Product Description

This is the only title on the market that gives readers a comprehensive look at negative painting. Linda Kemp shows beginning and advanced artists how to harness the power of these often overlooked areas around a painting's focal point. The book is brimming with easy-to-follow, interactive elements, including: step-by-step techniques, exercises and projects, do-it-yourself tests and worksheets, troubleshooting suggestions and secrets, and straightforward diagrams for color and design. Whether they want to paint florals, landscapes or patterns in nature, readers will come away with the skills they need to make their next work more striking than ever!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36218 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
Linda Kemp's award-winning artwork has appeared in International Artist, Watermedia Focus and Preview Magazine. She has taught painting for the past 20 years and currently lives in Ontario, Canada.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating
This is an original book that will expand your painting skills by providing you with techniques to approach painting through negative spaces. Everything is explained meticulously in step by step diagrams that leave nothing unclear. It is a valuable addition to painters who want to expand their repertoire of skills. However, the technique explained in this book, fascinating as it is, has its limitations, as it can only work in pictures where the negative spaces are darker than the positive ones (you will understand how and why when you read it). Should the painter want their negative spaces to be lighter in color than the shapes depicted, this technique would not work.

Maybe it is a first step and the author, or somebody else, can expand the possibilities of this technique further; what we learn in this book is certainly not the last word on negative-space painting. The author explores mostly landscapes, and the results of her specific approach gives results that are highly original, but that have a specific eerie-spooky character. Since I haven't tried applying the technique yet, I cannot tell whether that eerie quality is an inevitable consequence of that technique, or is it the result of the author's/painter's specific choices, and whether a different painter could get results of a totally different quality.

Despite these limitations, it is a very useful approach to get to know, especially for painters who do not just want to learn a new trick, but who also want to learn how to see in new ways. Highly recommended.

Good book, but not really for beginners
Negative painting is not a new approach to watercolour, but most people avoid it because it requires a different way of viewing and working with your subject. Linda's book shows us that emphasising what (effectively) is absent actually brings forward what we see as THE object; a tree, or a cup, for example.....the artist is asked to view and paint the surrounding space, rather than concentrating on the object itself.
I am not sure that I would suggest this book for beginners, however. Despite being primarily an oil painter, I know that watercolour is tricky enough, technically, at the best of times and the majority of first-users are naturally inclined to paint the "positive" shapes in their compositions, rather than the negatives. It is worth pointing out that the technique can be used in conjunction with normal "positive" painting, given plenty of practice.
Linda's clearly described exercises offer scope for the more advanced painter to play with this fascinating watercolour technique; and it also helps to strengthen the understanding and the importance of space (or negative shape), in all compositions. But it's not what I would call a raw beginner's ideal book and I doubt if it was intended for that level.

challenging....
I have enjoyed this book because an art teacher many years ago helped me and the class to find objects by drawing the shapes around them. I have often used this idea when drawing but never got my head round painting negative shapes. This book has been a great help in "seeing" how to do it more successfully. I do agree though with other writers comments, it is not a book for a complete beginner and does not particularly claim to be. and as the first reviewer said you can only end up with a light foreground and dark background using watercolour. Not true if you apply the principles to oils and acrylics though! A worthwhile addition to a serious amateur artists shelf getting away from the "materials, washes, projects" of many watercolour books. The methods do take a bit of practise though and it's challenging to get worthwhile results. I like her work as shown in the book but I'd not want to do every painting in that style