The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Landscapes Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, May 11, 2006

I love landscape painting but don't get to paint a lot. This book is a great source of information when I face painting, how-to questions concerning things I never knew or can't remember how to do it. I sometimes just sit down and read thru parts of it just to rekindle what I love doing.

I love watercolor books. I have many, some are great and some I could have lived without. This book…….. is AMAZING! Everything you need and want to learn about painting landscapes in watercolor is in this book. It’s jammed packed with so much useful information. I’m reading it now and I sit back sometimes and think about how much time and work and love of watercolor was poured into this book. AND it’s so perfectly presented and explained by the author. I’ve been painting for 4 years now and I’ve learned so much only being half way through the book. I’m currently reading the section on water and no joke…… every type of water in every setting is explained…… in detail with demonstrations by the author. Do yourself a favor and buy this book to learn all the techniques and ways to approach landscape painting. Then start buying some books that interest you as far as style and artists you may admire. I wish I would have.

This is one of the better comprehensive overviews of basic watercolor techniques, especially for landscape painting. I didn’t appreciate this at first, but now that I've read many other watercolor books this one really does cover a ton of material in one place and is a great starting point for beginners. I will say, personally I don’t connect with the Author’s painting style in many of the examples, so I prefer to look elsewhere for art inspiration, but looking beyond that there is some great info here.I’d recommend the hard cover version if available or else the newer “The Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook” which combines this title with "The original Watercolorist's Essential Notebook" ; the Kindle version is plain old, standard kindle format, which I don’t love for art and how-to books and is a bit buggy on top of it (MacOS Desktop Kindle App).

Where was this book when I was teaching myself watercolor in 2020? As someone who takes great joy in landscape painting (especially en plein air) I wish I had this reference back then. Heck, you can never stop learning the things you love the most, and I have picked up a few helpful tricks even now! I loved the parts about perceived colors changing with light, and water behavior. This book is a must-have for serious beginners and beyond!

This is a fabulous book whether you're a beginner or painting for years. Gordan MacKenzie teaches different techniques showing various results, you choose which works for you. I particularly wanted to paint flowing or splashing water that looked alive, not flat and dull. I am improving my landscape techniques, it requires practice and experimenting that I find thrilling.

I really like this book, love all the information provided. I wish I had found this book earlier in my journey with watercolor. I found it to be very interesting and helpful.

I liked the ways he told how and when to lay the water and spread the paint guiding with his wisdom. I'm glad I bought his book, if you are just learning as myself then I recommend the book

I bought the "Watercolorist's Essential Notebook"(WEN) and this "WEN - Landscapes," fearing they would be the same with a few different illustrations. (I was specifically looking for ideas on mountains). I was surprised that the first 20 pages contained the same material, but presented with landscapes theme. The rest of the book had many ideas and suggestions, not just rehashed WEN. There was enough new material to warrant this purchase. I should keep trying the presented techniques, but there was enough to satisfy my desire. For less than the cost of a lesson (I consider shipping/handling the same as using my vehicle to drive to the lesson) I have hours of experimenting ahead of me. The illustrations of the effects of each technique are very good, and the "step by step" illustrations aren't cookie cutter recipes, but suggestions for your own experiments. As a "new watercolorist" (meaning I haven't sold anything yet, but I am at the point of feeling I now could), I was surprised at how well I took to, and how much I learned from, both WEN books. I would say suitable from the start for beginners, and advanced students to working.