Solving the Mystery of Watercolor

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful bold and loose style.
Review: David Taylor's watercolor style is beautifully bold and loose. Ron Ranson has done a good production with this book, the illustrations are beautiful and many of them are really breathtaking. Taylor captures accurately the mood of the chosen subjects even with great economy of brushstrokes. The chapter of composition/design is the best depicted, with clear explanations and examples, however other sections are written with a lesser tutorial style. My main remark on this book is about a careless (intentional?) treatment of two illustrations: Page 26 shows a plate that is repeated with a different title on page 32 (there are some differences in color saturation and contrast that suggest digital manipulation). Illustrations on pages 117 and 127 are dealt in the same manner. Besides, the illustration of the dustjacket is not included inside the book. Nevertheless, this is one of the best books on watercolor that have been issued lately and we have had the chance to appreciate the artwork of this excellent Australian artist.

Rating:
Summary: Simply a great book
Review: David Taylors Artwork and Ron Ransons commentary combine to produce an outstanding work on watercolour painting. David has the ability to simplify the most complex scene into a magical piece of artwork: displaying bold brush strokes with the ability to get it right first time; His use of positive and negative space is brilliant, clearly showing an understanding of watercolour and how to bring out the very essence of his chosen subjects so beautifully.
I found the book inspiring me to greater achievement in my own painting and continually enjoy Ron's script its humour and the simple way he points the way, teaching through Davids work.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in watercolour, it teaches so much about the medium - it truly does go a long long way to solving the mystery of watercolour in a most enjoyable way.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Magical Book On Watercolour
Review: David Taylors Artwork and Ron Ransons commentary combine to produce an outstanding work on watercolour painting. David has the ability to simplify the most complex scene into a magical piece of artwork: displaying bold brush strokes with the ability to get it right first time; His use of positive and negative space is brilliant, clearly showing an understanding of watercolour and how to bring out the very essence of his chosen subjects so beautifully.
I found the book inspiring me to greater achievement in my own painting and continually enjoy Ron's script its humour and the simple way he points the way, teaching through Davids work.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in watercolour, it teaches so much about the medium - it truly does go a long long way to solving the mystery of watercolour in a most enjoyable way.

Rating:
Summary: Simply a great book
Review: In terms of painting style Taylor brings together the best elements of several artists to produce a classic impressionistic fresh watercolor style. The instructional material by Ron Ransom is extremely helpful. It even has a couple of pages in how to depict traffic in cityscapes! I also love Taylor's sensible 15 color palette (not too large, not to restricted) and how he employs it. No tricks--no pouring, salt, collage, stamping--just great loose on site plein air brushwork from a master. Somewhat similar in style to Mel Stabin or John Yardley.