Book Review WATERCOLOUR THE NATURAL WORLD BY TIM POND

BOOK REVIEW

Title WATERCOLOUR THE NATURAL WORLD

Author TIM POND

Paperback 

Published by GMC Publications (2022)

ISBN 978-1-78494-639-5

Colour Theory pages from Watercolour the Natural World 
by Tim Pond
GMC Publications

The reviewer has come to recognise, Tim Pond (the author), as being an established illustrator (mixed media) who has had a successful career as an expedition artist representing editorial and media outlets. Acknowledging too, Pond's work in academia (as a lecturer in graphic communication, illustration and architecture), and his lead in community education/exhibitions and art projects, and, of course, Tim Pond is now a two-times published author of step-by-step guides to drawing and painting subjects that relate to the natural world.

Figure 1: Gizmo example from the art book: Watercolour The Natural World

by Tim Pond

WATERCOLOUR THE NATURAL WORLD - GMC Publications (2022) is Tim Pond's second book. He has repeated the format of his first book: The Field Guide to Drawing and Sketching Animals - Search Press (2018), where he shows easy to follow gizmos and widgets, using them as guiding tips, (as frameworks almost), detailing how to overlap lines using drawing and sketching techniques, to arrive at creature depictions that are anatomically accurate, thereby, arriving at a drawing (or painting) that has been carefully considered and well observed. In this second book however, Pond devotes more to the passing on of tips and techniques relating to watercolour painting: the tools, equipment, materials, mixing, and the colourising of the studies.

from Watercolour the Natural World 
by Tim Pond
GMC Publications

The author has made a careful selection of mammals, birds, insects, trees and plants as the art study subjects. Each subject we acknowledge as being examples of living things that have adapted, and which thrive (for the best part) within a particular world climate type. Pond identifies also, the resulting affecting landscapes that continuous weather patterns, the seasons, and the geographic locations itself, has formed over the ages. All of this is identified chapter by chapter along with the art activity that relates to each.

from Watercolour the Natural World 
by Tim Pond
GMC Publications

Climate types explored include: temperate, frozen and tropical. The author mentions locations like rocky mountain and woodland, and focuses on one or two examples of wildlife that inhabitat such areas. He includes plants as well, to demonstrate an area's landscape and eco-system(s). Examples of animals to draw are camels (as in Figure 1), penguins, giraffes and Grizzly Bears. Two plant studies include succulents and deciduous trees. Pages dedicated to aquatic life also feature, with instructions to create a shoreline fossil study; a seahorse of shallow, tropical waters, or the swimming action of a Green Turtle (a creature of the open sea), to name but three.

This new publishing partnership for Tim Pond has resulted in a project workbook that illustrates HIS illustrative artworks in a more specialist presentation; and rightly so. Comparative publishing improvements from Pond's first book to this second book come in the form of text that has larger, clearer fonts, and textured pages and book cover of a more superior quality. The reviewer feels GMC Publications a better fit to present the work and detail of an artist of Pond's calibre. 

Watercolour The Natural World is a lovely workbook, and is a resource that will enable the creation of some wonderful drawings and paintings of nature subjects.

Mountain Ranges fromfrom Watercolour the Natural World 
by Tim Pond
GMC Publications

**ENDS**

Book review by artist and theatre critic, Debra Hall

References

Pond, T. (2022) Watercolour The Natural World. GMC Publications

Pond, T. (2019) The Field Guide to Drawing and Sketching Animals. Search Press.

ONLINE

GMC Publications Watercolour the Natural World https://www.gmcbooks.com/watercolour-the-natural-world/

GMC Publications Watercolour the Natural World by Tim Pond Book Trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPM9h7xRZ2o

Hall, D. (2019) Author Interview at Not Compulsory https://notcompulsory.blogspot.com/2019/03/author-interview-at-not-compulsory-tim.html


Amazon UK Watercolour the Natural World
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watercolour-Natural-World-Tim-Pond/dp/1784946397/

Tim Pond Illustration and Graphic Design
http://www.timpond.co.uk/