Terry Harrison’s Complete Guide To Watercolour Landscapes – Book Review

It’s full of step-by-step demonstrations that (unlike in so many other books) have enough steps in them for a beginner to follow.  There are lots of interesting techniques within all of those exercises.  And the artwork is bright and colourful. It ticks so many boxes.  In what I’ve described as a crowded market for book sales that take the artist another step beyond the Frank Clarke book, this one is an absolute nugget.  In the Summer of 2018 when the quality of my art suddenly jumped for reasons unknown, this was the only book in my collection that I was looking back at and learning from.

One weird thing about the book is that Terry uses it to try to market his special foliage brushes and some special green paints that he was involved in developing.  Obviously it’s a big no thanks from me to the greens, but I did invest in the brushes and they do make a real improvement to my painting.

There are lots of other Terry Harrison books out there on things like boats, rustic buildings and snow scenes.  I may be tempted at some point but we’ll see – there’s a snob inside me that keeps telling me this would be a backward step.

Anyway, this is a four palette book.  Start with Frank Clarke, then go on to Terry Harrison and you’re off to a flier.