Nov 23 2007
Book Review: Paint the Sea … by E. John Robinson
From his website at www.ejohnrobinson.com
Paint the Sea and Shoreline in Watercolors Using Special Effects by E. John Robinson
ISBN 1-929834-32-2
and
Paint the Sea in Oils Using Special Effects by E. John Robinson
ISBN 1-929834-04-7
I have both of these books on my bookshelf. I’ve read them both many times being a seascape artist. I learn something new each time I pick one of them up off the shelf or remember something I have forgotten that I need to remember.
In the Paint the Sea in Oils, I think Chapter 8 – Composition for Seascapes is my favorite part of the entire book. He has a sketch next to a completed painting … in the outline and implied line example, there is a an S over the top of the completed painting – it shows the S-curve that so many use … some deliberately and some by intuition. I’ve been told by non-artists that seascapes should be easy – they are just flat across. That sounds more like stripes to me than a seascape painting LOL but then I think that is how many people are able to describe what they are seeing in front of them … and my “thinking in pictures” mind then sees wallpaper stripes turned sidewise. This book has helped me grow as an artist and I like it very much.
Others have mentioned how the beach full of people looks like a flower garden in bloom. I love this visual 
…. a flower garden overlooking the sea sounds like a slice of heaven in this noisy world to me … perhaps some red, yellow and blue wild flowers on a hill above the ocean as well – I did a painting of a seaside grassland meadow covered in dandelions based on that thought and the framing I chose was based on my desire to simulate looking through a window at the view outside.
Can you tell what medium I painted it in – was it oils, watercolor or on the computer? Does it really matter? To me, what matters is that I enjoy creating and that people enjoy seeing it and living with it. I create art from what I feel, what I remember, what I like, what I do not like … life. I buy art and decorations based on what is visually pleasing and that I can live with – I think most people do the exact same thing. Doesn’t matter … but I painted it on the computer.
Digital painting has not replaced oil painting or watercolor painting in my life … it has given me more opportunities to be creative and to experiment with all kinds of things I never dreamed of trying before the computer. In seascape painting … sometimes that is a marvelous thing – layers are wonderful masking fluid that doesn’t dry on my brush! (For more information on me & masking fluid, you can read about my experiences “Using Masking Fluid / Frisket” on my Watercolor Gift Blog.)
