Bryan Thatcher's Wet-into-Wet (re-issue)

Jun 06

I am not a watercolorist and have not tried this technique before so was naturally curious - would I find it slanted towards me as a beginner, or not? Blending one color into another is something I like doing when working on the computer, so I got out the art materials.

This is easier than I thought. It is interesting how the writers of these books always urge you to buy the best; buy something reasonable and have a go, see if you like doing it and then consider investigating more is my own advice to budding artists reading this review. I was impressed by the section on colors, and it was interesting and very informative to learn what colors the author uses and why (why being the most telling part). Mixing them using the wet-into-wet technique is another topic covered, complete with lots of samples and comments. This ought to get the reader working, and I do love the way these books have these staged examples to work through.

This is the perfect way of finding out how the technique works, and is rather like being at a class, only a lot cheaper and you don't have to wait your turn with the teacher. These are all landscapes of one form or another, some with figures (simple, sketchy ones) and some of nature, others of buildings. A good introduction to the method for anybody used to the medium of watercolors, but not familiar with wet-into-wet.

Jun 06

Search Press have pretty much perfected the art of the short art book. They're not alone in producing competitively-priced 48 and 64 page paperbacks, but they avoid the cardinal traps of being either too trivial or too ambitious.

A bit like the time-limited painting, the short book concentrates the mind (or at least, it should). There's no room for grand gestures or tours of fantastic writing. Say what you have to say, leave plenty of room for the illustrations and get on with it. The result isn't going to be a definitive work that will have the professional artist absorbed for hours, but what you can produce is a straightforward beginner's guide to single topics which, when they appear as a chapter in a larger work, often get lost.

Wet-in-Wet is, of course, the king of watercolour techniques, the one that no other medium can emulate and, as such, much larger books can be, indeed have been, devoted to it. However, for the beginner wanting to get a grip on the basics, this little book (originally published in 1995) will do just nicely.

Although he has a tendency to be formulaic in his technique, Bryan Thatcher nevertheless gives you reproducible results. Follow his demonstrations and you will, yourself, produce paintings which do what you want them to do. Go on doing that and you won't progress, but the purpose of this book is to set you on the road and it does that very successfully. By their very nature, Bryan's paintings are distillations which represent typical, rather than necessarily real, scenes.

In the short space he has, Bryan manages to cover landscapes, skies, people, trees and boats and to paint demonstrations which do adequate justice to the wet-in-wet technique and show how it's done and how it's used.

Nov 06

I have dabbled with wet into wet watercolour techniques in the past so I wondered what to expect from this book. To my delight this refreshed my memory on the past techniques I had learnt and then took me into wonderful projects suitable for the more advanced. With whole sections dedicated to painting trees, figures, boats and skies there is no topic left uncovered in this book. Each step is so clearly described my Michael Sanders it makes it a pleasure following each project. I have completed one of the projects in this book and was amazed with the results so I can't wait to get started on some of the other projects featured in this book. What more can you ask from a book, clear explanations of each technique, advice on mixing colours and stunning projects. Certainly a book I will be recommending!