Dec 23 2007
Book Review: Sea & Sky in Oils by Roy Lang
ISBN 978-1-84448-020-3
I feel this book is probably going to be more useful for artists who are just learning about painting the ocean or sea … one tip though that sounds good is his “brush rolling” if you can master it - I doubt it will help me since I have no depth perception and with a brush & canvas, I am either too heavy-handed or not even on the canvas at all due to my vision issues .. I understand the reasoning why to use it and how to use it … I just would not be able to master it consistently because I do not physically see like most people. If you have problems with tonal values, he goes in depth about them and he does under-paintings for those who like to paint tonal underlays before adding color … color for many people keeps them from identifying tonal placements.
This book is okay - no glaring wrongnesses that I noticed though I am not overly impressed with most of his rocks - I am very picky about how rocks look in seascapes - I paint awful rocks most of the time which is probably one reason I am picky about other people’s rocks in a seascape painting.
BUT … in a choice between recommending this book and one by E. John Robinson - I would recommend that you buy an E. John Robinson Paint the Sea book … in my opinion, E. John Robinson is a better seascape artist, better writer and knows and understands the sea better in order to help us understand it and paint it well. You can read my review of his books here.
On a scale of 1 - 10: Sea & Sky in Oils by Roy Lang gets a 4 and E. John Robinson’s Paint the Sea series gets a 10 from me. Your opinions may be very different from mine - his style may be just what you are looking for and this book may be the breakthrough in seascape painting that you have been searching for, so, as always … look at this book and make up your own mind if it will help you or not.
