Reddit mentions: The best landscape & seascape art

Reeves is crap paint. Try using it up as a paint you sketch with rather than finishing a whole piece with it. The reason why economy (or student) quality paints such as Reeves are not so great (even for beginners) is because if you try to do any sort of color mixing with them, you end up with mud. Reason why is because the pigment to medium ratio is poor (less pigment and more fillers/mediums in the tube than a more pricey brand). I teach art classes to beginners and I am now requiring that they purchase artist-grade acrylics, oils or watercolours for class. Here's a bit of a shopping list for you... obtain the following: Golden-brand paint in these colours: Hansa Yellow Opaque, Quinacridone Magenta, Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) or Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna, Zinc White and Titanium White. Also, pick up some Golden Acrylic Glazing Medium (Gloss) or Retarder Medium to mix into your colours instead of adding water. Adding water to acrylic polymer emulsion paints breaks down the paint, therefore resulting in a less saturated, washed-out or "dull" surface. You can mix water with watercolour paints, but try using acrylic mediums such as the glazing medium instead of water. The paints I mentioned and the medium will run you about $60-$70 depending on where you live (the stuff is cheaper in the USA). If you have any questions at all about art materials, please message me and I will answer your questions. I've worked in art supplies for a some years now and have extensive product knowledge about the stuff.

As far as composition goes, I get my students to use their own photographs only. The reason is because if you take photos off the net (even though you are giving your painting away this time around), the composition has already been solved for you, so you aren't learning much when it comes to that. Use your own photos and crop them using a viewfinder window to obtain a composition for your work. Oh, and also another good practice tip would be to sketch out at least 5-10 different compositions in thumbnail format in a sketchbook (using a pen or pencil or whatever you want). That way, you will have a nice little plan before starting on a canvas.

It is always best to draw or paint from life when you can, but when you can't get outdoors to paint, be sure to stick with your own photos (or composites even; you could do this in Photoshop and then print it out).

When mixing, do not use black. I say this because it is good to learn colour theory, and then make up your mind whether or not you'd like to use black to darken areas. Complimentaries create neutral grays, so for example: Red & Green, Blue & Orange, Yellow & Purple. Theoretically, you can mix equal parts of any two complimentaries and obtain black. Add white and you get grey. Zinc white is a good one to start with because Titanium White can be overpowering. Try mixing both whites together in order to create a "Mixing White" and then use that when tinting (tint = adding white to a color). Another little trick to obtain black (and subsequent grays) is to mix Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. You can mix Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna to create a warmer black/grey.

And now, for some books that you simply must purchase and read through! I'm real picky when it comes to good art instruction books... so here are my recommended selections :)

Color & Light by James Gurney

Landscape Painting by Mitchell Albala

Composing Pictures by Donald Graham (Disney's art instructor for many years)

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson - written in the 1920s, this is THE DEFINITIVE book on landscape painting. The man's writing is sharp, witty and to the point)

One more thing... failure and criticism from others (and yourself) are your friends. Failure will drive you to create better work, and criticism will help you know where you aren't doing so well. Praise is great, but it can be extremely dangerous because if too many people praise you and not many give suggestions then where are you at exactly? You won't know if you've made a mistake (especially if you are just starting out).

Quantity (and quality) are everything... paint paint paint! Paint one a week or even daily if you can! Create your next post on Reddit when you've completed 30 paintings. Seeing your progress would be nice. Start a blog to keep track of your progress. Also, try and enroll in a night class at your local art university/college. Take the basics like Life Drawing first.

Oh, and... paint for yourself, first and foremost. Do not give a shit about "is this going to sell?". Do not care. Just do it for yourself. And don't be afraid to create something out of your comfort zone (pure abstraction or something with shocking subject matter).

Good luck!

You shouldn't have any problem mixing brands - most are similarly formulated! Some brands like M Graham or Sennelier even have honey in them and can be used with other brands without problems.

This website explains how watercolors are made! If you look on the back of your paint tube (the WN cotmans will have this) you should see a few letters and numbers ie PB 29 - this is the pigment that is in tube (in this case ultramarine blue) and you will find that different companies W&N, M Graham, Daniel Smith, etc all have their own ultramarine blue but all of them are derived from the same pigment - PB 29. "Pure pigment" tubes will list just one pigment, but often companies will make colors that have multiple pigments - ie Payne's Grey is PBk9 and PB29.

Handprint.com is a great resource but a lot of reading, wetcanvas.com has a great watercolor forum and handbook with a wealth of information. A book that really helps me mix and understand color theory better is Making Color Sing by Jeanne Dobie.

LIST INCOMING:

I'm so in love with this range of books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Botanicum-Welcome-Museum-Kathy-Willis/dp/1783703946

I guess they're kids books but the illustrations are just beautiful and I actually got the postcard set for the botanical illustrations, and I'm going to have them framed for my house. I adore plant illustrations in this style.

Another one I love is: https://www.amazon.com/Resurrectionist-Lost-Work-Spencer-Black/dp/1594746168

The story is a bit average but the illustrations are so cool, I love anatomical illustrations and mythical beasts.

These two are also amazing: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Why-How-Illustrate-Mysteries/dp/1452108226 and https://www.amazon.com/Who-What-When-Illustrate-Sidekicks/dp/1452128278/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1452128278&pd_rd_r=RRYE5GWH9BWS2TPVV31X&pd_rd_w=K7qR6&pd_rd_wg=Mxunj&psc=1&refRID=RRYE5GWH9BWS2TPVV31X

I totally cried my eyes out over this one: https://www.amazon.com/Radioactive-Marie-Pierre-Curie-Fallout/dp/0061351326

And the illustrations are just so beautiful. Her story is just tragic and she was so brilliant.

If you wanna cry for a couple of years, this one: https://www.amazon.com/Laika-Nick-Abadzis/dp/1596431016

I guess not strictly about the science but there's a good amount of space related information and science tangential stuff, and its just such a beautiful book that I couldn't not recommend it. The final page is basically seared onto my memory forever :c

I'm utterly obsessed with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Sick-Rose-Disease-Medical-Illustration/dp/1938922409

ITS SO INTERESTING, its mostly medical diagrams and descriptions (I obviously have an aesthetic).

• Mastering Composition
  
• Composition
  
• Picture This
  
  I didn't see any sites that particularly stood out to me, but a lot had good info. Some are simple and some have complex geometric breakdowns. Find what you like and works for you. I personally don't like the complex geometry approach, I have a short attention span and I would never spend the time planning a piece to that point, especially when I can get the same look with a simpler approach. Rule of thirds is the rule I fall back on the most, it never steers me wrong. Based on the two images you posted you have good instincts, don't get overwhelmed by all the rules and theories about composition. In the end, do what you think looks best. The more pieces you create the more you will develop your eye. Also, it is great that you are open to constructive criticism, some artists get so butt hurt that they cannot learn anything.

No problem, glad you like it :D

Here are links to my two books. I currently have the prices discounted by 60% for both titles so you can get them for a pretty good price.

Mehndi Designs: Animals, Mandalas and Paisley Patterns

Sea Life: Stress Relieving Repeat Designs

Please leave positive feedback on Amazon if you like them :D Thanks!

This is a subject close to my heart... One can do such wonderful things with language, it's a waste to limit oneself to only a small subset of the words available. There are ways to speak and write interestingly without sounding like a pretentious ponce.

To echo some of the other advice here, READ - but pick something challenging that interests you, and read with a dictionary by your side. (You could write down the new words as you learn them, if you want to go all-out nerd...) Also, keep your dictionary near to where you usually read - if it's in bed, make sure you can reach it without much effort. Force yourself to look up words that you're not sure of instead of glossing over them.

I'm trying to think of examples that you could try for some vocabulary gymnastics: Nassim Taleb likes to show off his erudition, so I always learn something new from him. Fooled by Randomness is of fairly general interest.

I also sat with a dictionary when I read Civilizations and Millennium by Felipe Fernandez Armesto. Landscape and Memory by Simon Schama was also a challenging read.

I'm super excited for the book, so I'm going to share. Nathan Fowkes, renowned and amazing entertainment landscape artist (Puss in Boots, Sinbad, tons of Disney and DreamWorks, teacher at Schoolism), is releasing a book at the end of the month.

"How to Paint Landscapes Quickly and Beautifully'

conceptart.org has some good stuff, they make DVDs too. You could probably pirate them, were you a person of low moral fiber.

There are some good books out there too, which you can probably get from the local library. You might need to use interlibrary loan though, my local libraries have a poor selection of art books, but there isn't anything they haven't been able to find at another library.

Color in Contemporary Painting

The Art of Color

Mastering Composition

Abstraction in Art and Nature

The Art Spirit

Some people don't care about theory, but personally I find it inspiring. Art in Theory 1900-1990 is a good collection of writings by artists, critics, and the like. If you're weak on art history you might want to study some of that first, History of Modern Art is pretty good.

ROI

Thanks for the contest! It's a new years resolution of mine to finally make a commitment and try to teach myself how to paint. Fortunately I've gotten pretty good (well for someone with no art training so it only looks 'okay' if you are at a distance and squinting a bit) at mimicking Monet. This book seems really helpful and has five tutorials on how to paint different paintings.

I am interested in finding some books, i just read "the painterly approach" it was a random recommendation i stumbled on, but it was good to read something and some detailed and focused on a certain style

Maybe with luck! I struggle with an additional language barrier, since I'm in the Netherlands and most of these books have never been translated and published in Dutch. The odds of finding them in a local thrift shop are minute.

I love Linda Kemp, Nita Engle, David Bellamy and Claudia Nice.

My main tip for any book you encounter; if you don't like the style the instructing artist works in, leave it be. Pretty much every book repeats the basics, beyond maybe your first 1-2 books, every new book should be by an artist whose work is something you admire and has an aspect you want to emulate.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Books or video on composition? I can recommend two books:

I got this from the library and so far I’m enjoying it

Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to Dramatically Improve Your Painting (Mastering (North Light Books)) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1581809247/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_39W8Ab8K4X8ZF

This was my textbook for my color and composition class

The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten Based on His Book the Art of Color https://www.amazon.com/dp/0442240384/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_teX8AbVYTBXVT

kind of an anthological essay, not fiction, but it's a fun book and has a ton of pointers to other interesting reads: The Book of Legendary Lands by Umberto Eco.

I'm not against all books, I just think there are many out there that actually don't do much help at growing an artist.

I really enjoy this book because it's a great resource to see how this artist manipulates references in different styles

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Painting-Nature-Watercolor/dp/0823004996

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Center-Composition-Visual/dp/0520261267

and http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Composition-Techniques-Principles-Dramatically/dp/1581809247

While the latter is explicitly a painting instructional book IME that actually improves photography students' ability to see the forest and not just the trees.

Don't limit yourself to photography, there are many amazing painters. Thinking about it, maybe you should x-post to /r/art and similar subreddits.

In terms of books I've done a lot of research but found very little. A common recommendation for photographers is The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman which goes through all kind of lines, contrast, balance, etc. Other books I'm eyeing are Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts and Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre. Unfortunately I haven't read any of them yet so I can't comment on the quality.

If you are really serious about it, consider getting a list of most recommended art / photography universities. Then use their websites to find courses and contact teachers personally, asking for (book) recommendations. Begin with one person at each university if they happen to forward your message since you don't want to come across as spam. Some universities even publish course literature on their website. I'd love to hear the responses if you go through with it.

Don't read any of David Horotwitz's books—like Radicals: Portraits of a Destructive Passion—if you have a light stomach for left-wing corruption. The pool of radicals, communist holdovers, and identity politics militants in the mainstream of the Democratic Party and the political left is nothing short of terrifying.

Thomas Sowell's Dismantling America: and other controversial essays is another great starting point.

You might be interested in a book called A State of Change. A landscape artist painted a series of reconstructions of past California environments, with commentary. It's about as close as one can get to seeing the California that was with one's own eyes.

Non-mobile:

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