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HOW DOES “NEW LESSONS” DIFFER FROM MY PREVIOUS LANDSCAPE BOOKS?
Compare topics covered in each book ››
WHAT’S NEW IN “NEW LESSONS”?
“New Lessons” builds on the success of the bestselling The Landscape Painter’s Workbook with new topics, exercises, and demonstrations that are not covered in either of my two previous books. Alongside inspiring contemporary artwork from today’s top landscape painters, this indispensable reference offers intermediate and advanced skill-building lessons that apply to both plein air and studio painting.
- 8 step-by-step, practical exercises, plus “Key-Concept” primers that explain the theory behind key lessons
- Full chapter on color temperature — learn how it can enhance every type of color interaction
- 3 new simplification exercises in the chapter “Seeing the Forest Through the Trees”
- Full chapter on compositional variation with the “Variation Through Abstract Notan” and “Variation in Representational Notan” exercises.
- Special section on edges — one of the most powerful tools to control focus and depth
- Full chapter on color dominance, a practical strategy for building color cohesion and mood
- Explore the keys to abstraction in the chapter “Cultivating an Abstract Aesthetic”
- The spatial properties of color, a rarely discussed topic that goes far beyond “cool colors recede and warm colors advance”
- Explore the special luminosity of the nocturne, and its palette
- Over 100 paintings from more than 50 of today’s most respected landscape artists working in oil, pastel, watercolor, and acrylic
LOOK INSIDE
From Chapter 5, “Color Dominance,” with works by the author (left) and Sandy Bricel Miller (right).
From Chapter 2, “The Spatial Stage,” with work by Tibor Nagy.
From Chapter 4, “The Power of Color Temperature,” with work by Barbara Jaenicke.
From Chapter 2, “The Power of Variation,” with photos and notan studies by the author.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: Seeing The Forest Through the Trees
The Poetry of Simplification
Shapes and Planes
Demonstration: The Art of Implication
Key Concept: Selecting Photo Reference
Exercise: 10 Shapes or Fewer
Exercise: Shape Combining
Demonstration: Simplifying with a 3-Value Study
CHAPTER 2: The Power of Variation
Key Concept: Aspects of Variation
Key Concept: Notan
Exercise: Variation through Abstract Notan
Exercise: Variation in Representational Notan
Demonstration: All Shapes, Great and Small
CHAPER 3: The Spatial Stage
Volume
Scale and Overlap
Perspective
Atmospheric
Linear
Tactile
The Power of Edges
Edge Variability
The Relativity of Edges
How Value and Color Contrasts Affect the Appearance of Edges
Edges: Creative Translation, Not Direct Transcription
Choose Your Edge—Hard versus Soft
Edges in Action
Edges, Lost and Found
The Spatial Properties of Color
Exercise: Perceiving the Illusion
Dimensional vs. Ambiguous Space
Demonstration: Spatial Repair - Before and After
CHPATER 4: The Power of Color Temperature
Understanding Temperature
Temperature: A Relative Affair
Temperature: A Global Form of Contrast
Temperature Differences, Great and Small
Temperature Analyses
The Temperature of Light
Exercise: Building Temperature Sensitivity
Key Concept: The Temperature-Driven Palette
Exercise: Temperature-Based Painting
CHPATER 5: Color Dominance
Key Concept: Color Grouping
Color Dominance Benefits
Demonstration: With and Without Color Dominance
Dominance Through Proportion
Dominance Through Hue Integration
In Practice: Snow Moon
Color Dominance in Action with Blair Brown and Albala
CHAPTER 6: Day and Night
Value and Color: The Twin Forces of Light
How Value Affects Hue Identity
Day
Leading with Value Contrast
Leading with Color Interaction
Saturated Color as a Substitute for Light
Balancing value and Color Contrasts
Daylight Painting Considerations
Night
Managing Value and Color Contrast in Nocturnal Light
Blue and Green Makes Night
Demonstration: Day Into Night
Nocturne Color Considerations
Between Day and Night
Twilight
Sunrise/Sunset
CHAPTER 7: Beyond Observational Color
Key Concept: Color Evolution
Direct Observation
Informed Modification
Interpretive Color
Exercise: Color Transposition
Beyond: En Plein Air with Signori and Raybould
Beyond: In the Studio with Erickson and Charles
CHAPTER 8: Cultivating an Abstract Aesthetic
What Makes a Painting Abstract?
Inducing abstraction
Ultra-Simplification
Gestural and/or Textural Mark-Making
Interpretive and Expressive Color
Abstraction and Vision
Demonstration: Representational to Semi-Abstract
Abstraction and Flatness
Abstracting in Series
In Practice: Mitchell Albala
In Practice: Vahe Yeremyan