Ray Campbell Smith's Way with Watercolor Book Review by ChristineMM
Title: Ray Campbell Smith's Way with Watercolor
Author: Ray Campbell Smith
Publication: David and Charles (UK), 1997
ISBN: 0715306480
My Star Rating: 5 stars out of 5 = I Love It
My Summary Statement: Focused on His Process – Analyzes 50 Landscape Paintings
I loved this book which is all about the creative process that Ray Campbell Smith uses to paint his watercolor landscapes. I would classify this book as a good read after you already are acquainted with the basics from reading some other book, such as Smith’s own book for beginners titled WATERCOLOR FOR ALL A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS AND IMPROVERS.
The format of this book is 50 final paintings are shows on a full page with the opposite page showing a sketch of the scene with text. The text describes the author’s vision, what he saw in real life, what inspired him, what he wanted to capture in a painting. He then tells the challenges of the site and what differences he chose to make to make the appealing scene adapted into a successful composition for the painting. (An appealing painting is not always a direct copy of the scene in real life.) There is a small box with one tip per two page spread that pops out at the reader too (helpful when skimming or going back over the book for a second skimming read).
This is not a step by step workshop book, it describes his process, yet sometimes there is so much information about the process that indeed you could replicate it on your own to try it out.
Interspersed inside the text are practical tips so reading the book cover to cover and really reading every single page is worthwhile. Some examples are the Mediterranean’s hot sun bleaches buildings out so you have to look closely for shade variation, and simplify buildings at the shore because there is sometimes just too much detail to paint with his style and en plein air, and saying to have shadow sometimes reflect warm tones not always reflecting cool tones, and to look for color in half shadows, all to give a pleasing and warm tone to the painting.
The chapters are arranged by subject matter such as seashore and harbor side, mountain scenes, and so forth.
Smith highly recommends using sketches to work out the design, taking time to plan. Do not work and experiment on the paper as it can make a painting overworked or ruin the color, or make it muddy. Work out the challenges in the sketches then do the painting quickly. He loves en plein air painting and recommends using lively strokes and washes with clean water to keep the colors bright and to let the brightness of the paper shine through the paint.
Regarding the color palette used Smith uses a surprisingly small number of paints and custom mixes them for his paintings. For each painting he lists the paper and the brushes used is also included for each painting.
I love Ray Campbell Smith’s landscape paintings and his choice of color palette. These are similar to the paintings I am trying to teach myself to make. I also love books about the process and getting inside the artist’s head to see what they were thinking and what made them choose to do what they did. Therefore this is a 5 star rating for me, I loved it.
(After I finished this book I found the other more general book for beginners at the library and went on to read that. I am a beginner watercolor painter and am teaching myself through reading books and my own trial and error.)
If you like the artwork of Ray Campbell Smith and if you are a beginner or intermediate painter this book is for you.
Disclosure: I read a library copy of this book. For my blog's full disclosure statement see the link near the top of my blog's sidebar.