Creating Impressionist Landscapes in Oil

By Colley Whisson

Book Overview

Nature, the most popular source of inspiration for oil painters, has the amazing ability to evoke feelings of tranquility and peace. Colley Whisson shows readers how to idealize and romanticise... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1929834101
• ISBN13: 9781929834105
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Intl Artist Pub Inc
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.3" x 0.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book

This is an excellent book that clearly reveals the secrets to impressionist painting. First, Colley Whisson's paintings are beautifully painted and printed in this book. Second, he covers how the Impressionists handled composition, brushwork, color, color temperature, value, and subject matter, etc. Every principle is explained in writing and shown in a step by step demonstration. Following Whisson's approach can teach you to paint in the impressionistic style. Excellent book to have in your art library.

it teaches you to paint

I really like this book because it is teaching you how to paint impressionist style. It shows how you can any photo turn in to masterpiece of your own and not how to make a copy. Yes, It's not step by step how to book for absolute beginners and those who want an instant results without working on it...like painting by numbers. You have to know your colors and how to hold a brush and what are you doing on the canvas.. There are no miracles, you have to work on your painting to be good and practice a lot. Wihout no masterpice...:-) I will recomend this book for people who ready to do that..

Sound Advice for Aspiring Painters

The visual demonstrations are certainly helpful but Colley'stechniques are not fast tricks and gimmicks.He emphasizes the importance of good draftsmanship (drawing)in his art. A whole section is devoted to showing therelationship between preliminary sketches/drawings and thefinished painting in his work as well as in the work ofMonet and other Impressionists.He encourages the reader to practice drawing as much aspossible in order to grow as a painter. I admire Whisson's compositional skills, taste, and artisticintegrity.

Wonderful En Plein Air Painting

If you are looking for techniques to learn how to paint en plein air, this book is a valuable find. Colley is able to capture the envelope of light that Monet and others sought by employing his bravado brushwork and traditional training. The photos of his paintings draw you in. One can actually feel the raking sun and smell the fresh air. However, Colley's technique is NOT Impressionism, it is Contemporary Realism. Impressionism is about learning to see color, color that other people cannot see unless they are trained to see it. It is known as full-color seeing (check out the books by Lois Griffel and Susan Sarback to learn how to see color). Colley's emphasis is more on value than color. Also, he uses large brushstrokes and completes his paintings in one session (or almost). Most of the French Impressionists worked on their paintings many, many sessions, building up thick layers of paint (Renoir was an exception to this in his iridescent period; he used thin transparent color juxtaposed with thick opaque dabs). I am not saying that one has to place little touches of color all over the place to be an Impressionist nor does one have to work on a painting more than one session. There is a great deal of freedom to develop one's own style. I am just saying that the emphasis in true Impressionism is on "observed" color. Whether you are a beginner or an accomplished artist, I am sure that you will love everything this book has to offer. Colley is a brilliant painter!

Excellent Impressionistic Instructions for A Beginner

Due to the author's great and simple instructions and step-by-step demonstrations, I was able to come out with two Impressionistic paintings from reading this book. For someone who is impatient, the author has kept in mind to keep the instructions more visual than verbal. I recommend this book immensely to other oil painting beginners who wish to make their own French Impressionist masterpieces. I hope Whisson will delve into other styles of oil painting because he has a winner in this book.