Mitchell AlbalaThe Landscape Painter's Workbook: Essential Studies in Shape, Composition, and Color (Volume 6) (For Artists, 6)

I was raised by a skilled artist, but I was not taught painting as a kid. I've taken a couple classes at jr colleges, and I could do better than I do. I know it's lack of actually practicing that is to blame, but I want to work at it and need something that's not more of the same. Enter this book. The author is both a skilled artist and a skilled educator, a rare combo.After reading the first chapter (tonal values, massing) I saw the world differently and was practicing looking around me to see this in real life.Here's the rub: if you're looking for something to help you as an absolute beginner starting out totally from scratch, this book will challenge you because it isn't holding your hand on the most basic stuff. They're providing examples in various mediums and the very first exercise will ask you to do something much more interesting than shading a cube (a common beginner exercise).I hope others experience what I'm enjoying which is that this is a thoughtful, beautiful presentation with sophisticated examples that will challenge your brain to do things differently. Highly recommended for those with ambition and an adventurous attitude, but not a ton of experience. .... and if you've got more experience, use this for inspiration and some pretty great prompts. These exercises / examples as they build through the book could be skill refining prompts where you are reminded of stuff like notan, a bunch of color and palette strategies, movement, active negative space, and so on.

Beautiful book. Inspiring. Many ideas to spur on the painter in me :)

I LOVE reading books about painting techniques and practices. And some I may find new information or suggestions while others simply reinforce techniques I’m already practicing. This book did both. It gave me a new perspective on some familiar techniques while reinforcing those I was already in use of. Very enjoyable and very informative regardless of your level of knowledge or expertise. Highly recommended.

I was very impressed with this book and will refer to it often. It points out the importance of value and composition. I taught a series of drawing and painting classes and used it a lot in showing students how to simplify their paintings. It stresses creating a focus in your painting and how to ignore superfluous detail. I have found that one of the greatest stumbling blocks to a lot of paintings is too much information. Once you know how to break things down into simple shapes and values it becomes a lot easier. This book was what I was looking for in my teaching and in my own work. You know, as I work with it today, if you had to choose only 1 painting book you wouldn't go wrong with this one.

I loved the imagery in the book but I expected more of a tutorial style book rather than a general technique discussion. It simply didn't have enough instructions on how to achieve similar results as pictured. That being said I loved the examples of art in the book and I will continue to use it and try to learn the processes to achieve similar results.

I bought the Kindle version first, and I was impressed enough to order a paper copy for my friend, and I finally had to order the paper version for myself as well. Professor Albala has filled his book with some of the loveliest landscapes I've ever seen, by himself and other artists, some "realistic," most impressionistic, and a few openly abstract. Some are of natural scenery, some of urban. Each is described, and most are used to illustrate some of the principles he is trying to inculcate. His exercises aren't all step-by-step, and they're more suggestions with examples, achievable by any who try; and he also tries to help people avoid being slaves to "reality" and merely copying photographs. You are MAKING ART. Art represents, and not just the literal view; in that sense at least, all art is "abstract;" but to be good, it has to be "believable." It also has to have balance (good composition, good light/dark, good color). To this end, he emphasizes a careful beginning -- strategy -- the way a general plots a campaign -- and what follows is much more likely to fall in line. His work is really helping me develop beyond literal reality into a more fluid, intuitive, "painterly" style -- and it's very liberating!