Following in the footsteps of Watercolor: Simple, Fast, and
Focused is Mel Stabin's latest: The Figure in Watercolor:
Simple, Fast, and Focused. Capturing a figure's unique personality
and multifaceted quality in watercolor is challenging-but Stabin
demonstrates, step by step, how the new artist can capture the
figure by painting simply, directly, and with intense focus
on the "essence" of a person. Readers will discover
tested techniques and hands-on tips for painting portraits,
people in an environment, and groups of people, as well as for
painting people from photographs. They'll also find a treasury
of valuable advice on design, composition, shape, value, color,
and more!
Watercolor
Basics: People by Butch Kreiger – Paperback: 128
pages Publisher: North Light Books (November 2001)
Butch Krieger is a regular contributor to the "Drawing
Board" feature in The Artist's Magazine. In it,
he focuses on teaching the essentials of portrait and figure
drawing. Butch has also won many awards and his work appears
in Best of Portrait Painting. He lives in Port Angeles,
Washington.
This new title in the Watercolor Basics series provides artists
with all the step-by-step guidance they need to bring people
and portraits to life through the beauty of watercolor. From
achieving proper proportion to rendering skin tones, author
Butch Krieger makes mastering the basics—value, shape,
line and color—a snap. Seventeen complete demonstrations
and thirteen mini demos take readers through every step, everything
from selecting materials and mixing colors to creating effects.
Whether the reader is an absolute beginner striving to paint
people realistically, or a more advanced artist looking to improve
a specific technique, Watercolor Basics: People will
make a noticeable difference in the quality of their work.
Jan Kunz has written a thoughtful, well-organized, presentation
on how to paint watercolor portraits. Her realistic style of
painting still manages to be expressive due to her emphasis
on careful planning of how the image will be painted beforehand,
allowing the artist's brush to put in correct values and hues
with freedom and control at the same time. It's where I look
whenever I get in trouble painting a portrait.
Painting People by Burt Silverman
– Hardcover: 142 pages Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications
(1977)
Popular artist Al Stine shares his secrets and techniques for
creating portraits alive with emotion, expression and color.
In this book, Stine shows artists how to paint fresh and colorful
watercolor portraits that are as unique and alive as the subjects
themselves. 210 illustrations.
By simplifying its subject matter, this instructional book makes
the sophisticated genre of figure painting accessible even to
novice watercolorists.
This book explains how to draw human proportions for male, female,
adolescent, and infant bodies. Then various figure poses are
considered and how to show light and shadow falling on them
by sketching directly in watercolor. Specific instructions are
given for portraying gender, age, and realistic facial features,
along with tips for achieving a good likeness. The lessons include
painting studies of both clothed and nude figures, and exercises
for individual facial features.
Step-by-step demonstrations present innovative techniques that
combine the freshness and spontaneity of watercolor with the
control and textural richness of oil painting.
This instructional book approaches the figure organically, showing
readers how to observe its basic shapes and subtle nuances through
practical exercises and lessons in the art of seeing with a
painter's eye.
Step-by-step demonstrations in contour drawing teach how to
capture the overall essence of the human form, then lessons
in gesture drawing emphasize the body's linear rhythms in various
poses. Painting techniques progress from silhouette to three-dimensional
forms through clever uses of light, shadow, color, and value.
So much daily human activity longs to be captured by the artist's
brush--but to do so requires skills and techniques that stretch
beyond the traditional, studio-based approach to figure drawing.
Ballestar teaches watercolor artists a "Candid Brush"
approach to subjects engaged in the spontaneity of everyday
tasks. He shows how to capture attitudes, emotions and activities
of many subjects—a child playing in the street, a farmer
returning from work, a couple in the park. Readers are encouraged
to do quick, on the spot sketches and also to take photographs
of such events to take back to their studios for later development.
This guide also introduces the methods used by past masters
and top-ranking contemporary artists. Their brilliant sketches
of "unposed" figures, full of motion and informality,
are analyzed to reveal the artists' particular styles and techniques.
The publisher: Beginners will learn to make the most
of watercolor! Beginners will learn, from 11 outstanding artists,
how to take advantage of watercolor's special properties to
create realistic paintings of men, women and children of all
ages. Contains basic information about materials, color and
design as well as demonstrations that illustrate the figure-painting
process from head to toe.
Reader review: I have been reading and re-reading this
book since December 1997. I have always had the desire to paint
but never picked up a paintbrush because realistic painting
did not leave me inspired to follow. The painting style that
Alex Powers has in his work is what I have been searching for
all my life. In writing about his personal style he encourages
his readers to find their own style. I picked this book up several
different times over a two week period before I finally bought
it. I would love to attend a class that he teaches.
Mary Heussenstamm was born in 1930 in Southern California. After
becoming a registered nurse, she retired at age 59 to devote
herself fulltime to mastering the art of watercolor portraiture.
Entirely self-taught, even her earliest portraits revealed a
truly extraordinary gift. In 1994 she won the Artist of the
Year Award from the Pasadena Arts Council, and in that same
year the Pasadena Artist Alliance selected her as Artist-In-Residence
at Pasadena City College. Her first book, Multiethnic Watercolor
Portraits, sold out in less than 3 years.
** In order to ensure that A Stroke of Genius receives
credit for your order you will need to start your
shopping session from our book pages. Any qualifying item you place in your shopping
cart within 24
hours following your entry from A Stroke of Genius will be credited to us if the
purchase is made
within 90 days. Credit will not be given for items already in your cart from a previous
visit.
DISCLAIMER: There
are many books where Amazon does not have a cover image and we have searched
the web to find one. We have made every effort to accurately represent books and
their covers.
However, we are not responsible for any variations from the cover displayed.
Practical
Directions for Portrait Painting in Water Colours
The Figure in Watercolor: Simple, Fast, and Focused
Watercolor
Basics: People
Painting Watercolor Portraits That Glow
Painting People
Painting Watercolor Portraits
Painting
Figures and Portraits in Watercolor: Basic Techniques & Exercises
Portrait Painting in Watercolor
Painting
People (Watercolor for the Fun of It)
Breaking the Rules of Watercolor
The
Natural Way to Paint: Rendering the Figure in Watercolor Simply and Beautifully
Painting the Unposed Figure in Watercolor
Basic
People Painting: Techniques in Watercolor
Painting
People in Watercolor: A Design Approach
Watercolor Portraits Painted on the Streets of Los Angeles
Jan
Kunz Watercolor Techniques: Painting Children's Portraits (Workbook 2)
by Jan Kunz – Paperback, Publisher: North Light Books (September 1991)
