Painting Portraits and Figures in Watercolor Paperback – December 6, 2011

This is a beautiful book. Mary Whyte has got to be one of the most talented watercolor portrait artists alive today. Her style is both precise, with stunning representations of faces, and loose with lovely backgrounds that exploit the beauty and diversity of the watercolor medium. She captures the personality of her subject with such feeling and sensitivity that, when looking at her paintings, I feel as if I am peeking into each person's personal life.Mary covers the basics, including a peek into her studio, along with her preferences of brushes, paper, paint, colors, etc. She also covers the basic techniques used in watercolor and in her paintings; washes, glazes, and wet-into-wet. She follows with a section on creating textures using dry-brush, lifting, spattering, resists, and stamping. There is also good information on composition and using values. She shows several paintings, from start to finish, that give you a good feel for how she goes about achieving her results.She is wise to point out that watercolor, along with any of the serious arts, takes considerable patience, fortitude and practice,and if mastering the medium were easy, "everyone would be an adept watercolorist and the medium would loose it's magical appeal." With that in mind, she reminds you that "if you are passionate about watercolor, chances are you will get up the learning curve much quicker."In my opinion, "beginning portrait painting" is a bit of an oxymoron. Being a good portrait artist, in ANY medium, takes years of developing drawing skills and learning the ins-and-outs of whatever medium you choose to use. So is this a book for a beginner? You bet it is! It is a grand reminder to stay the course and develop your skills as an artist so you can become good at expressing what you choose to express and not be limited by a lack of skills. Are you going to be able to paint like Mary by looking at her examples if you are a beginner? No more than I can paint like John Singer Sargent by looking at his beautiful watercolors - but I love my Sargent books and get inspired every time I look through them. There are other books out there to help the beginner with the basic portrait skills. If you are a more accomplished painter, then this book will be an excellent resource.I highly recommend adding this book to your watercolor library. It is eye candy! And if you would like to see a more complete collection of her amazing portraits, I suggest you also snag a copy of - "Working South: Paintings and Sketches by Mary Whyte", since it is in print and affordable. Some of my favorite watercolor artists' books are priced through the roof since they have gone out of publication. So grab a copy while you can! Happy painting.

Good book

Great book, packed with lots of super illustrations and helpful tips.

I am so happy I purchased Mary Whyte’s book. I’d been aware of Mary Whyte as a watercolor portrait/ figure artist but recently I watched an online video of her painting and was struck by wanting to know more. I have been painting watercolors for many years but it is so great to read her advise on color palettes, glazing and wet-on-wet techniques as backgrounds. I now have new inspiration to be a better artist. The book is beautifully written, with many of her incredible paintings used as examples of techniques she utilizes. I will definitely be buying more of her books. Mary Whyte has become my “rock star.”

I became interested in Mary Whyte after watching her video on how to paint a portrait from a live model. I wanted to learn more of ther techniques and processes, so pre-ordered this Portrait and Figure book. The book is beautiful, has many of her gorgeous paintings of figures and portraits, and lots of inspirational words. There is a lot of good, solid information provided in the book, supplies she uses, different techniques to create differnt types of edges, value, backgrounds, etc. But there are things lacking in the book that could have made it a stronger book- most of us buy books of artists we admire to learn more about their actual painting technique- this book has very few demos of paintings in progress, and the few that there are, show only a few photos of the painting in process, and are not very informative. Even the topics covered are only touched on and she doesn't go into depth in any one topic. No specific information on painting features for instance. In my opinion, a beginning portrait painter may be disappointed with this book for not showing more demos and not having more in depth information on how to approach a portrait. For an intermediate portrait painter like myself who paints from a live model once a week, this is a nice book to have in my collection, yet it is more useful as an inspirational book instead of learning many new techniques. I do wish the book had more demos and more specific details like how to paint features. However, this book is a very nice complement to Mary Whyte's DVD "Mastering Watercolor Portriature", which shows her painting a portrait start to finish from a live model. I give the book four stars for myself because of where I am now in my painting journey, but if I had gotten this book 3 years ago when just starting to paint portraits and figures and trying to figure out things like how to paint an eye, I would have been more disappointed.

Wonderful book if you want to up your watercolor game and either begin to paint portraits or are a portrait painter and want to get better

Excellent book I'm very helpful for artists

Mary Whyte is one of my favorite watercolorists and I am amazed at her work. This book is just like taking lessons from Mary in her studio. She explains a lot of technical information (including her color choices for skin tones), and gives the reader insight into her own personal philosophy about being an artist. She also gives the reader a short historical trip through watercolor in her section on Learning from the Masters. This is book is worth twice the price and you will learn much from it. I am slowly going through it, as I would if taking a class, and savoring each chapter for its information and insight into Mary's work and methods.