How to Paint Like Turner

I had only ever dreamed of a book that discussed watercolour from a historical perspective AND had exercises/copies to try and learn from. I absolutely loved the biography and the material culture aspects on the supplies section. I also appreciate the opportunity to learn watercolour in an antiquated style-- Turner's 1/2 avant garde 1/2 regency way of working is not common in modern watercolour and so it is interesting to work like this.There are so many 'exercises' to try and they go over everything you would see in a Turner sketch- mountains, fire, moonlight, water, trees, figures etc. I don't always agree with the colour selection they choose for the exercises, but working within the author's selection has given me an opportunity to experiment with colour in a new way. I also have appreciated the author's incorporation of additional techniques like scraping and damaging the paper to create some of the effects in the copies.One of the most important lesson I learned so far has been the importance of having a good wash brush. You cannot get the reflective effects from water without an impeccably smooth wash.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but absolutely love it.For a start, it was bigger than I expected, it's A4 sized. It's extremely clearly and well written and edited. The contents are: Getting to know Turner; Turner's materials; Getting started; and Learning from Turner. Each one if these chapters has sub-sections, for example, in Learning from Turner, you get to cover sky, water, fire, trees, buildings, people and animals, mountains, sunrise and sunset, and moonlight. The book includes a good and detailed chronology, glossary, bibliography and index.The Learning from Turner section gives very clear and well laid out guidelines on reproducing some of his techniques. They are so clear that anyone from the absolute watercolor beginner to expert would get a lot out of these exercises and would be able to create works to be proud of. Even better, the techniques you will learn if you follow the exercises would give you confidence to strike out on your own and create your own compositions.This fascinating book really is a triumph from the team at Tate and I can't recommend it highly enough.If you are a big Turner fan, you may be interested to know that nearly all of Turner's sketchbooks are available to view online. Here's a link to his wonderful watercolor sky sketches: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/search?q=turner%27s%20sky%20watercolour%20sketchbooksI love that you can click through the pages and see all this! Even better, if you visit London, you can make an appointment and see these wonderful sketchbooks in person, for free.

Wonderful book. I'm not an art history buff, but I found myself savoring each page of the biography part of the book. The demonstrations which follow are very well thought out. This book acts as a guide to the techniques used by Turner, written and demonstrated by people who have made a study of his work .Unlike other watercolor books which I might look at a bit and set aside, I find myself using this book repeatedly as a reference and an inspiration. I've already created two paintings using the guidance in this book, and seen a marked improvement in my work. This is not a book for beginners; you need to have some experience as well as an adventurous spirit to benefit from this work. If this describes you, then purchase the book.

The bio part is well-written and interesting, but the tutorials are disappointing. The demo pics often don't look like the painting they're taken from, and even if they do, they are taken from ugly paintings. (No one's work is 100% great, including Turner's.) What's more, they really don't seem to KNOW how to "paint like Turner." You need special papers not available today except for theoretical expensive custom-made options. The bio portion explains that Turner performed all sorts of surgeries on his paper--scraping, pounding, etc., but I couldn't figure out exactly what kind of papers he used. Sounded like thin papers, but then you learn he's doing all this scraping, which would dig through a thin paper. Bottom line... get some images of Turner's that you admire, and try getting the same effects via experimentation. Aside from basic watercolor techniques like diffusing colors, wet in wet, glazing, use of opaque yellows (slightly unusual), etc., there's not a lot of instruction here, and definitely nothing I found to be eye-opening.

This is a nice book for general information. Doesn't have as much detail as I had hoped for on how he did his painting. This has general information by subject. 'How to paint skies, how to paint water'... so its okay. It does have some interesting information on Turner and the paints he used, so for the price its not bad. If one has a lot of painting experience this wouldn't be for you.

Good overall instruction in watercolor.The discussion of Turners work is authoritative and worthwhile. I am more inspired by the abstract work, that studies with intimate detail.After work in the manner of Turner. It would be a good idea to do work in greater luminosity. Experiments with a more violent and aggressive approach..such as the German, Emil Nolde. Winston Hough

I really enjoyed learning more about Turner's techniques and seeing the demos of the artists demonstrating some of them. I've been painting 40 years in watercolor and have a huge library. This one is special and worth buying, even for experience watercolorists.

As a Chinese brush painting for forty years, this book inspired me to paint watercolor. JMW Turner was not only a European painter, he has left some big footprints in the history of human art. As my tribute to Tuner here is a copy his moonlight villa painting.

An inspiring read. This book has several step by step guides allowing you to re-create some of Turner’s less well known paintings. The book is fascinating and gives you an insight into some of the less well known techniques used by Turner such as he made his own paper, either soaked the entire paper in a colour, or painted both sides of the paper, to give the paper that warmth and depth of colour. This book inspired me to create some of my own Turner style paintings.

In the Kindle version of this book the images are such a low resolution that you cannot see any detail - in many cases just a blur, with no ability to zoom in. This is very frustrating as I am enjoying the text, but having to Google better versions of the examples, which is a right old pain in the rear.

Thought it would be interesting, followed exercises, but found I would rather paint like me. I admire Turner watercolours, but I think if he were alive now with modern paints his work would be even better and quite different. Lessons for a different past time.

Art book

A bit disappointed with this book, after initial browsing I haven’t looked at it again.