En Plein Air: Light & Color

I am only a beginner in watercolor painting, but this was immensely helpful for me. The layout of the book starts with the sketchbook and how to plot out the image, and then moves through the topics in the order that would be important for painting. He has a lot of helpful tips and tricks on the way, and also has detailed explanations for how to achieve the foundational techniques of watercolor (like a graded wash).

One of the best things about this book is the series of paintings that Stewart goes through step by step. As a beginner, I always wonder how certain looks are achieved, and it's helpful to me to see the process laid out so clearly.

I have never painted ein plein air, but after reading this book, I not only would like to give it a try, but feel empowered to do so. Highly recommend this book for anyone else who is interested in watercolor, but needs some further instruction.

Thank you to Iain Stewart, Walter Foster Publishing, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book!

It is one of the volumes that conquers you beginning from the cover. Gorgeous loose style in watercolour, on location, the book contains useful tips for this difficult task.
It is written in a personal way, the author tells about his experience including mistakes and gives practical advices.
The step by step tutorials are not very many, there are four cityscapes (two modern. two old cities), a floral still life and a ship in the port scene, but there are many examples and tips that probably will compensate for this.

lovely art tutorial book! Well put together and good demonstrations. I haven’t done much painting on location and my watercolor tends to get overworked and muddy so I hope to use some of these techniques later this year when it is warmer (while being safe and wearing a mask out in public, of course!)

There are several demos of quaint towns and villages, a couple for larger cities, a flower demo, and some cars and of course boats. Some composition tricks are added as well as a few warm up exercises and a material list at the beginning of the book.

The artist uses many Daniel Smith watercolor paints, but you could substitute student grade paint or other artist brands—although for more specialized colors obviously the results won’t necessarily be the same. Honestly I would be more concerned about having good watercolor paper than what brand of paint you have at first. 👍🏻 If you can’t swing a full palette of professional watercolor paint, stick to introductory warm and cool primary colors. Just those six tubes of paint will help you immensely with learning mixing techniques. (Speaking as an acrylic artist here who has dabbled in wc.)

In any case the author has several good watercolor tips useful for beginner to intermediate painters. Here’s hoping for successful paintings for everyone!

En plein air refers to act of painting outdoors where the artist’s subject is presented in full view. The book by Iain Stewart begins with a list of materials and suggested tools. As usual, it is recommended to find what we are most comfortable with. I find it interesting to know what others use to create their art while trying to figure out what works best for myself. Who knows, some of other artist’s favourite tools could become a staple in our own favourites if we ever get the chance to try them out!

In the book, the author shares his painting processes, which I found helpful. When we are brought through these images and accompanying text, there is an emphasis on perspective, and the author points out things to look for, such as vanishing lines. For a beginner like me, these points are incredibly informative as it helps me figure out what to take note of. The images offer a clear picture of what to focus on and how to achieve certain effects.

Overall, the book is packed with helpful watercolour tips for beginners and for those who are seeking to improve their own techniques.

This book reminded me of the similarly useful guides shared by artist Devin Elle Kurtz on Instagram and Twitter, though her guides tend to focus on digital art.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

This book takes you from the studio into the outdoors. It explains the materials needed to be able to set up and paint outside. It encourages taking only the items you need rather than carrying a heavy bag all day. The artist/ author describes the type of paints, paper, and brushes he uses and this is helpful to the beginning watercolorist.

This book focuses heavily on drawing in a fairly detailed way before beginning to paint. That might frighten some beginners off if they don’t feel their drawing skills are adequate.

My favorite take away from this book was painting and including people in your paintings. I find that challenging and the author did a nice job of walking you through this process.

This book would be a great watercolor book for the artist’s reference shelf. The
exercises would be ones to come back to, and practice, time and time again.

Very interesting, still have to try out all the tips that are given.
But I'm looking forward to trying it out.

The book looks great with a lot of pictures and I like the personal way it is written.

I have always found watercolor rather tricky to use, there is a special mindset to painting with watercolor than with other mediums, and painting outside adds to this challenge.
This book is a good all round book, it covers the basics such as equipment and materials followed by use of a sketchbook including some step by step projects to try.
This is is followed by chapters on drawing on location, drawing techniques, capturing details and compositions including light and color. And finally the transition of taking the painting from the field to the studio for completion.
A good book without being to step by step processes.

Wow! What a fabulous book for both beginner and more advanced watercolour artists. Full of wonderful illustrations of Iain Stewart’s paintings, combined with a full explanation of his tips and techniques to help improve the budding watercolour artist’s work. He certainly knows how to explain the use of colour, composition and light. Very impressed and an absolute delight to learn from a master painter.

ARC provided via Netgalley & the Publisher for Honest Review

This is honestly one of the better plein air/urban sketching books I have come across for two reasons:
1.) this is an instruction book which actually instructs, taking you through each pass of the watercolor step by step and,
2.) Iain Stewart breaks down the purpose and methods of thumbnailing sketches both for composition and for color. You're shown not just what a thumbnail is, but how to use them for improving your final paintings, for testing color mixes, and so on.

Stewart also has a great sense of how to not only show how to achieve detailed paintings, but also how to let yourself balance your painting by not overly controlling it. Especially with watercolors, playing with light, pigment, color, and so on can be an ongoing experiment which requires flexibility in painting.

En Plein Air: Light & Color
Expert techniques and step-by-step projects for capturing mood and atmosphere in watercolor
by Iain Stewart
Back of the Book: “Take your watercolor painting beyond the studio—learn how to effectively use color and light to capture mood, create atmosphere, and convey emotion on location.
Geared for beginning artists, En Plein Air: Light & Color introduces a variety of techniques for on-location watercolor painting. Following a brief introduction to the basics of painting en plein air and an overview of the necessary tools and materials, you will learn how to choose a subject and paint a compelling outdoor composition using the subtleties of watercolor to create beautifully expressive subjects and themes.
Other important topics include perspective, rendering the background and foreground, capturing both urban and pastoral landscapes, mastering color to convey weather and time of day, and much more. From choosing just the right subject to awaiting the perfect time of day, let En Plein Air: Light & Color guide you in your artistic travels as you explore this daring and expressive medium.
Painting outdoors is a rewarding, peaceful experience full of joy, adventure, and persistence. Let the En Plein Air Series guide you in your artistic travels as you explore this daring and expressive method of painting, wherever you may be.”
Impressions: This book gave me the courage to try something new. Overall, it was a useful book to learn and grow from.
Liked: I appreciated the technical advice throughout the book. Taking a black and white picture of my palette was something I had not thought to do but was helpful in understanding the value of the color in the painting. Working from light to dark seems simple but I tend to focus on the quickest way and end up losing my light along the way. Layering takes patience. I’ve had to slow down my process to accomplish what the author describes. I also appreciated the author's suggestion not to remove pages from your sketchbook. Thinking of your sketchbook is where you experiment, try new things, and let loose is freeing.
Disliked: The author gave specific brands in the materials section. This is generally helpful unless you are unable to get said brands. It would be helpful to describe what to look for in supplies as well as give brand examples to be most helpful.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review shared here.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

This book has filled me with inspiration! Not only with paints as the medium but for my photography as well! It gave me more perspective on composition, lights and colour. The art in the book is beautiful and hopefully, I will be able to paint like this by using the techniques and tips from the book.

Rating: 5⭐
Would I Read It Again? Yes
Would I Recommend it? Yes

This is a lovely book and I appreciated the author's step-by-step illustrations. It ended up being beyond my scope as an artist and not really in my style, but it looks like a book that will be quite helpful for many.

En Plein Air: Light & Color is a comprehensive tutorial book for learning how to paint watercolour on location. It is aimed at beginners to intermediate but does require some drawing skills before putting paint to paper. The author provides extensive information about his method and takes the reader through a number of tutorial projects where these skills are used. It is very well structured full of stages and good demonstrations. The projects include cities, landscape, nature and vehicles. Tricks, tips, and materials are also included, as well as lots of confidence building and encouragement to give it a go. Overall an excellent book.

This is a great book regardless if you are a beginner with watercolours or not. Some of the tips the author offers are the base you need for starting with watercolours, other tips are for more advanced painters.

At times I found it hard to follow and I wish the illustrations illustrated better all the different steps and techniques the author was talking about.

"En Plein Air: Light & Color" is an art instruction book on watercolor painting. The author focused on urban landscapes and painting outside while viewing your subject. He provided useful tips on these topics (including useful tools and materials) and on watercolor painting in general. He provided several step-by-step exercises to teach various techniques, including perspective, creating good contrasts in value, and how to paint people, cars, and boats with minimal detail so that they don't distract the viewer from your focal point. He talked about choosing colors and creating a sense of light and dark to draw focus and create mood. I felt like he was able to clearly convey information and describe techniques. Overall, I'd recommend this book to watercolor painters who want to learn how to paint on location, urban landscapes.

Do you draw or paint outside?
Award-wining watercolor artist Iain Stewart presents "En Plein Air: Light & Color. Expert techniques and step-by-step projects for capturing mood and atmosphere in watercolor", one of the book from the "En plein Air" series published by Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster. After the introduction the book is divided into seven chapters: 1) Materials, 2) Sketchbooks, 3) Drawing on Location, 4) Painting Techniques, 5) Capturing the Details, 6) Composition, Light & Color, and 7) From Field to Studio. Stewart talks about his personal experiences with drawing outdoors and says about it: "... painting outdoors is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of my work. While these are the ideal locations for the plein air painter, finding the beauty in an alley or looking for new painting spots can be just as fulfilling. The knowledge that beauty and fulfillment are a mere stone’s throw away constantly pulls me outside to record the world around me" (p. 8).
I highly appreciated the graphic, design and examples of his work. The author also included tips which accompany the step-by-step paintings. And although Stewart works with watercolor many of his information and tips are also useful for artists who use other media. I highly recommend this book for every artist who likes to work "en plein air".
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#EnPleinAirLightColor #NetGalley

This book was excellent. Lots of tips for Plein air painters of any medium. I do not paint in watercolor, however, I did find this book very helpful to my oil Plein air painting.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

En Plein Air Light & Color is a watercolor masterclass by Iain Stewart. Due out 13th April 2021 from Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 128 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a technique and tutorial manual in a similar format to the classic (and beloved) Walter Foster instruction books familiar to everyone. I used to love to spend time looking at the spin racks at my favorite arts supply store in town and generally came away from shopping with one or two tucked into my supplies.

The introductory chapters cover very basic tools, materials, and techniques. Mr. Stewart does a very good job of imparting really valuable tips and tricks scattered throughout the text. He talks about attitude to working outdoors, organization, light (and predicting what it's going to do and how it will affect the work process), warming up, sketching, and lots more. I was impressed with the amount of detail and information in the two short introductory chapters. The artist is meticulous and studious. I can imagine that he's a very gifted instructor and envy anyone who has the chance to take a class or workshop from his studio. (Hint to groups, he apparently does do group workshops, so it's something to keep in mind after the plague is behind us).

The bulk of the book is taken up with the tutorials. There are step by step guided tutorials to be recreated. There are also several technique chapters which are less step-by-step and more generally technical. Throughout the book, the author imparts *many* tips. Apart from the gorgeous and colorful art and illustrations, I think I'm most impressed over the density of accessible and usable information he manages to convey.

Well worth seeking out. I would highly recommend this one for the artist's home studio, maker's groups, painting groups, or as a gift perhaps bundled with some of the author's recommended tools/supplies (he doesn't tout particular brands, just sizes, colors, and qualities of pigment). The information contained here is not only applicable to outdoor location painting and sketching. This is a good technical guide for watercolor and sketching in general.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This a very good book on watercolor. The author emphasizes the need to lol at shapes and to eliminate unnecessary elements that create clutter. This book is good for someone with some watercolor experience. This isn’t a step by step introduction to watercolor because many skills are assumed. As an experienced watercolor painter I found many things I had learned but needed a see fro a different perspective, which the author provides. The examples are beautiful and the author emphasizes the importance of design in placement of shapes and composition. Very good book to give the intermediate to advanced artist plenty to learn from and to review the basics of good design.

A mesmerizing work by Lain Stewart. It aims to teach artists about water colours.
It is systematic insight into work of the artist and sneak peak into his tricks. He has painted wonderful paintings in this book. He wants you to capture interplay of light and shadows as well as mood of a scene.
A real work of exceptional art.

“Photographs lie......they can never replicate the human eye.” I think every painter knows these words to be true.

En Plein Air essentially means painting outside. This book encourages you to explore the great outdoors and helps you learn how to really “see” what you’re looking at, through the eyes of an artist. If that’s something you are interested in, you will probably love En Plein Air: Light & Color.

I think artists of every level can learn something from this book, although those with some watercolor experience will have an easier time following along. The author uses some terms like “variegated washes” that are explained later on but not in their initial context. There is a list of useful tools including specific paint colors, and tips on how to put them all together in a portable kit. Advice is given on how to choose a good painting location and how to set up your little mobile outdoor art studio. Now on to painting!

The author gives a very detailed explanation of his method, with step-by-step guides from initial rough sketch through finished painting. You are led through layering your paint washes, preserving the light source, blocking out big shapes, shadows and contrast, and finally adding a few details. How to design your composition and improve your technique is also delved into. You are given color swatches of paint mixes, and even told the specific brush used to achieve certain strokes (number 8 pointed round brush). This book includes a lot of pictures of the author’s beautiful artwork and the processes the artwork went through.

I found this book to be informative ( I’ve been using watercolors off and on for over a decade), inspirational, and written in a style that’s a joy to read. So much encouragement is given to the reader throughout the book, and I really appreciate when the author shares their mistakes so the reader can hopefully avoid making them. Highly recommended.