Books Reviews

Coastal Landscapes in Watercolour – Book Review

By Angela Youngman Aug 3, 2011, 16:27 GMT

With a thoughtful eye toward amateur artists and art students, this introduction to watercolor painting collects five dramatic ocean views that range from craggy cliffs and crashing waves to stirring waters of a tranquil bay. Employing a fresh, expressive voice, Tony Cowlishaw includes detailed, step-by-step descriptions and advice for each inspiring project. Every project in this guide includes pull-out tracing paper that easily transfers each seaside composition to watercolor paper using ...more

A good beginners guide to the subject, enabling total beginners to create a satisfying picture. The tracings allow accurate drawings to be created which are then filled in with watercolor paint according to the step by step instructions. 

What makes this book just that little bit more than painting by numbers is the help given with technique thus allowing the painter to improve their skills, adding atmosphere and drama to the painting. 

Details of how to create six very different types of coastal scenes are provided: saltmarsh, windmill, cliffs, stormy coast, Lindisfarne Castle and a scene showing a barge in a creek. 

Information is broken down into useable components, with plenty of good advice and help along the way.  Each step is accompanied by a photograph ensuring that you clearly see just what and how to do the next step.