Composition of Outdoor Painting

Very simply, if you are learning to paint landscapes (Watercolor, Acrylics or Oils) this book is a classic. Almost every serious art teacher of landscape painting will suggest this book by Edgar Payne on Composition. Payne has a zillion small thumbnails of different ways an artist can compose their paintings. New painters like me thought - well you just start painting a scene ---WRONG! Buy it!!

One of my most useful painting guides.

Invaluable book for serious landscape painters. A fine copy, exactly as described. Arrived punctually.

Please remember in print there's no inflection of voice. Not trying to be a jerk BUT, lots of people complained about the lack of color examples. I am nobody, but my understanding of all two dimensional art is 1 composition and perspective 2 light and shadow and 3 get your values right. All of these are addressed extremely competently! This is not a coffee table book. This is for those who have DEDICATED themselves to art! Here are successful paintings, from various artists, broken down as greyscale values for you! Invaluable! I live in Florida and our stormy days are an ugly gray skies! I grew up in Wisconsin, and storms there were bruised plum, indigo, and some pinks. The clouds were so heavy and close, a child could touch them. So, where are YOU? Are you in Chinese yellow smog? Brown / gray LA smog? Stark Mexican sun? Arid desert? Steely blue/ gray English countryside? That's where YOUR color palette comes in! I agree with another reviewer. This is the Bible! I hope this helps you to see the immense value of this book! The principals stand up for every subject( flowers, portraits, city scapes, seaside villages nestled in bluffs, superheroes looking down on menacing cities...) The $50 was painful, but well spent and completely worth it!

Arrived in perfect shape, just what I was hoping for.

As a beginning oil painter, I find this book on composition very helpful. For me, it is much easier to read and to absorb than Carlson's similar text. I gave it four stars not because of the content, but due to an unfortunate lack of editing. Numerous obvious spelling and grammatical errors detract from the seriousness and passion of Payne's words.

Edgar Payne does a wonderful job on composition instruction for the landscape artist. This book is a classic and a great purchase for any artist's library!

Two books, this one and Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting (John F. Carlson) were highly recommended by a workshop instructor as the two "go to" books for serious artists. He knew what he was talking about. The text and numerous sketches/illustrations plus examples of other painter's work go a long way to teaching the fundamentals of composition. Payne briefly shares his color palette and mixing strategies -- a beginner in oils I appreciated this info, too. This edition includes a chapter written by his daughter who expands some areas of the book and includes color plates of his and his wife's work. For the most part it is printed in black and white except the final chapter. The publisher needs a good proofreader--several typos --- and a better layout --the running chapter headings are too close to the text, confusing to the reader. (I am qualified and available!) I highly recommend this book.