Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson, Art Instruction
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Book Reviews of Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting
Book Review: Understand and Interpret the landscape
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is an in depth look at the landscape in terms of how to understand what you see and interpret it in paint.
I became aware of it when master portrait artist Allan Banks recommended the book to a convention full of portrait artists as a way to improve portraits. It was an intriguing recommendation and, it turns out, on the mark. You get a tremendous amount of information for your buck. Carlson's words hold true today as ever. As to the lack of color illustrations, I looked through my Richard Schmid and David A.Leffel books to see their paintings confirm Carlson's insights. In a sense it was refreshing not to be distracted from the content by beautiful illustrations. The writing style is indeed "quaint". Carlson generally says "man" when we would say "artist" today. With the original copyright in 1929, I think he is allowed. Sure brought back some memories...mailman instead of postal worker. His writing style incorporates complicated double negatives instead of the positive conversational tone we use today. I suggest you just smile and absorb his wisdom. If you are overwhelmed in your attempt to organize all the "stuff" out there in a landscape, this is the book for you.
Book Review: A book that explains WHY you paint values a certain way
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a novice pastel artist and particularly interested in painting landscapes. When I first got this book, I was disappointed and set it aside. All the pictures are in black & white -- not what I expected from a book about painting. But after my pastel teacher recommended it in class, I took a second look & read a few pages. This book is a real gem. I've been frustrated when instructors have told me to change something in my work, but not WHY I am changing it in a certain way. This book helped to answer a lot of my questions. The black & white illustrations are actually ideal, because they convey the information about correct values without the visual confusion of color. And I finally believe that you can use any colors you want if the values are correct. If you want to make your landscapes more believable, this book really helps. Now I have some concepts to give my landscapes depth and dimension. I think I might have avoided a fair amount of frustration if I'd found this book earlier. The language is a bit old fashioned, but it's a quick read and it contains immediately useful information. It may be too basic for some, but for beginning artists, it's wonderful.Book Review: PRICELESS INFORMATION!
Summary: 5 Stars
I BOUGHT THIS LITTLE GEM, ON THE RECOMMEDATION FROM MY LAST EN PLEIN AIRE INSTRUCTOR, KEN DeWAARD. HE HAS TAUGHT ME MORE, IN HIS WEEK WORKSHOP ABOUT PAINTING, THAN I HAVE LEARNED FROM ALL THE WORKSHOPS I HAVE TAKEN DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS. AND THE BASIS OF HIS TEACHING METHOD? HE WORKS TO PASS ON ONLY THE "PEARLS" OF WISDOM, LEARNED FROM MANY OF THE PAST MASTERS, WITHOUT CLUTTERING YOUR MIND WITH ALOT OF NOT-SO-RELEVENT INFO.
[HE TOLD ME THAT MOST OF HIS QUOTES COME DIRECTLY FROM CARLSON'S BOOK!]
....THE ENTIRE CLASS OF SEASONED ARTISTS CLAIMED THAT, BY THE LAST DAY, THEY HAD GROWN SO MUCH IN ABILITY AND UNDERSTANDING, THAT NO ONE WANTED THE CLASS TO END. SO, IF YOU ARE NEW AT ART, BUY THIS BOOK AND KEEP IT, UNTIL YOU HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE TO UNDERSTAND THE JEWEL THAT IT IS. .... ITS BITS OF ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, BUT ITS NOT A PICTURE BOOK..
ANYWAY, I'VE DONE COMMISSIONED PORTRAITS FOR 30 YEARS. AND YET, WITH THE COMPACTED INFO IN THIS BOOK, AND BY PAINTING THE NATURAL COLORS OF OUTDOORS, I AM FINALLY STARTING TO GROW AS AN ARTIST.
Book Review: Definitive
Summary: 5 Stars
You will learn more rereading this book than you will reading most others the first time through.
This book offers specific, well-explained examples of how and why landscape features appear, and how to render them on a canvas. Example, branches on the near side of a tree show their dark underside, while those on the far side of a tree show their light tops. Light will appear to wrap around a smaller tree's trunk, only larger trees will be truly dark.
Many books on painting offer vague generalizations and discussions, this book offers explicit instruction on every page. That said, Carlson does not offer you the "cheats" that so many books do, how to appear to render a complex subject in a few brushstrokes. This book is more for those who want to paint what they see, and as Carlson also explains, how to choose what to paint from what is seen.
Remember, a painter can capture anything he sees; a photographer can only capture what everyone sees.
Book Review: Must-have Book For Any Artist
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book based on other reviews... what a great purchase! As a teacher and artist this will be a vital book for me. This book is helpful to put vague, arty ideas (such as composition and handling of edges) into crystal clear language with visual examples. This is not a how-to multi-step book (yawn -- too many of those already!). Other reviews cite the text as a bit 'dated' for language (printed in the 50's) and only black-and-white illustrations, but that is of little concern. Color pictures are not needed to understand the ideas presented. I did not find the text too dated. This book contains ideas for beginners through advanced artists, although I think it will likely confuse the beginner who is just starting to paint. I'd still recommend getting this for the beginner however -- just know that you will only understand certain ideas as you practice painting.