Book Review: Beyond Technique: Painting with Passion

Alvaro Castagnet is known for his powerful and expressive style. I find his work intriguing because he uses a lot of black which is quite uncommon for a watercolour artist. Maybe that's what makes his watercolour different from others. Because of the contrast, his paintings are bold and emotive.

This 128-page hardcover book features a selection of his works. The majority are paintings of cityscape and restaurants, and other miscellaneous ones on people like dancers and others going about with their work on the streets.

Because of his colour choices, many of his paintings are quite dark. The text covers his painting philosophy. What I enjoyed reading more is the story behind each painting.

There are some step-by-step demonstrations included to give us a look at his process, where he starts from, the colours he uses. It's not tutorial style or very technical. Some examples are quite rush, like the one on an Australian landscape which just has 4 pictures to completion. He uses a lot of wet on wet but it's not adequately explained with regards to how he actually applies them to create his unique style.

Overall, it's an inspiring book but it's more for those who like his style, and certainly not a beginner's book.

You can check out more of his work at www.alvarocastagnet.net.

Beyond Technique: Painting With Passion is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)