Archive for category Medium: Gouache
The Explorer’s Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures || Emily Fiegenschuh
Posted by henry in Author: Emily Fiegenschuh, Medium: Gouache, Publisher: David & Charles, Publisher: Impact Books, Subject: Fantasy art on November 8, 2011
Even if you don’t want to paint dragons, chimeras or a marsh nymph, the clear instructions and block diagrams here actually give rather a good grounding in animal drawing. You need to ignore or adapt the odd tail and maybe tone down some of the fins, but there’s no doubting that this is well done and achieves what it sets out to do.
Actually, a lot of fantasy and manga guides seem to be well-produced and I wonder whether it has something to do with the fact that their artists have to think more about their subjects. Interesting. General authors should take note.
The Human Form || Giovanni Civardi
Posted by henry in Author: Giovanni Civardi, Medium: Coloured Pencil, Medium: Drawing, Medium: Gouache, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Search Press, Subject: Figure on February 2, 2011
As life drawing books go, you won’t get many that are better than the ones written by Giovanni Civardi. He has a pleasantly straightforward style and simple explanations that are hard to beat.
In spite of his having written many books, this is a new one rather than a reissue and it’s also nice to report that his style seems to have lost that slightly old-fashioned tinge it once had. The other innovation is the introduction of colour. As well as the drawings, which are in the majority, there are also illustrations in watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil which include useful hints on getting skin tones right.
The only thing you might want to note is that there are a lot more female than male studies here so, if you’re looking for the latter, you might feel a bit let down. If not, it’s superb.
Abstract & Colour Techniques In Painting || Claire Harrigan
Posted by henry in Author: Claire Harrigan, Medium: Acrylic, Medium: Collage, Medium: Gouache, Medium: Oil, Medium: Pastel, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Batsford, Subject: Abstract, Subject: Techniques on August 7, 2007
Coming after Laura Reiter’s excellent introduction to the techniques and working methods of abstract painting, this book takes the study on several further stages.
There is, or has been, a tendency to view the abstract as simply a few daubs that can mean pretty much anything the artist (and that word can become controversial in this context!) says it means. Taken to its extreme this might be true, if the dictionary definition of abstract as the essence of a subject drawn out and abstracted from it is taken to its logical conclusion. However, it is perfectly possible to keep one’s feet fairly firmly planted in reality and to maintain a recognisable representation of a subject while, at the same time, recording only those parts of it that seem most important to the painter.
Done in this way, abstraction becomes about seeing rather than being about technique. Indeed, Claire’s working methods, the way she applies paint and uses colour, are really no different to those of a more conventional style. The book even includes well written and well illustrated sections on structure and composition which have a relevance that go beyond the immediate topic.
All in all, this is a worthy addition to the growing canon of books on non-representational painting. Claire will show you how to see and visualise your subject just as much as how to capture that vision on paper or canvas. And, yes, she does also have a look at works where the original subject as all but been sublimated out of existence.
Batsford 2007
£18.99
Colour Mixing Index || Julie Collins
Posted by henry in Author: Julie Collins, Medium: Acrylic, Medium: Gouache, Medium: Ink, Medium: Oil, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: David & Charles, Series: Index, Subject: Colour Mixing on August 7, 2007
Everything about this book is right: the size, the coverage, the format, what it doesn’t include and even the flexible covers that allow you to flick through it easily yet are more than a paperback so that it doesn’t get dog-eared.
Do you need it? Well, only you can tell. If colour mixing comes naturally to you, if you can look at a cloud and say, “oh yes, Payne’s Grey with Alizarin Crimson and just a touch of Cadmium Yellow Deep”, then you’re unlikely to want a guide to colour mixing. If, on the other hand, that last statement brings you out in a cold sweat, then you’re one of the legions who struggle and whose existence is hinted at by the plethora of guides that are already on the market.
OK, so this is just another one? Well, yes, but someone has taken the trouble to look at the competition and come up with something different. First up, this little book (it’s jacket pocket size, but fat at 320 pages) doesn’t attempt to teach you how to paint. There’s 10 pages at the beginning on the basics of mixing colours and then it’s nothing but colour swatches, arranged by medium, base colour and tint. It’s not a book to sit down and read, it’s one to flick through (this is where the clever production design comes in), find what you want and look up the constituent parts. It’s small enough to take with you in the field, so you don’t ever need to be without it and it covers watercolour, oils, acrylic, gouache and ink – the only book of this type to include that last one, as far as I’m aware.
The only thing you might need to be aware of it before you shell out is that the colour names are from the Winsor & Newton range. This necessarily narrows its appeal if you don’t use their paints, but it does mean you get specific recommendations rather than generic names you then have to translate. You can’t have everything, I suppose. That small caveat aside, this is a book worth buying if you have the slightest trouble with colour mixing and even if you have other guides already. It feels nice in the hand which is a better quality in a book than is often credited.
David & Charles 2007
£14.99
