Archive for category Author: Joe Francis Dowden
Venice in Watercolour (Ready to Paint) || Joe Francis Dowden
Posted by henry in Author: Joe Francis Dowden, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Search Press, Series: Ready To Paint, Subject: Venice, Subject: Water on February 2, 2011
Whether to publish a series of books on painting in specific places has been the subject of often quite anguished discussions over the years. On the one hand, people go on holiday and the idea of a guide to where to look, what to paint and what materials to take looks like the proverbial no-brainer. On the other hand, books on painting on holiday sell like stale cakes.
So it’s quite amusing to find that the Ready to Paint series has developed a branch that takes this idea one step further, with its pre-printed tracings of classic subjects in a variety of cities. But then again, with all that done for you, do you really need to spring for the air ticket as well? The real purpose here, it seems to me, is that you can paint the Grand Canal at sunset in the comfort of your own living room, and get make a decent fist of it at the same time. I mean, what’s not to like? (That was a rhetorical question, please don’t write in.)
Watercolour Landscapes Tips & Techniques
Posted by henry in Author: Geoff Kersey, Author: Janet Whittle, Author: Joe Francis Dowden, Author: Richard Bolton, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Search Press, Series: Tips & Techniques, Subject: Landscape on November 10, 2009
This is another of Search Press’s bind-ups of several titles from the same series. Once again, if you haven’t already got most of the titles included, it’s very good value.
For the record, what you get is:
Painting Landscapes & Nature by Richard Bolton
Painting Skies by Geoff Kersey
Painting Water by Joe Francis Dowden
Painting Flowers & Plants by Janet Whittle
The Tips and Techniques series is aimed at artists who already have a little experience and features specific topics and subjects for them to develop their style and technique. There are step-by-step demonstrations as well as analyses of completed paintings and the whole is nicely balanced.
The Landscape Painter's Essential Handbook || Joe Francis Dowden
Posted by henry in Author: Joe Francis Dowden, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: David & Charles, Series: Essential Handbooks, Subject: Landscape on October 16, 2007
Joe Dowden is widely renowned as a teacher and demonstrator and his experience flows out of every page of this book. Subtitled “how to paint 50 beautiful landscapes in watercolour”, it’s a quick canter through just about every type of subject you could wish for. At this pace, there isn’t time to hang around for long and each one only gets a single double-page spread; if it’s a detailed, structured course you’re looking for, then this probably isn’t it. Nonetheless, Joe packs a lot into a small space and he is adept at picking on the key points, explaining and illustrating them clearly.
Joe’s work may not reek with originality, but there’s a comfort about it, a sense of place and of reality – you can believe that every one of these locations does actually exist – and that provides a painting that the viewer, too, can believe in. Painting is, as much as anything else, about presentation and Joe gets this right every time.
This is a book which is mostly going to appeal to those who have acquired some basic painting skills and are wanting to progress with landscapes and it offers quick results that can only help build confidence. Most people in this position are going to feel quite happy if they can paint like Joe (and this is not to put either them, or him, down); he has an achievable style that you feel you can work towards and, by not getting bogged down in detail, he’ll keep you with him all the way.
David & Charles 2007
£18.99
