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It’s no wonder that artists—amateurs and professionals alike—love to work from photos. Flowers don’t wilt, shadows don’t move, portrait subjects sit perfectly still (even kids!) ... and you can paint whenever you feel like it, from the comfort of your studio.
But creating a successful painting demands much more than a mere copy job. In this book, popular artist Jan Kunz will show you the tricks to painting successful and inspired watercolors from photographic references. You’ll learn how to choose a good reference photo, combine photos and transform “problem photos” into exciting paintings. Step-by-step demonstrations help you tackle a variety of subjects.
“If your photo files are full of paintable subjects, every day is a beautiful day in the studio.” —Jan Kunz
Painting Beautiful Watercolors From Photographs Any picture of a subject that interests you can make a great painting. In fact, with Jan Kunz’s help, photographs can become one of your most valuable painting tools.
The step-by-step painting demonstrations in this book illustrate specific techniques for working with photos. You’ll see where Jan sticks to the picture, where she takes artistic license and you’ll hear the thinking behind each of her choices. These projects will teach you how to:
* take a good reference photo, with special advice for shooting flowers, people, animals and still lifes
* choose a photo that lends itself to making a good painting (Is it in focus, with well-defined detail in both sunlit and shadow areas?)
* transfer the image to paper
* use mini-mat corners to find many painting opportunities in one photo
* turn a static and uninteresting photo into an exciting and dynamic painting
* create entirely new scenes by combining two or more photographs convincingly (like adding figures to an empty scene)
* “solve” busy backgrounds, flat values, competing subjects and other common flaws in photos
* paint any complicated subject by accurately reproducing color and value one small shape at a time
You’ll find four pages of reference photos to get you inspired—and that’s just the start. Photos can be an exciting and endless source of ideas. This book will show you how to turn them into beautiful, picture-perfect watercolors.
About the Author
Jan Kunz is a resident of Newport, Oregon. She spent her early years working as a commercial artist and finally as art director of a large advertising concern in southern California. Since she and her husband, Bill, moved to Oregon in 1980, she has enjoyed a new career painting in watercolor. She is a signature member of The Western Academy of Women Artists, and for the last 17 years, has exhibited at the prestigious Peppertree Fine Arts Show in California.
Jan teaches watercolor in workshops across the country, and is the author of three other North Light Books including Painting Watercolor Portraits That Glow, Painting Watercolor Florals That Glow and Watercolor Techniques.
Paperback, 128 pages. 208 color/58 b&w illus., 034/03.
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