Reid - Watercolor Basics - Lets Get Started

Glacier National Park in Winter
Montana, United States
23 33 (59cm 84cm)
Watercolor on Crescent cold-press watercolor board
Collection of Nathaniel C. Stoddard
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Water color
BASICS
Let's Get Started

JACK REID

NORTH LIGHT BOOKS
CINCINNATI, OHIO

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

It was as a young boy that Jack Reid became obsessed with images and, at the age of ten, bought his first watercolor painting kit. Money was difficult to come by for a boy growing up in Toronto during the Great Depression, but the young Reid always managed to scrounge up enough to keep himself in paints, brushes and paper. And though goods and services came dearly back then, views and sights were and always will be free. His obsession for water-color continues today, sixty-three years later.

In 1970 Reid quit his day job as a graphic designer to pursue his watercolor painting full time. It was the right decision. His award-winning paintings are internationally recognized and can be found at such addresses as Windsor Castle and the Savoy Hotel in England. Through outdoor and indoor seminars and television, Reid has imbued more than 10,000 students, young and old, with a passion and love for the medium of watercolor painting. He continues to instruct amateur and professional painters alike in the basic techniques for which he is renowned.

In 1992, Reid was awarded the Commemorative Medal by the Canadian government in recognition for his contribution to the arts. In 1997, he was the artist in residence at Montana's Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. Reid was elected a lifetime member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (C.S.P.W.C.) in 1998.

Watercolor Basics: Let's Get Started. Copyright 1998 by Jack Reid. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. (800) 289-0963. First edition.

Other fine North Light Books are available from your local bookstore, art supply store or direct from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Reid, Jack.

Watercolor basics : let's get started / Jack Reid.1st ed.

p. cm.(Watercolor basics)

ISBN-13: 978-0-89134-867-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-89134-867-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Watercolor paintingTechnique. I. Title. II. Series.

ND2420.R45 1998

751.42'2dc21

98-4285
CIP

Editor: Glenn Marcum

Production editor: Amy Jeynes

Designer: Candace Haught

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife, the love of my life, Maggie, whose love and support are a constant source of energy and inspiration. I could never have gotten this far in life without her.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank the following people for their help and unflagging support in bringing this book to fruition. Jennifer Beale, who kept after me to write and design the original version of this book; Pam Seyring, who discovered my book and who was the first to present it; Rachel Wolf, whose guidance I cherish; my editor, Glenn Marcum; photographer Peter Gerretsen; and last, but most important, William Shields, who transcribed this entire book from cover to cover making sense of my garbled tapes, fits of temperament and periods of discouragement and despondency. He persisted even though he must have wondered if it was worthwhile. Well, thanks to him, it is.

(facing page)
Rainy Day
Haliburton, Ontario, Canada
10 14(25cm 36cm)
Demonstration in plein air
for students. Watercolor on
Winsor & Newton
260-lb. (550g/m2) cold-press
watercolor paper
Collection of Mrs. Maggie Reid
Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Sunbreak
Near Invermere, British Columbia, Canada
20 28 (51cm 71cm)
Watercolor on Saunders Waterford 300-lb. (640g/m2)
rough watercolor paper
Collection of Mr. Frank Redl
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Contents

All the basic materials you need to start painting, from brushes to paper to paints and all the accessories.

Easy suggestions on how to arrange your indoor studio and streamline your materials for outdoor painting trips, as well as exercises explaining how to handle and control your brushes with ease.

The flat wash, the graded wash, painting wet-in-wet, and the dry-brush are explored in nine simple step-by-step exercises.

Learn how to control depth and contrast for realistic paintings with eleven monochrome exercises.

Easy, informative step-by-step demonstrations take you from one color to five, revealing how to make your paintings sing with color.

A seven-exercise workshop allows you to flex your artistic muscle creating beautiful paintings while using all the tips explored in earlier chapters.

Still more informative exercises look at composing effective paintings and using photography and photocopying to make art from real life.

INTRODUCTION

I was born in Toronto in 1925 and am blessed with six brothers and five sisters. One of the strongest memories from my childhood is an addiction to drawing and a curiosity about visual images. I was constantly analyzing light and its effects on my surroundings. I became an addict at rendering with pencils, crayons or whatever was available. This was a healthy addiction from which I have thankfully never fully recovered.

When I was ten years old I joined the local Kiwanis Boys Club in Trinity College in Toronto. It was here that I met my mentor, Tom Roberts, a professional watercolor artist. He took a personal interest in me because of my obvious fascination with art. He encouraged me to accompany him on sketching trips. One day, Tom completed a small watercolor of the old St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. He executed this quickly with a brief explanation of composition, values and colors (which were very limited). When he finished, I was completely hooked on transparent watercolorand have been ever since.

Windy Day
Isle of Skye, northern Scotland
10 14 (25cm 36cm)
Plein air watercolor on Saunders Waterford 200-lb.
(425g/m2) cold-press watercolor paper
Collection of Mr. Murray McPhail
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

He did not give me theories or synthetic book knowledge, valuable as those may be. What he did do is demonstrate the how of watercolor painting in simple terms. The effect was so great that I could literally paint that scene from memory today, sixty years later.