The Bottom Line
If you want to know what it takes to become a top wildlife artist, read this book. The time spent researching and painting, the effort put in, and dedication of John Seerey-Lester is inspiring.
Pros
- Get insight into how a wildlife artist works
- Wildlife artist working in both oils and acrylics
- Includes a variety of animals, from bears to birds
Cons
- Demonstrations shown in 4 to 6 steps only
- Not ideal for an artist interested only in birds
- Size of the book necessitates small reproductions
Description
- Hardback book, 144 pages, ISBN 1-58180-242-0, published by North Light Books (www.nlbooks.com)
- Wildlife artist John Seerey-Lester is known for his “unusual and compelling” compositions
- Chapter 1: Why and How Seerey-Lester creates his paintings, including his motivation and equipment
- Chapter 2: Researching and composing wildlife paintings
- Chapter 3: Fieldwork for wildlife paintings, the mediums used and dealing with the weather
- Chapter 4: Colour and Value, including three step-by-step demonstrations
- Chapter 5: Painting the Subject, capturing spirit and painting realistic wildlife art
- Chapter 6: Painting Habitat, including seven demos on painting appropriate and realistic habitat
- Chapter 7: Painting Atmosphere, including rain, mist, night
- Chapter 8: Painting light, shadows, and using light as a focal point in a wildlife painting
Guide Review - Review: Painting Wildlife with John Seerey-Lester
I’m sure we all vaguely appreciate that great wildlife art takes time. But only once you’ve read this book will you appreciate just much and what dedication it’ll take to become a top wildlife artist. John Seerey-Lester lets us into his world, explaining what motivates him, how he does his research, composes a specific wildlife painting, his working methods (the animal is painted first, the background second) and shares some of his secrets through step-by-step demonstrations and how-to’s on painting fur and feathers. The pages are lavishly illustrated with his wildlife paintings; they’ll leave you in awe, inspire you; the captions provide insight and tips. Be sure to check the captions for the size of the paintings – they’re not small!
