Take Three Colours: Watercolour Snow Scenes

Imagine being able to recreate a wintry landscape, using just three colours. Impossible, you might think by artist Grahame Booth reveals how to do just that in his book Watercolour Snow Scenes. Taking you step-by-step through nine projects, you'll be painting masterpieces in no time.

* Crafts Beautiful *

Using just three colours, Grahame Booth shows us how to paint snow scenes in watercolour in this new addition to Search Press's Take Three Colours series. The pared-down painting kit keeps everything simple. Grahame leads us through nine step-by-step projects progressing in complexity as we work through them. There's a helpful chapter on how to transfer your drawing to the watercolour paper and plenty of useful tips and advice to give you the confidence to have a go and develop your own snow scenes.

* Leisure Painter - December 2020 *

If the idea of using colours for snow – even if it is only three – seems like a contradiction read on. Snow, of course, isn't white but takes on the colour of the things that surround it, especially the sky or shadows of building and vegetation.

Grahame's message is simplify – look, visualise and interpret. Don't overcomplicate your mixes or fiddle with details and you'll soon find that less – a lot less – really is more.

In this easy-to-follow guide, Grahame will guide you through shadows, reflections, hills, trees, water and even a sunset in nine straightforward projects.

* SAA *

Search Press have become adept at producing series that include books that stand on their own merits rather than simply fitting into pre-defined slots. Much of that is down to having as simple an idea as possible. As a result authors don’t need to go into contortions to get the correct shape and are free to express themselves as they normally do. This makes the whole idea easy to explain to those same authors so that everyone has a clear idea of what’s required. That, of course, is the key to any successful book, but it’s surprising (and rather alarming) how often it gets missed. If everyone’s pulling in different directions, the dog’s sure not to miss out on its dinner.

All of which is a preamble to saying that I like this a lot. Snow is as tricky a subject as water: it’s one of those things that isn’t really there. Water relies on reflection, but snow can be even more difficult. No, it’s not just matter of a large tube of titanium white or areas of paper left intentionally blank. Snow doesn’t reflect exactly, and it has an identifiable form in a way that water doesn’t, but it takes its appearance from the light and shade that fall on it. Cue plenty of opportunities for over-complication and far too many colours in the mix.

And, as if by magic – 3 colours and 3 brushes. Less is more, simplification is always going to be your friend. As the nights draw in and who knows what precipitation the weather will bring, here’s a guide that will tell you all you need to know. No, not everything – that would be a tall order in just 9 projects – but enough for you to understand what’s happening on your palette, brushes and paper and you didn’t really need more than that, did you?

-- Henry Malt * Artbookreview.n