How to Paint Landscapes Quickly and Beautifully in Watercolor and Gouache

I ordered it, read it, and loved it. This book is everything I look for in an art book: it gives attention to both operation (technique) and concept (big picture), provides step-by-step demonstrations, and includes a voluminous gallery of the author’s work. Fowkes masterfully narrates both what he is doing and why he is doing it, avoiding the common imbalance of leaning too heavily on technique. A central principle is that the "simple statement" is the primary organizing hub for all artistic decisions. He connects this core concept to practical operation, using a deductive method: explaining the concept, articulating how to achieve it, and providing an illustrative example. Fowkes is encouraging, never patronizing, and gets straight to the point. His tone expresses confidence in the reader's ability, creating excitement to try his approach. Nearly half the volume is a gallery of his paintings. Labeled as "sketches," these are substantial works of art that prove he practices what he preaches. On a scale of 0 to 10, I conservatively give How to Paint Landscapes an 11. It is thoughtful, focused, and beautiful, making it a a solid purchase for anyone serious about landscape and plein air art.

This book is not for beginners; however its clear and concise instruction is perfect for intermediate to advanced painters. This is neither a watercolor book, nor a gouache book: the book is about combining watercolor with gouache, and the wonderful effects you can get with that combination. It is filled with very generous, practical down to earth advice for both plein aire --how to travel light and work fast-- and in studio working from photos. All its photos are in color, which makes the instruction part of book beautiful in and of itself. The second part includes a gorgeous color portfolio of his artwork which is very inspiring for all levels of artists. (Reviewed by Theresa Taylor Bayer)

I've taken Nathan Fowkes' courses on Schoolism a few times. His video courses are rich with content and it's a lot to absorb, so I go back to it to learn even more. When I saw this book, I knew it would be as rich and helpful as his Schoolism courses. And it has lived up to and beyond my expectations. I'm so glad to have a book to refer to when I need a refresher. The book has so many demonstrations that he masterfully dissects for the book. It's absolutely filled with color and images, and the text really gets to the point. This is important for visual learners, as most artists tend to be. He seamlessly integrates the painting process with concepts of color theory and composition, which I appreciate because many books describe such concepts in isolation from one another and from the context of actually painting while making such decisions in the field. Leaning from an artist like Nathan Fowkes is a true privilege because he is the rare artist who is at once a true master and an adept teacher. Highly recommended!

I'm trained as an oil painter, but am new to watercolor. While this book offers some good tips, I'm on about page 70 & am wondering several things: why use red prismacolor underneath instead of graphite? Is the paint left to dry between layers? If so, which ones? All of them? Maybe just for certain effects? Text really seems to gloss over alot of the technique that has gone into these sketches. How thick is the paint consistency for most of these? Runny, yogurt like, straight out of the tube, etc.? Maybe varies between those layers that may or may not be dry. . . What I am enjoying is how simplified many of these images are, and they are still so beautiful! Vibrant color and atmosphere in every one!

I pre-ordered this book so long ago that I forgot I had done that, so when it finally arrived it was like a nice little surprise present to myself! It is a gorgeous book, absolute eye candy and excellent instruction in the author's approach to painting scenes in watercolor/gouache by making a simple statement and using color and value simply and effectively. If you've taken the author's "Landscapes in Watercolor and Gouache" course on the Schoolism site, you will be familiar with many of the images and process steps shown for them in this book. I have gone through that course twice, so for me, this book is a VERY useful and very welcome companion guide. But there is additional content as well. The book is just plain gorgeous to look at: many large, beautiful images of finished paintings and works in progress. Nathan is a great teacher, which comes through both in his videos and in this book. His instruction has had a positive influence on my own sketching and painting, and I am very happy indeed to have this book in my studio library.

This book is full of full-color paintings and illustrations on the author's technique. He has a very informal congenial writing style. His style is discussion-based along with some excellent tutorial class structured examples of his theory, his layout, his paints, his strategy, and why. The book paper itself is nice high quality with slight shine to every page and the printing is excellent. This is not a beginners book. It will not give you the ABC's. It dives right into the meat and potatoes of things and you should have some painting experience behind you. The other thing is that he uses a mix of guaches and some opaque watercolor. There is very little (if any) transparent watercolor in this book and most of it is tonalism with bright colors here and there and a lot of the paintings are mid to dark with a few paintings in the light key range.

I have just received this book and it is absolutely beautiful. The thought and work that has gone into it is amazing. I decided to order it after watching one of the author’s videos and I was not disappointed. It is probably my favourite art book. The other five star reviews go into more detail which I will not repeat but they are all accurate.

I highly recommend it

The book its self is great. Nathan Fowkes is a brilliant teacher as well as artist. He explains things clearly. There are step by step processes to follow in the book and explanations of higher concepts. However when I received the book there was some kind of glue along the edges, i assume it was from the packaging. I was able to remove it with little effort.

Esse livro, por si só, é um curso completo de pintura de paisagens. A didática do autor é extraordinária, ele consegue transmitir basicamente qualquer conceito através de poucos exemplos e é bastante econômico no texto, mas não deixa nada de fora. O único alerta que faço é que ele é 100% focado num estilo impressionista de pinturas (procure as pinturas do autor na internet, para entender melhor), e talvez não seja tão completo para quem busca um estilo mais realista ou orientado aos detalhes. Os conceitos do livro, contudo, servem para qualquer um interessado em pintura de paisagens ou cenários.

Not everyone wants to paint flowers, cute animals and portraits and yet there are books galore on these subjects. Not everyone wants to render the subject in realistic or hyper-realistic manner; I certainly don't want to turn into a "photocopier". It is a shame that Nathan Fowkes took so long before deciding to publish such an inspirational guide. This is for people who like to create dramatic, atmospheric, emotional artworks that border on abstraction. All demonstrations are done in watercolors and white gouache but the technique is applicable to gouache too. He does not like gouache claiming that it does not re-wet well. Painting demonstrations are the low points of this book, something that majority of books on painting have. It is extremely difficult to demonstrate painting actions - try teaching someone how to ride a bike by drawing a diagram. I discovered on his website that you can subscribe (for 30 US/month) to view 9 demonstrations which are basis for this book. Actually, I think that this book is based on that art class.