Customer Reviews

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let's face it--this is an OLD book, written in a florid style with every personal pronoun masculine (no 'she' to be found anywhere). Were I a woman, I would certainly find this aspect off-putting. But this was the accepted norm of the period; and were he alive now, it would be different. Not one illustration is in colour; and the price of 'Carlson's Guide' reflects these superficial, yet real negatives (i.e. mine cost me all of $5 on Amazon).

That out of the way, be prepared to finally learn how to go about painting landscapes. Be prepared to get your highlighter out and delightfully lift the nuggets from every page; for this man knew what he was about as a painter--from understanding the colourations of shadows, to making it clear the futility of trying to paint exactly what's in front of the renderer: the artist is the one who re-arranges nature so that it becomes art: something other, something to be viewed as an interpretation, a conveyor of mood and occasional wonder.

Carlson is always emphatic, and yet kindly--able to nudge the beginner onto the right paths, in order to limit those discouraging declarations of failure. Yet having painted myself for going on fifty years, I gladly join all beginners under this man's tutelage because he helps me unlearn my many misconceptions and errant attempts at difficult subjects.

No matter that the illustrations are all in black and white. In many cases, this actually helps make his points more clear. To get around these limitations, simply google "images: John Carlson, painter", and you'll see his works in all their glory. John Carlson was a master at the art of painting landscapes, pure and simple.

My own particular weakness is composition--the arrangement of trees, rocks, clouds to make a forceful painting. Carlson will help any artist struggling with such matters, and bring them home. It is a singular work that is never out of print because generation after generation recognizes artistic wisdom when it sees it.

One last note: this was written for those engaged in oil painting. I am a watercolourist. It makes no difference. Carlson's guidance is just as valuable, regardless of medium. And the only minor disappointment I have, is that he says very little about the challenges of painting water. But that is almost whining on my part considering the enormity of Carlson's skill at conveying the illusive aspects of mastering a difficult, life-challenging, thrilling pursuit.

I was expecting much more from this book after reading the other reviews. The images are black and white, and I personally don't like his style. Sloppy is pretty good description of his work, and I really do admire other painters with a loose style. Maybe his focus was more on color than accurate drawing (like Monet) but if so I didn't get to see it because it was in black and white. Some of the content was moderately informative, but a lot of it was filler. The all-time greatest painting book I own is Richard Schmid's Alla Prima with beautiful color masterpieces that I want to emulate, and it has much more practical and useful information. Save your money for that one.

Very informative, good read, every page is filled with useful information. The kind of book you could read over and over, each time picking up something new. Should be in every artists' library.

Regardless of your skill level this classic text can help you perfect or refine your own paintings. The clearly written chapters on specific aspects of landscape painting can be used for quick reference when your faced with a problem in painting. A must for beginners!

A must Have. Who doesn't listen to a person with a life time of experince. Not for the realest for you may what to try the photography department.

...on landscape painting. The actual materials section is dated, but that is a very small portion of the book. All the chapters dealing with how you convey your idea to the canvas are superb. He FEELS things, like the way a tree grows and grasps the earth with its roots, the way clouds are blown and shredded by the wind... And he uses this feeling to help you understand how to paint them so that a person looking at your painting will feel them too. Lots of helpful suggestions and do's and don'ts for beginners, that always tie into this feeling of the landscape as a living moving thing. Wonderful chapters on how to suggest scale and distance through color and placement of things. I'm pretty much a beginner, and this book is not only a tremendous help in the sometimes frustrating task of getting the effect you want on canvas, but very inspiring too.

The book is old, but it's still popular because the advice contained given by Carlson is timeless. Unfortunately the pictures are b&w. One thing I liked is Carlson gives guidelines which help to make realistic landscapes. A teacher such as Hawthorne (highly recommend his book) would say to forget rules and just get the color right. But I find that's not easy to do. Carlson's guidelines, especially comparing values between foreground, trees, mountains, and sky are very helpful. I read his book on the beach while on vacation and I was able to see for myself a lot of the things he claims, especially about clouds. This book is so cheap there's no excuse for not reading it at least once!

This book covers a lot of important landscape painting topics that are often not covered adequately or well in other books. Although very conscientiously written, Carlson's prose at times can be old-fashioned and very difficult to read. Also, it is unfortunate that the illustrations for this book on painting are presented in black and white.

These negative observations made, I found the book to be very worthwhile reading. Carlson speaks to both the craft and art of landscape painting with a master's knowledge and the intent of an experienced teacher. His chapters cover value, light, aerial and linear perspective, color, trees, clouds and composition and contain much valuable information and tips for the painter.

This is an essential how to guide for landscape painters. Carlson addresses the real nuts and bolts of how to paint a landscape and effectively deconstructs all aspects of the painted landscape into digestible principles and points. It has many B&W illustrations and examples of Carlson's work. In this day and age, however, it suffers from a complete lack of color pictures. It has been in print for decades and would get five stars and more if the publisher would find a landscape painter to add color reproductions of current painters who incorporate Carlson's principles, into the book. Or a companion book showing how other artists paint, using Carlson's points. There are many contemporary plein air painters, for example, who cite Carlson's tome in their list of recommended books. Any of them would add a great deal to this book and bring it into the mainstream of technique books that painters clamor for.

But for pure technique, it can't be beat. Richard Schmid's book, Alla Prima, is also highly recommended, with more personal philosophy and some fantastic color reproductions of Schmid's works.

Carlson's Guide is, however, noticeably cheaper and too inexpensive not to have on your studio bookshelf.

This book is full of practical advice from one of the best landscape painters to my opinion. Interested readers will find all sort of ideas on composition, colors, techniques etc. I keep on reading it and I always find something new to study and to give some more toughts. Carlson has helped me improve my work. Just have a look at Carlson's work and and you will see how bright and sparkling are his paintings and how full of lessons they are. His book is the same; it is full of generous tips and lessons and without any complicated theories.