Landscape Painting Essentials with Johannes Vloothuis: Lessons in Acrylic, Oil, Pastel and Watercolor Paperback – Illustrated, April 22, 2015

I think it's wise, when reviewing art instruction books, not to expect any single book to teach you everything you want to know. Instead, look on each book as a tool in your toolbox of tips and techniques, knowledge and guidance.Landscape Painting Essentials is a terrific book, heavier on the principles side than step-by-step instruction, although there are several step-by-step "demonstrations" in it, showing how to apply the guidelines Vloothuis sets down. It contains examples in acrylic, oil, watercolor, and pastel, so there's something for everyone.Some reviewers have criticized this book because Vloothuis paints in a looser, less detailed style. Such criticism is unfair. As current landscape painters go, we have the contemporary English artist Michael James Smith, who copies photos with hyper-realistic precision, and on the other end of the spectrum, the contemporary New Zealand tonalist Michael Francis McCarthy, who paints in a minimalist style, eliminating as much detail as possible. Vloothuis is somewhere between the two.Whichever style you choose, you'll learn something worthwhile from this book. Vloothuis shows you what to eliminate and why. He offers tips to make your paintings more effective. He believes on improving on nature. His ideas about moving elements around, varying tones to improve depth of field, and avoiding cloning of objects all make perfect sense.Fellow painters, the true value of this book is that Vloothuis boiled down the lessons he learned in decades of landscape painting. You and I are part-time artists who manage to grab a half hour or hour out of our busy schedule to paint. Vloothuis has been doing it full time for years. This is solid experience talking. No matter what your style, you can apply his ideas to make your landscapes better.If you recognize this book as an addition to your landscape painting library, you will find it very beneficial. The examples are both majestic and mundane. It's certainly worth your time and money.

This is the most valuable art book i own. It gives us principles of how to do great paintings, why we should do abstract shapes, the types of lines that enhance the paintings, and so forth. Johannes ("Jo") teaches online classes through Artists Network, painting online three Saturdays a month. It doesn't matter what your medium is, oil, watercolor, or pastel -- the principles apply and greatly improve your paintings. Johannes is generous in this book telling us why to do different things that enhance our landscape paintings. His first chapter starts off with the important idea of painting how the eye sees -- it's not paint "what " you see but "how" the eye sees so the sides of the painting are subdued and more blurred compared with the focal area. He goes on to talk about shapes which are best when they are abstract with two different sides. He teaches the principle of contrast, avoiding shapes that are the same, learning how to show depth, and so forth. These are principles that great artists include in their paintings but we rarely have methodically explained in classes and books. Johannes is a natural teacher.

Very clear instructions and demonstrations that can be applied right away to your paintings. I checked this out from the library and found it so helpful that I bought a copy for my own reference. The first painting I applied these techniques to sold right away.

Lots of painting hints and things to consider when setting up a painting.

Professional to beginner, the principles in the book can be used by every type of artist no matter the genre or medium. Ive done all the courses and spent thousands from the experts and Jo's principles are much more thorough and considered. And! simple and easy to apply. You'll never look at another painting the same way again and my work has improved ten fold. Now as a non objective abstract painter the publishing is a little on the dry side, but the content from the author is spot on so its easy for me to look past all that. the gold is there.

Johannes wrote and illustrated a wonderful book and resource to take you plein air painting and art to the next level. Every page teaches you how to see and paint like a pro. Thank you…

I often get overwhelmed by the details of the reference picture. Or I didn’t understand why successful landscape paintings are so much more exciting and interesting than reference pictures. Johannes Vloothuis clearly explain with examples a number of different concepts for successful composition. I also love the idea of cropping 3 views from one location, not trying to convey too much in one scene. Plus, I love the idea of collaging different trees, rocks, water features, and mountains into one scene. I took notes. This is one art books that I spent quite a lot of time reading and rereading to hone my skill.I have bought a lot of art books over the years. I recommend buying or borrowing this book.

This book outlines the theory taught by the author. I have attended his classes for over a year. I recommend his classes through Artist Network. Each class gives a full explanation of what & why he not only picked the photo for painting but down to the finish of the new painting. His theories are given during the class to emphasize the reasoning behind each. You will end up with a full book of notes to help you on your way to better paintings and extended learning.