Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

No easy read, this book is blowing my mind with method as well as philosophy on landscapes and art in general. It is changing the way I see the world around me. I took a workshop with a master landscape painter who told me it was the ONE absolutely essential book to any student or artist. He has several copies and rereads it even to this day after painting for over 40 years. It is in the school of abstract expressionist design to express what you are seeing. It encourages the artist to use nature as a well spring for inspiration and a starting point, and is not at all about dry literal copying of exactly what you see. There are valuable insights as to how to pick an "idea" you are supporting in your image, as well as the tools to render it, because art is an expression, first and foremost. It is technically and spiritually wonderful. Much of the advice could cross over to other styles of art. There are so many lines in the book I would like to quote, but here are two: "Art is a thing of the imagination. The underlying principles, the fundamentals, should be so hidden away by the beauty they are eventually to support, that it would require much digging to disclose them." and "There is no irresponsible or accidental child's play about the composing of a fine picture. Men like Leonardo, Michelangelo or Rubens were men of fine intellect as well as of sensitivity. Pure beauty is an orderly quality which seldom emanates from imbeciles or charlatans." While you will find very useful basic information on materials, etc, do not expect a "How to draw fence posts" type book. This book is a masterpiece. I plan to read it many many more times. If provides a vehicle for total self expression, which only years of tireless application can yield, yet spares the reader years of trial and error with timeless instruction on elements of atmosphere and technical laws known to the masters, thus delivering hope and inspiration. No serious artist should be without this book. I'm so grateful for it, and I sprang for the hard copy.

There are countless how-to books out there. And, yet, when scrutinized, most are lightweight editions that are simply filled with "projects" that are often irrelavent at best; an outstanding exception, however, is Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson. This helpful, basic art instruction book is built upon time-proven principles set forth by a time-proven artist. The book builds a solid foundation. Many contemporary books simply reiterate the principles set forth in this as well as other so called "antique" art books. Although Carlson's writing style can be a bit "quaint" at times - as is the case with many books written in the 19th and early 20th centuries - the book is a storehouse of wisdom and sure instruction in the particulars, such as clouds and trees, as well as his opinions of being an artist and of the art world in general. Be forewarned, however, that this book is NOT for everybody. It is intended for the student who is able to glean the information from primarily text as there are few diagrams and there are no color reproductions -- black and white only. This shouldn't be a great hindrance for the serious painter as this keeps the student focused on 1) the broader principles, not necessarily the instructor's particular technique and 2) on values and composition. If the reader insists on color reproductions and a more modern text -- while keeping to the basics - another good choice is Richard Schmidt's Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting

After reading some of the other reviews I must say that I can understand some of the frustration that some of them voice. I think this book is best for those who already have some practice with painting. I don't think this book was aimed at the very most beginner. If I'm remembering correctly he wrote this book for a class that he taught to art students for and out-of-doors painting class in upstate New York around 1915 or so. The book contains many many things that you will have to know in order to paint landscape well. There is a lot of good information to consider here. There is a great section on the importance of capturing the correct values of your landscape. A section on the effects of light, on color, on sky, perspective, composition, trees, clouds, basic materials needed and some very sound advice on varnishing and medium, plus more. Some mention and criticism has been made that Mr. Carlsons work is presented in black and white, but this matter is addressed in the book where Carlson states that, it does the student a great service to study B&W photos of good paintings. The point here is to become familiar with a masters use of value to establish a painting rather than the student getting carried away by the color. Anyway, there are about 20 works of Mr. Carlsons in the book and each are used to teach a particular point. My opinion is that his work is pretty damn good. If you are really interested in seeing them in color just do a Google image search using his name. I paint two to three times a week out-doors and this book has been a real help. I have learned a lot. Highly recommended. Best wishes and Good Luck!!!

This seem to be a classical book on landscape painting. I find some of the information presented very useful. However, be warned that (and in agreement with many other reviews left here), the language is a bit old. I’m not sure if it is the academic writing style of that time or just the author being too wordy, reading through the texts is not easy, and important information is very often buried in lots of texts. Another very critical issue is all the figures and examples are in black and white, not to mention there are only a few of them.

I am a novice pastel artist and particularly interested in painting landscapes. When I first got this book, I was disappointed and set it aside. All the pictures are in black & white -- not what I expected from a book about painting. But after my pastel teacher recommended it in class, I took a second look & read a few pages. This book is a real gem. I've been frustrated when instructors have told me to change something in my work, but not WHY I am changing it in a certain way. This book helped to answer a lot of my questions. The black & white illustrations are actually ideal, because they convey the information about correct values without the visual confusion of color. And I finally believe that you can use any colors you want if the values are correct. If you want to make your landscapes more believable, this book really helps. Now I have some concepts to give my landscapes depth and dimension. I think I might have avoided a fair amount of frustration if I'd found this book earlier. The language is a bit old fashioned, but it's a quick read and it contains immediately useful information. It may be too basic for some, but for beginning artists, it's wonderful.

There is so much important information contained with in this book you will be astounded. From mountains, to clouds, to trees, aerial perspective, to choosing subject matter, you will learn something you didn't know before or didn't understand as well. This book is the bible to painting landscapes. There isn't a lot of color theory, and only a bit on design, but the portions on value, contrast, and light are what will knock your socks off! He talks at some length on working from memory and how to approach painting which is information which isn't in most books. This book was written in the first half of the twentieth century so occasionally the lexicon is a bit dated, but it is still easy enough to tease the meaning from. Certain words may be unfamiliar in the usage to people who haven't studied art before such as 'motif' (subject matter), but the meaning is usually quite clear by reading the rest of the sentence. There are black and white drawings to illustrate the concepts, however, no color prints. Never-the-less, the drawings are outstanding and make clear the thrust of the text. This author had the chops to paint at a world class level and yet still make the information accessible and clear.

This book gives loads of good information, but I like to actually SEE what is being talked about. There are photos in this book, but none of them are in color. The black and white just does not help me as much as I would have hoped. I should have known by the small price that there would be something lacking and it was color. A good reference book, and I will certainly keep and use it, but next time I will be sure to find out if the pictures are in color.

This is the best book about understanding landcsape in art. After reading this I see trees with complete new eyes, as they are living individual begins not just a "trees". You will find many great tips for coloring, shadows, forms, clouds, trees, composition..many, many delightful poetic advices of mr. Carlson. This is one of the books that will change your artist attitude and you will be beter artist after reading this. BUT.. book is not attractive, its black and white, no colors, its very unattractive to read, and when I bought it I put it aside a long time. But slowly I started to realise that this book is diamond, and much better of any other book in this area ( Albala - landscape painting, Kevin Macphershon - landscape painting). These newley books has many nice color pictures but they dont have this master teacher voice that will lead you trough chapters. Buy it - its low price and read it, and after that buy this newley landscape painting books and you will realise what I saying here.

I found it to be a clear, concise and authoritative guide to landscape painting. A little old school and the plates are in black and white, but looking beyond that, it's a gem of a guide to painting landscapes. Line, form, composition, value and colour are all well covered together with sections on difficult subjects such as clouds and trees. It explains in precise language several advanced concepts that have made me look at my own paintings in a completely new way. Already I'm seeing improvements that came from directly from this excellent book. I ordered it based on a recommendation by James Gurney.

Que decir de este libro. Es la biblia de la pintura paisajística. Casi los “grandes” actuales se basaron en él. Eso si, es del año de la pers, es totalmente en blanco y negro, nada de step by step, teoría pura y dura. Un tostòn, que merece la pena.

日本語に翻訳されていない本なので、読むのに時間がかかります。まだ半分も読み進んでいませんが・・・絵画の勉強には素晴らしい本だと思います。

Highly recommended book. Could be a reference text for serious art landscape theory. My watercolour teacher mentioned this book in class recently and I’m so glad I wrote it down to check out later. Is an older style book but a goodie. You won’t regret getting it.

C'est sûr, il faut lire l'anglais et surtout, il faut lire car tout se trouve dans le texte. Ce n'est pas un livre moderne rempli de "pas à pas" plus ou moins réussis, mais un livre essentiel de conseils écrits par un grand maître du paysage. Vraiment un très grand livre pour les amateurs de peinture réaliste de paysages. NOTA. Les quelques repros de tableaux sont en noir et blanc. Mais on peut trouver des reproduction sur le net.