Realistic Abstracts: Painting abstracts based on what you see

Kees Van Aalst's book is an excellent way to get acquainted with realistic abstractism. It has step by step instructions on how to paint R. A. with easy to follow watercolor pictures and a selection of reference paintings from which to choose. It's 160 pages and is a great addition to my art book collection.

I am an accomplished painter, using mainly oil and watercolor, and have been trying to find a way to free and loosen my tehcnique and approach, and get away from being too close to reality. This book is exactly what I was looking for. Contracrary to the 2 negative reviews, the book gives extremely helpful, clear, concise, and complete advice on ALL important aspects that would contribute to achieving successful results. Throughout my life as a painter, I have bought many art books (some of them on how to loosen your style and hand), but I find this one to be the most helpful and inspirational. I was negatively surprised by the comments of the reviewer who gave 1 star to the book when she said that all the points and advices covered in the book could be found in other books, as if the author was to invent a new magical formula, pill, or potion in art that could help artists instantly imporve their work!!!! The book also includes an impressive amount of outstanding work by other artists, ranging from almost abstract to almost realistic work. This greatly helps the reader to get a wide spectrum of possible approaches to compare and choose from. I only refgret that the book did not give a brief bio on each of them. Though the book focuses on watercolor and acrylic, the same principles, rules, and approaches it provides could be applied to all other media. Finally, the quality of the reproduction of all paintings is outstanding, making it a great pleasure to admire all the works reproduced. If you are trying to change and loosen your style, this is THE book to buy and read!!

Beautiful book with great instructions and exampels...worth the money

I have some fifty watercolor books, but I am always looking for ideas and techniques that will impove my painting. I had never heard to Kees van Aalst, but I was attracted to the concept of realistic abstracts. This is a direction in which I would like to take my work. I was not disappointed when I received the book. As it says in the Introduction, "it deals with the ...colorful area between the figuratve and the abstract." The subtopics begin with the basic principles of design and painting and go on to the combining of reality and illusion and learning to "lie." The idea is to come up with a good painting rather than depicting what is seen precisely. It's all about interpretation. With any kind of painting, but especially with watercolor, the painter must confront the need to eliminate and simplify the subject matter, and van Aalst shows how to do this by first establishing a basic abstract composition and then adding some "suggestions of reality." Many of the beautiful paintings in the book llustrate just how the artist does this. The accompanying text is clear and instructive, without laying out specific guidelines. Rather, van Aalst shares his own thought processes and gives the reader/painter the sense that he or she will be able to work more loosely, too. I often find myself referring to this book before beginning a new painting.

This is a great book - if you already know a little about painting. To have a real grasp on what you'll find here, you should know the "how-to-hold's" and "what-to-do's" of painting already. But anyway, this is a book for learning the basics for abstract painting, their general concepts and more or less the way to aggregate these ideas on your own art work. I really recommend it for the begginers on abstract and not-so-begginers for painting. Just remembering that to do your own abstract, you'll have to simplify and digest reality on your own way. So, even if there were a utterly good book for teaching that, it wouldn't teach you how to do it at all. You will always have to learn it by yourself. And this book here leaves enough space for grow as it is necessary, and explains the basics as deep as it is needed. And the pictures are inspiring as good as the book is complete.

I really wanted to like this book but I find that it has some good elements and some very, very poor ones. One quick personal note: I have been a detailed, realist oil painter (alkyds actually) for 25+ years. I wanted to veer away from that direction and loosen up and change my approach. Hence, my purchase. The book does have some great artwork and I appreciate that. But do not purchase this book if you want to paint semi-real landscapes. There are only a handful of closeups of waves crashing on rocks, etc. You can find better semi-abstract landscapes by using Google. On page 46, I was amazed at what I found. The author list 49, yes 49 different aspects of a painting that must be considered for any one painting. And the bulk of the book explains those various parameters. My head was in a fog. The generalized definition of each hardly clarified matters.And then the author states that that any one of the seven "elements" is tied to the seven "principles". Hardly clarifying and not useful for an entrance into semi=abstract work. While the book contents look nice on paper, there is a lot of blank white space on many, many pages. I really did not pay for blank space. At the end of it all, I felt strongly disappointed. His solution for simplification was to start out using gesture drawings. And that it is it. So pluses, and many minuses for this book. It gets back to the same old thing{ put the book aside, bring out the paints, and develop your own methods. This book is no great help and in many ways, only confuses.

Molto bello , interessante tecnica da provare per gli amanti dell'acquarello ! Soprattutto come con alcune macchie di colore si ha la suggestione di intravedere certe forme e paesaggi inventati

Für alle Aquarellisten die ein freies Arbeiten schätzen, ein wirklich tolles Buch das zumindest bei mir das Verständnis und den Horizont für die Aquarellmalerei enorm bereichert hat.

Excellent little book. Some great inspirational ideas. Well worth it.

水彩画で風景画に挑戦中の妻が、絵画教室の先生から貸してもらって気に入り、手元に置きたいというので購入しました。水彩で風景を描くときに、すべての細部まで写実的に描写せず、主部以外の背景などをいかに省略して表現するかのヒントがいろいろと見つかると言って重宝しています。

There are a range of such books, but I chose this one partly on the strength of a full and positive review, and because when I turned the trial pages, the work of the artist and the colours he chooses are in tune with those that I like. Now I own the book and I confirm his teaching builds on itself, his words are well-chosen as are the range of illustrations.