Big Brush Watercolour, Ron Ranson – Book Review

This one’s one step up from Frank Clarke. It’s about painting landscapes in a fairly loose manner.  Using a big brush as it says in the name of the book. It goes into more detail about how to compose landscapes and paint things like trees, skies and foregrounds.  It adds depth to everything Frank had to say in his book.  It’s also 128 pages long and he also has no greens in his palette.

It was a useful book to read but there are so many books out there that are aimed at this particular stage of an artist’s development.  For me, this one struggles to stand out from a crowded section of the shelf in Foyles.  And just flicking through the book as I sit here, I find Ron’s palette a bit dull.  He uses a lot of burnt umber and raw sienna and only four primaries, including the opaque cadmium yellow.  Even the background colour on the front of the book looks like the skirting boards in a dentist’s waiting room that’s overdue for repainting.  My artwork has always been more vibrant than Roy’s, even when I was using cadmium and lemon yellows.  All a bit depressing but still worth three palettes.