Plein Air Painting in Watercolor & Oil

Rating:
Summary: Splendid Guide
Review: Frank LaLumia has succeeded where many authors fail - providing excellent instruction in a concise manner. His own works are inspiring and his command of the various media is impressive, but his greatest strength is that he explains in a page or two concepts that other books mumble on about for entire chapters. I was delighted and inspired by this artist's stunning first book. Keep on writing, Mr. LaLumia!

Rating:
Summary: Splendid Guide
Review: Frank LaLumia has succeeded where many authors fail - providing excellent instruction in a concise manner. His own works are inspiring and his command of the various media is impressive, but his greatest strength is that he explains in a page or two concepts that other books mumble on about for entire chapters. I was delighted and inspired by this artist's stunning first book. Keep on writing, Mr. LaLumia!

Rating:
Summary: A practical guideline overall in plein-air painting.
Review: This book could have earned a 4.5 stars in my rating system. Overall, it is a practical guideline for beginning/intermediate painters who may have just started to paint out-of-doors. My review targets these groups of readers and their presumed interests in purchasing/reading this book.

Pros:

1) The book has VERY PRACTICAL sections on material, tools, gears, etc... to get you "out of the house" to go painting. The information is available for both watercolorists and "oilists" ("oil-ists", OK, so I made up this word!) I myself find these sections particularly clear and helpful, especially for those who have already invested quite a bit in the facility to paint in-doors, as spending more money in extra tools for painting out-of-doors might become a burden. The accurate information provided in the book is certainly a big help to readers.

2) The book is well-organized and easy to read. The author covers discussion on colors, composition, then moves on to demonstrating painting plein-air in watercolors and oils. Each demo is shown step-by-step with somewhat in-depth discussion on color choices and art maneuver in each step.

3) The book also covers other issues, such as the use of multiple photos to create a painting, conversion of oil to water colors and vice versa, the recreation of paintings in the studio based on small paintings done on location, painting from memory, etc.

4) As I mentioned above, the STRONGEST point of the book, in my opinion, is that it covers the very practical aspects of this genre, in order to prepare the readers to "get out and paint" and perhaps achieve certain progresses as starters. I also appreciate the efforts of the author in sharing with the readers some of his valuable tips in painting out-of-doors. For instance, to avoid distraction when painting during the winter, one thing to do is to keep your feet warm. The author provides some very simple and useful solution (no, it is not just wearing warm boots), which must have come from his years of painting out-of-doors. "What solution", you ask? Well, it is for me to know (since I read it), and for you to find out! (It is all in there.)

Cons:

These are not really "cons", but rather my opinions of things that may have made this book a "better" one (perhaps).

1) I myself find the demos are a bit wordy in explaining color choices in each step. I did find myself skipping pages when reading the book due to boredom. However, considering the fact that this is NOT the first art book I read, nor am I brand-new to oil painting, it could be a very personal thing. On the other hand, other intermediate/advanced oil painters may feel the same way I did.

2) I do not agree with other comments putting down other authors of plein-air painting in praising this book. Although I agree the author of this book has succeeded in making this book simple and easy to read, I do find some other titles did a rather good job in explaining concepts, principles, theories, and techniques in painting out-of-doors. As a matter of fact, I find in them (other books) certain depths which may be very valuable to advanced plein-air painters. To back my opinion, the author of this book himself recommends "you" (the readers) to resort to those books as well (in the cited references).