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List Price £15.99 Amazon Price £14.39 This DVD takes you on an exhilarating painting journey with David Bellamy. In parts it resembles an extreme sport rather than a leisurely hobby as David canoes, climbs and slides to reach the perfect vantage point. That said the DVD is crammed with lots to interest the painter who prefers to keep their feet firmly on flatter terrain. David’s ability to simplify scenes and capture atmosphere, coupled with his easy to watch presentation style make this very enjoyable to watch. The fact that he uses a limited palette throughout should help to convince all that it is not necessary to have a large number of colours to produce appealing landscapes. First David visits the Pembrokeshire coast; where he starts by explaining what materials he uses to produce watercolour sketches on location. Then you are off to Solva harbour for the first of 3 sketches at this location. This sketch is of boats moored in the harbour produced on rough tinted paper so using watercolour with the addition of gouache for the highlights. Then you join David for a paddle in a force 5 wind to the harbour entrance where he produces a watercolour and watercolour pencil sketch of the rocks at the harbour entrance. David returns to the harbour at low tide and captures the harbour scene including hills, cottages, harbour wall and a boat. This is done with a water soluble graphite pencil, brush and water. In the studio David decides to make a finished painting of Solva harbour based on the final sketch he made on location. The painting uses only 3 colours - Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber and French Ultramarine and illustrates clearly that you do not need loads of different colours to produce a beautiful and atmospheric painting. Then journey into the mountains of Snowdonia for some subzero sketching. David is accompanied by Jenny Keal and a bottle of gin, as antifreeze for the watercolours. First it is necessary to slide down a frozen mountain stream to get a viewpoint of a timber bridge on stone supports. This is sketched with dry water soluble graphite. The next sketch features a mountain with a middle distance cottage. A selection of rocks in a snowy landscape is sketched with water soluble graphite and water and the help of a warm armpit to thaw out the brush. With the aid of some gin David paints some detailed foreground rocks with a distant hill in watercolour again using about 3 colours. Next is a more finished snow scene with distant hills, foreground trees and even a passing sheep. This time the colours used are Raw Sienna, Light Red and French Ultramarine. Back in the studio David shows how to transform the rather uninspiring sketch of the selection of rocks captured on location into a breathtaking finished painting. This time the 3 colours used are Naples Yellow, Indian Red and Prussian Blue. Running time is approximately 50 minutes. |
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Ruth Grinstead © 2002-2008 All rights reserved |