my growing addiction to Chinese painting techniques, I've now traded in several hundred dollars for a plethora of Chinese art supplies, and I couldn't be happier!!

Many thanks to Lian Quan Zhen, for sharing his uniquely beautiful approach to painting with the rest of us, and for introducing me to a brand new way of looking at a blank sheet of paper, particularly xuan paper!

Grover is so entertaining as we follow him through 1) THE THINGS YOU SEE IN THE SKY ROOM, 2) THE THINGS YOU SEE ON THE GROUND ROOM, 3) THE THINGS YOU SEE ON THE WALL ROOM, 4) THE THINGS YOU SEE UNDER THE WATER ROOM, 5) THE LONG THIN THINGS YOU CAN WRITE WITH ROOM, 6) THE CARROT ROOM, 7) ALL THE VEGETABLES IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD BESIDES CARROTS ROOM, 8) THINGS THAT MAKE SO MUCH NOISE YOU CAN'T THINK ROOM, 9) THE SMALL HALL, 10) THE TALL HALL, 11) THINGS THAT CAN MAKE YOU FALL HALL, 12) THE HALL OF VERY, VERY LIGHT THINGS, 13) THE HALL OF VERY, VERY HEAVY THINGS, 14) THE THINGS THAT CAN TICKLE YOU ROOM, 15) THE THINGS THAT ARE CUTE AND FURRY ROOM where Grover decides to display himself.

I know that all the above sounds like alot of reading but I'll let you in on a little secret: [whispering] it is not everything in the whole wide world! [Ha!] Grover notices this too and says "Where did they put everything else?" He comes to this giant double-door with a sign above it that of course says "EVERYTHING ELSE." "AHA!" says Grover and enters.

This is one of the best, funniest books we own that my daughter and I BOTH enjoy. There are plenty of objects for her to learn and it is great entertainment reading a book with the charming, loveable Grover in it and laughing at all of his antics! Every family should own this book! I wish more books were this funny and entertaining yet a learning experience at the same time! 10 STAR BOOK FOLKS; IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS! BUY IT!

The book covers a wide variety of techniques, each in the context of a short, complete, step-by-step project which results in a good-looking painting (I occasionally frame one). Techniques covered include seeing colors, mixing, washes, underpaintings, tilting paper, dry brush, use of wet vs. damp vs. dry paper, various uses and methods for lifting, reflections, lighting, contrast, and many, many more techniques, settings, and approaches to challenging scenes. I learn something different from each project.

One implicitly learns the art of simplification and watercolor expression by comparing each projects' nature scene photograph with its respective final painting. That mindset, plus the book's setting-specific techniques, carries over to painting similar scenes outside of the book. It is important to supplement the cookbook nature of the book by applying the same techniques to one's own photo references, and to painting live in nature.

Having said all this though, I still think that the book is a good reference to have and coupled with other books like Glass Painting (The Art of Crafts series) by Naazish Chouglay, you could learn more and appreciate the art as well as the techniques behind glass painting.

Then I found this book and what a big difference it has made. The paintings in it are beautiful and made me want to try experimental painting again. I was SO thankful Ms. Dews breaks down her approach step-by-step with photos for each stage. So, for example, you read something like, "In this section I demonstrate some of the techniques I use in my paintings. They are simple to follow. As you practice these techniques, you will not only learn about the various techniques, you learn about the color, paper and how to use various tools." That chapter then procedes to do exactly that. Photos and explanations abound of techniques for texturing, shaping, coloring, various paper surfaces, etc and how each contributes to particular effect.

I appreciated especially the chapter on how to cultivate new ideas for your next painting. I also enjoyed the chapter finishing up by showing step-by-step how two artists can interpret the same subject. A photo of an iris was used for the demonstrations and Ms. Dews' result was an abstracted background with a more realist flower as the focal point. The other guest artist had a completely experimental, abstracted painting. I would've never known the original subject was a flower had I not been able to follow her painting from start to finish.

Two other chapters that really helped me a lot were the ones on viewing, cropping and collage. Ms. Dews is not afraid to crop her paintings if one area is working well but the rest of the painting is not. Alternately, sometimes she uses collage to rescue an area or painting that isn't working out. I wish I'd known about this on my first attempts. Had I thought to do these things I may have not thrown my paintings away, just cropped or collaged the disappointing sections.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone curious about trying a more experimental approach to painting. It has tons of mini-demonstrations, full painting demonstrations, discussions on using a wide variety of tools, surfaces, stencils, collage papers, mediums, etc. and techniques. It's got a lot of photos so you can see as well as read what the author is doing. Overall, it's a good reference to get started painting more freely.

This wonderfully illustrated anthology of techniques provides both inspiration and instruction. Starting from the beginning, with tips on choosing paper, brushes, paint, and which colors to use to set up a novice, intermediate and advanced working palette, the book then moves on to cover hundreds of well-illustrated micro-lessons in watercolor techniques. These lessons are organized in sections:

Color
Basic Painting Techniques
Textures & Special Effects
Collaging & Other Unusual Techniques
Artistic Principles
Perspective
Landscape Painting
Figure Painting
Flowers

Each section has 15 - 30 lessons, each of which is illustrated with color photographs and good text instruction, and often with a series of photographs to show how the artist progresses to achieve the desired effect.

This book shows there is a wide array of special techniques and effects that can be achieved in watercolor that you could never dream of in acrylic or even oil.