Seascape Artist

ISBN-13: 978-0-7641-3574-3 or ISBN-10: 0-7641-3574-0

The Fantasy Illustrator’s Technique Book by Gary A. Lippincott

Are you wondering what a Fantasy Illustrator book has to do with seascape painting? In my copy of the book, on page 110, the Fantasy Architecture section, a lovely painting is shown:

Twilight by Jessica Palmer

The water is there … and quite lovely it is … this painting is very inspiring for painting a coastal seascape. I was looking for a completely different reference when I saw this as I leafed through the book and it caught my attention tonite … now I want to create a coastline seascape of some kind … not sure if it is will be realistic or fantasy … doesn’t matter to me … it will be fun to create buildings along a coast … especially after all the Hurricane Ike debris pictures shown on TV … maybe I will paint a cave along the seashore … who knows … we’ll find out.

The premise is that something real with a different viewpoint or perspective can appear like a fantasy painting. I do not know if this painting is real architecture or if it is fantasy buildings … I do know that it is a gorgeous painting and would be fabulous on any wall in my home.

If you draw and paint, this book will be inspirational … it is not what I normally think of as an art technique book but it is very interesting and has some good advice packed into small spaces. I would recommend this be seen in a store before purchase, not bought online only because it could be very disappointing to someone expecting very different technique presentations. The techniques presented are very good and I find them very helpful.

I have a Viking Ship kite on top of my refrigerator as a decoration … now I am thinking I need to paint a seascape with a Viking Ship in it … [the Viking Ship is much larger than it looks too - it takes up the entire top of my fridge!]

ISBN-13: 978-1-58180-968-8
ISBN-10: 1-58180-968-9

This is a North Light book as so many are … the pictures are marvelous and very interesting. The book is very well written and if you want to know more about painting water, I do recommend getting this book.

One of the highlights for me was Chapter Three – Puddles, Ponds and Small Lakes. Painting puddles in road ruts for instance can be very challenging and it is nice to see someone discussing them and getting them painted well. Another highlight of reading this book was Chapter Six – Waterfalls. I enjoyed reading the vantage point tips in particular.

Chapter Five had the ocean wave info … it was very good but for me the road less traveled by most art instruction authors was a refreshing view into an artist toolbox and how to create what I can see but perhaps not know how to put into paint on canvas or paper. I did like the info on the sand and how to make it look very real … that will be very helpful … my sand has not been as realistic looking as I wanted so I am glad to have this info on my bookshelf now.

Chapter Four covered Brooks, Streams and Rivers. It reminded me of something I saw years ago while visiting friends in the country. They had a very small shallow but fast moving stream on their property and we would cross over it via the large flat rocks just for the fun of playing on the rocks and in the water … the water was crystal clear and you could see all the tiny pebbles, ground and texture of them both in the shallow water. It would make a great painting similar to one in the book.