Watercolour Nature Unleashed || Jane Betteridge

This is a revised and updated edition of Jane’s Dynamic Watercolours, which appeared in 2019. The blurbs adds that, as well as being revised, the book is “revitalised” although, as I don’t have access to the original, I can’t say what that entails. You can read the original review here.

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The Unstoppable Artist || Barbara L McCulloch

The premise behind this is that you can make your art attractive and irresistible to viewers. The words “spiritual” and “empower” appear in the cover blurb.

It’s fair to assume, therefore, that this is a journey through the mind as much as a lesson in practical art. Get in touch with your inner self, discover your creative spirit and then channel it into projects that express what we might refer to as your inner soul. Yes, it’s very New Age and, honestly, something I struggle with. The opening section, for example, is mostly words and, if this fails to connect, you’d probably give up. That’s fair enough – not everything is for everyone, but you might think differently and that this is the best and most empowering thing you’ve read. If so, Barbara certainly has much to tell you.

The second half of the book is devoted to the projects the first half promised and this is where things get practical. It is also, unfortunately, where the book gets hard to use. There’s nothing wrong with the instruction, which is clear and well laid out, but there is a lack of breaks in the design to indicate where one section ends and the next begins. That may be the idea – that this is a journey that extends out in front of you in a continuous thread, but I think the general reader, used to more conventional layouts, will have trouble following. I’m also a bit concerned by the colour reproduction, which looks out of balance – if these are the irresistible creations the blurb promises, something has gone wrong, maybe with the magenta. Where the balances are right, you can see that Barbara is actually a very capable artist and her line work in a variety of drawing media is superb.

All-in-all, I feel a bit underwhelmed, but that this has considerable promise that’s let down by the lack of a designer and by the method of reproduction. For once, though, in a book that has a self-published feel, I don’t so much get the sense of the lack of an editor.

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Chinese Brush Painting Through The Seasons

It’s been a long time since there was a book on Chinese painting, but they were once all the rage. This one has been worth the wait and is about as authentic as you can get, being adapted from a series of Chinese originals.

For all that, the approach is accessible for the Western reader and, although the introduction to materials contains some terms that may not be familiar, more obtainable alternatives are suggested. Interestingly, where colour is used, the authors prefer gouache as being more like the heavier pigment used in China itself. Previous, more Western-based books have used transparent watercolour.

The book consists of a series of simple demonstrations and, of course, simplification is very much to the fore. As a result, although each project is covered in no more than three or four pages, there is no sense of foreshortening and the number of steps is perfectly adequate. Chinese art involves working quickly and there simply isn’t that much to do – there’s no room for fiddling when you’re contending with a large, soft brush.

This is a welcome return to the world of Chinese painting which, even if you don’t want to pursue it in much depth, offers palate-cleansing simplification that can only refresh your own work.

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Charles Evans’ Watercolour Rescue

The history of art publishing is littered with hints and tips books, Q&A guides and troubleshooters. This is not dissimilar to all those approaches, but comes with a reassuring title and the provenance of a popular and established tutor. Charles’ reputation rightly precedes him.

The first thing to say is that this is much more than just a lazy rehash of what has been done before, which my earlier description might have suggested. The implication in the title that things can and do go wrong is an honest one and we’re starting from a point which doesn’t pretend the opposite. What really marks the book out as different, though, is that the “mistakes” aren’t just cartoon versions painted deliberately badly to make a point. In fact, just glancing through, you might wonder what exactly the problem is. This is because not everything is wrong at once. That inharmonious landscape looks relatively acceptable until Charles points out that the blue used for the water is too deep. The revised version, using slightly less pigment is better, but not the game changer you’ll usually find in this kind of book.

There are 75 suggestions in this pocket-sized book, which has a nicely soft cover that makes reading without breaking the spine easy. None occupies more than 4 pages, and frequently less. It’s succinct – identify, analyse, get out. Where the sections are longer, a little more work is required and there may be half a dozen or so stages. For the most part, it’s a simple fix, largely because the error (if we can call it that) is relatively minor.

You could, I suppose, pack this with your painting kit and take it on location with you. Whether you really pull out a portable library on your travels, I doubt. I think the best approach would be to keep it by your chair or bed and dip into it. You’ll have plenty of “oh, that’s where I’m going wrong” moments and simply not make that mistake again. You might even get some ideas for new approaches as well. It’s fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

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Watercolour: the natural world || Tim Pond

An artist’s second book can be a challenge. Quite often, they’ve said as much as they can already and, if the subject is predominantly the same, finding a different approach that doesn’t simply repeat what’s gone before can be tricky. In his previous book, Tim pretty much wrote the definitive guide to animal drawing. True, we have a change of medium here, but the style is the broadly the same and The Field Guide to Drawing and Sketching Animals certainly didn’t lack colour.

So, Tim had a hard act to follow and quite a mountain to climb. It’s therefore a pleasure to say that, in terms of absolute triumph, Tim has scored again. A change of publisher has certainly helped, because of the shift of editorial and design priorities that brings. There is a further change of emphasis in the arrangement of the book, which is now both by season and habitat. The way books are ordered is sometimes a conceit, just a way of putting one thing after another, but this makes complete sense as you get those creatures you’re likely to find together all in the same place and also relates fur, plumage and behaviour to the time of year. It’s also noticeable that there’s a lot less anatomy in this book than there was in the previous one. It’s not lacking completely, and there when you need it but, if you want lessons on structure, see previous.

This is also, as the title implies, not just a book about animals and, when ordering by habitat, Tim also includes lessons on related matters such as deciduous trees, rainforests and savannahs. He even takes time out to explain why leaves turn brown in Autumn; it’s not essential, but piques the interest and improves your overall understanding and immersion in the subject.

The studies, lessons, exercises and demonstrations mostly occupy no more than a couple of pages, thoughtfully arranged as a spread so that you can see everything at once. Tim’s style is at once precise and yet also slightly impressionistic – he doesn’t get every detail of hair or feather with a quadruple-nought brush. The result is creatures and their surroundings that have a sense of life and potential movement that should appeal to the artist rather than the zoologist.

This is a remarkably thorough and enjoyable book that will have instant appeal to any wildlife artist, but also instruct those for whom the subject is perhaps more peripheral. To do this twice in two books is no small achievement.

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The Watercolour Companion || Matthew Palmer

There’s something about this little book that you instinctively want to like. It just feels right the moment you pick it up and this is not accidental, but rather a perfect meeting of author, editor, design and production.

Content-wise, it falls into the basic hints and tips category, but covers a very broad range of watercolour techniques and subjects, arranged as a reference that you can call on for help or inspiration, or just dip into in quiet moments to spark your own thoughts and ideas. It would have been easy to make the result a lot bigger, with more examples and variations, but this is a vade mecum, something to be carried with you out in the field. It’s small enough to fit into a pocket, slim enough not to make an inconvenient bulge or weigh you down on one side and even has an elastic closure so that it doesn’t flap about awkwardly. All of these things could be tropes or gimmicks, but they serve an obvious purpose and add to the general appeal. The binding is also sewn – something of a luxury these days, which means that the pages fall open without having to be coerced, making one-handed use perfectly feasible. There’s even a handy viewfinder in a pocket at the back. I’m not even sure that all this adds significantly to the price, which is just under a tenner. That’s not bad these days.

Matthew is an excellent explainer and he covers an awful lot of ground in a very small space – which, of course, also leaves no room for over-working, either of examples or writing. Coverage includes colour, brushwork, choice of subject, skies, light, flowers, trees, buildings, water, people and special effects. Although there’s no index, each section is concise and the contents page allows you to navigate quickly.

Will you really drop what you’re doing and look a technique up in the middle of furious creativity? Only you can decide. I think you’re more likely to dip into it as I suggested, possibly just before turning the light out at bedtime. Who knows, you may wake up with the perfect image in your head and know instinctively how to achieve it.

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The Kew Book of Botanical Illustration || Christabel King

This thoroughly worthwhile guide has been reissued in paperback. You can read my original review here.

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Simply Paint Flowers || Becky Amelia

This is one to file under Decorative Arts, projects for the beginner or part-time painter. That’s not to belittle it, but it’s not a guide to flower painting for the more serious watercolourist and, to be completely fair to it, neither does it aspire to be.

Having got that out of the way, what it does give is a simple and simplified set of ideas for floral designs in both watercolour and gouache. The emphasis is on shape and colour and it comes as absolutely no surprise that Becky is an illustrator. Although the author biography doesn’t mention graphic design, this is very much her approach. The book revolves around a series of projects that use a simple set of colours (selected for each project) and designs. The images are compact and could easily be reproduced and set to repeat for wallpaper or other coverings.

No, this isn’t flower painting as depiction of flowers, it’s flower painting as floral design and it’s well done and simply presented. Even the more serious flower painter could probably get a few ideas.

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Ready to Paint with Terry Harrison

Terry Harrison was one of the best teachers and writers about art and his death in 2017 was a great loss.

This omnibus brings together 15 of his demonstrations from the excellent and ever-popular Ready to Paint series. If you’re a fan, you probably have them already. If not, this modestly priced volume will give you an excellent introduction to fields, woodlands, wider landscapes, buildings and seascapes. Full-size outlines are provided for you to trace down onto your own paper and they can be re-used as often as you want.

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Hazel Soan’s Art of the Limited Palette

Most watercolour books will have a section on working with a limited palette and there have been previous volumes on the subject. Those, however, have tended to base themselves on the author’s specific and unvaried selection. Yes, you could probably buy a set of them – how convenient.

I have never seen a Hazel Soan branded product and I doubt I ever will. This is not a book about what you should do half so much as what you can do. The difference is both subtle and vast and anyone who’s familiar with Hazel’s work will understand immediately. She’s an artist and writer who leads by example, inspires and gently guides and this is what has won her so many fans.

The paintings here are mostly done with between three and five colours, but they’re not prescriptive and Hazel varies them depending on the subject, so you might get the unsurprising Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre and Permanent Rose where a blue shirt is the key hue in a simple composition. Then, a few pages later, you’re working on a summer landscape with Aureolin, Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson. The point being eloquently made is that it’s the subject that guides you, not the paintbox. These are pictures, not technical exercises.

Even more interesting are the sections where we’re down to just two colours. These are not clever tricks, but rather a way of achieving a particular result in a particular part of the work. You’ll be aware, for example, of how good Hazel is with shadows and reflections. So you’ll find yourself making a pre-mix of two greys, one red- and the other blue-shifted. Yes, there are five colours involved here, but they come down to two and depict those shadows and reflections in a rain-soaked street scene perfectly.

As much as anything else, this is a book about thinking about colour. The limited palette forces you to avoid the tendency to reach for yet another shade from the dozens you have in your box (yes you do). Hazel begins with some studies that look at how different combinations enhance and set each other off – blues and yellows (obviously), but also yellows and reds, reds and blues. She also explains, with well-chosen examples that make the message abundantly clear, how to make secondary colours quickly and easily. There’s a look at the earth colours as well as the use of both related and opposing shades.

There’s so much here that this becomes one of the most comprehensive studies of and guides to colour there is.

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