Yesterday I bought a Walter Foster book “Marine Life with Wyland” … in reading it, he paints using acrylics, not watercolors … BUT …. just because a book is about a specific medium such as acrylics, oils or watercolors does not mean it is written in stone that you can only use it for those particular painting mediums.
One thing in particular I like about this book are the insights into viewpoints (angles if you will) … anyone who loves seascapes, dolphins and whales and other sea life has probably seen his artwork from Fine art Prints to puzzles at the local toy store. His viewpoint in his paintings are always just a bit different form the expected … his above and below sea approach is quite extraordinary and quite well done - he is not just another marine painter but one of the best if not the best. Artists painting in every medium use viewpoints to highlight their focus and focal points … perspective and composition are two key components of any painting but I believe viewpoint is just as important if not more important for a successful painting.
Someone told me once that perspective includes using viewing angles … well … perhaps …. but usually it appears to me to be used for the background viewing angles of getting proportions rights to be realistic. Many of my seascapes without shoreline or coastline showing at the bottom really bothers some people .. I believe it makes them feel adrift in a moving sea far from the safety of land and being where the rules are just a bit different from their daily expected even keel horizon - they do not verbalize or even realize that that is why they either really like them or really dislike them.
My viewpoint for most of those is not straight dead ahead one-to-one eyeball to eyeball expected placement viewpoint in the foreground. I didn’t realize until reading this book that I have a tendency to paint the viewpoint a bit unexpectedly - it does make people notice and feel … 
… I give this book a 10 on a scale of 1-10 just as I do to Mr Wyland’s artwork - I love his paintings!
When planning / sketching / painting your watercolor paintings, think about changing the viewing angle from your normal to a bit above, below or to the side to bring in some unexpected viewing angles. A 2 ft child sees the world from a much different angle than a 6 ft adult … add a child’s view looking upwards or an adult’s looking downward - I don’t advise extremes unless it really fits into the scene but it will help you to gain new perspective in your work just to attempt it and watercolor is an easy medium to look for those angles if you use watercolor pencils to create a preliminary sketch. Think about being on a cliff above a meadow or seaside or at the bottom of a canyon perhaps looking up to the rim as well for those extremes.
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Watercolour Trees by Terry Harrison - ISBN # 1-84448-050-X
Trees are one of my favorite subjects to paint in the entire world. They have so much character, variety and down-to-earth roots while their branches blow (and bend) freely in the wind - whether it be a light summer breeze barely stirring the leaves or a full gale northerner shaking & shivering the forest with it’s gusto.
It is always nice to find another tree enthusiast - painter or not a painter - tree people are generally really terrificly nice people … I found this book at the local Hobby Lobby store and could not resist getting it for my art library. One reason I keep buying art books is that whenever I teach art classes or have art workshops, my books tend to leave with a student who needs it as a reference or inspiration to grow more in finding themselves as an artist or just to be inspired to get back to creating their art.
I read the book and I enjoyed it very much. He has some great ideas and tips for painting trees … though I am not sure that I agree about tree trunks needing to be shades of green … all the trees I’ve been intimately acquainted with in Iowa and Texas have had brown bark and limbs for the most part except for specialty trees like birches - my artistic license is to add oranges, blues and any other color that strikes my fancy at the moment whether it be browns based or not - today I was adding blue & orange and black to my brown watercolor pencil tree trunk while drawing & painting at lunch. And he really puts a credit card to good usage as a painting tool LOL … I don’t think it would work well for me with my vision problems - a light touch usually works better than too heavy handed or not even on the paper as I tend to be since I have no depth perception and cannot tell where I am in relation to the paper until after it is too late to change it - watercolors are not nearly as forgiving as oils for vision caused happy accidents.
You can tell by the spelling of watercolor that he is English - they spell it watercolour while we in the US spell it as watercolor. Spelling aside, he had good tips & tricks and very easy to read & understand for beginners but just as useful & interesting for intermediate to advanced or expert painters as well - I particularly like how he goes into detail about using masking fluid and how easy it is to color it to make it easier to see on white paper - he said it in an easy to understand and replicate manner which is something I really appreciate. He did not assume that I already knew what he was talking about (I didn’t since I don’t use masking fluid) but it did not come across as talking down to me either - informational and interesting was how all of the book came across to me. I enjoyed his writing and the demonstrations were very good.
Hope you enjoy the book. Paint lots of trees! Each one will teach you something new about trees, yourself and painting.
Tags: Barbara Burns, Palm Tree Ballet #1, Imagekind, Watercolour Trees by Terry Harrison, Watercolor Painting
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