Watercolor is a magical and often challenging medium. Once mastered, it will reward you with the pleasure of creating striking works of art of infinite variety. This book is a culmination of many years of teaching. Through it, I set out to clear up widespread misconceptions about painting with watercolors. These common confusions hold watercolor artists back from achieving their full potential. Full of practical advice and techniques, my aim is to simplify watercolor painting to assist you in your personal watercolor adventure. Enjoy the journey!

The beauty of a watercolor painting lies in its diaphanous layers, delicate strokes, and luminous washes. However, the very features that define the beauty of the medium can make it difficult to master. This complete guide to understanding the relationships between color, value, wetness, and composition unravels the mysteries of watercolor to help your practice evolve. Experienced teacher and acclaimed artist Tom Hoffmann offers a unique, inquiry-based approach that shows you how to translate any subject into the language of watercolor. With Hoffmann as your guide, you’ll learn the key questions to ask yourself at every turn and time-tested methods to help you reach solutions. Hoffmann’s thorough explanations and step-by-step demonstrations delineate the process of composing a painting in watercolor, while art from more than thirty-five past and present masters, including John Singer Sargent, Ogden Pleissner, George Post, Emil Kosa, Jr., Mary Whyte, Trevor Chamberlain, Lars Lerin, Torgeir Schjølberg, Piet Lap, Leslie Frontz, and Alvaro Castagnet serve to illustrate and inspire. Whether you’re a serious beginner or a seasoned practitioner, this book will guide you toward the all-important balance between restraint and risk-taking that every watercolorist seeks.

Create Breathtaking Watercolor Paintings in No Time With this collection of easy, step-by-step instructions, unlocking your creativity with watercolor has never been easier. Follow along as Anna Koliadych, founder of DearAnnArt, guides you through painting your own watercolor masterpieces in just 15 minutes. These 50 projects have something for everyone, from underwater landscapes to galaxies, from fashion sketches to tasty sweets. Learn to paint a meadow of poppies, a cosmic tea cup, a set of high heels or a tabby cat all in one quick evening. Whether you’re new to watercolor or have been practicing for years, these colorful designs are perfect for a relaxing afternoon alone or as an activity for the whole family. In each lesson, Anna highlights efficient techniques, like sketching your design with simple shapes, or adding small, beautiful details, so you can create the most charming artwork in the shortest amount of time—even if you’ve never painted before!

In watercolor paintings it is the masterful use of washes that creates depth, spontaneity and atmosphere. In Mastering the Watercolor Wash, Joe Garcia provides clear, simple step-by-step instructions that teach the four basic washes: flat, gradated, wet-into-wet and streaked. Painters will find plenty of guidelines and 33 demonstrations that combine these techniques to create light and shadow effects, as well as a variety of textures for popular subjects including rocks, clouds and sand.They'll also learn how to develop unique textures and special effects using salt, a palette knife, masking fluid, sponges, dry brushes, spattering and lifting techniques.Joe Garcia's work has been published in Wildlife Art, Watercolor Magic, Art of the American West, Best of Wildlife 2 and Splash 3. It has also been featured in the prestigious Birds in Art annual exhibit. Joe teaches workshops in watercolor and nature painting. He lives in Julian, California.

An inclusive how-to-paint book, The Art of Watercolor Painting features simple step-by-step projects, as well as instruction for employing a variety of watercolor techniques, including creating washes and working wet into wet.

Acrylic, watercolours, oil, and pastel colours are the four classical means of artistic expression in painting. With this practice-oriented introduction readers can learn about them by trying their own hand at painting and perfecting their skills step-by-step. The book provides an overview of the artist's tools and the various types of painting. The wealth of illustrative information ranges from simple everyday objects to still life and landscapes, the human body and portrait painting. Examples of each genre demonstrate the various stages of painting a picture. This enables learners to improve their technique from the very first sketch to the most complex composition: Mastering the Art of Painting is the ideal introduction for the prospective artist!

Take a Journey with the Master of the Urban Landscape! John Salminen is one of the most accomplished watercolor artists working today, earning awards and recognition all over the world. Whether depicting the trees of Central Park, the architecture of San Francisco or the busy streets of Beijing, John Salminen's watercolor paintings are snapshots of urban life that are both rich in detail and universal in appeal. In Master of the Urban Landscape, Salminen shares over 150 pieces of his artwork, spanning his entire career. His early abstracts and recent plein air work in the book's Introduction set the groundwork for four chapters of remarkable watercolor paintings that highlight different aspects of his work: architectural form, organic form, human form and light and shadow. Throughout, Salminen shares the inspiration for his paintings, challenges he encountered and techniques he used to capture unique scenes from cities around the world. Embark on an amazing watercolor journey with John Salminen—Master of the Urban Landscape. "John Salminen is a master of the medium of watercolor. His sense of light and design sets him apart from his contemporaries, and he has emerged as one of the finest living artists of our times with a style very much his own." --Dean Mitchell

"Master techniques for painting spectacular sea animals in watercolor"--Cover.

Are you bored of painting tasteful landscapes, light seascapes and delicate still-lifes? Or are you laboring under the misconception that that is simply all watercolor is good for? Maybe you're so bored of looking at watercolor paintings that you've never even tried it! Whether you're at the beginning of your artistic journey, stuck in a rut and in desperate need of some inspiration or simply looking to improve your skills with watercolor, this book is sure to awaken your creativity. Stimulate your artistic minds and open your paint boxes to a whole new realm of possibility, using things like bleach, salt and combs - yes, the thing you'd ordinarily use to brush your hair with - to create exciting results. Professional fashion illustrator Veronica Ballart Lilja shares a wealth of new techniques based on her years of working with the medium that will open up watercolor for beginners, and encourage experts to stray from their more traditional methods. Jam packed with fresh ideas, adventurous tips and techniques, detailed theory and engaging exercises, this book allows you to develop and practise your skills in a free and expressive way.