Here's detailed step-by-step instruction to painting accurate, lively and brilliantly colorful portraits.

Paint Lively, Expressive Watercolor Portraits Ready to unlock the secrets of watercolor? With the masterful instruction of Carrie Stuart Parks and Rick Parks, success is within your reach. In this beginner-friendly guide, Carrie and Rick shares their 30-plus years of experience as artists and instructors to give you the tools and techniques for painting lively, realistic watercolor portraits you can be proud of. Detailed step-by-step demonstrations and lots of tips and sidebars help you avoid mistakes, stay loose and have fun. In addition to complete information on supplies and materials, each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of watercolor portrait painting, visually teaching you how to: Handle watercolors with confidence using washes, masking, underpainting and a "less-is-more" approach Map out great compositions by using grids, transferring the drawing, choosing colors and applying masking in the right places Convey light and dark values with precision and impact for striking, lifelike portraits Paint beautiful hair in all styles, colors and textures by building tones gradually Avoid common watercolor missteps (and learn to fix the ones you couldn't help) by following a whole chapter of advice just for those "oops" moments Gain the confidence to "step out of your comfort zone" and work to establish your own distinct and expressive painting style Leave your frustration and fear of watercolor in the past. With Carrie Stuart Parks and Rick Parks you have all the guidance you need to paint the faces you love with skill and style. Get started today! "I want you to have every secret, every tool, every technique, every shortcut, and every success in your painting. I want you to feel that you've found your true artistic style and expression with this medium." —bestselling author and artist, Carrie Stuart Parks

LEARNING HOW TO CAPTURE SUCH QUALITY HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER!Inside you'll find guidelines for rendering accurate skin tones in a variety of media, including watercolor, oil and pastel. You'll begin with a review of the five essential painting elements (drawing, value, color, composition and edges), then learn how light and color influence the appearance of skin tones. Best-selling artist Chris Saper provides the advice and examples that make every lesson and technique easy to understandâ€"immediately improving the quality of your work. You'll discover how to: • Paint the four major skin color groups (Caucasian, African American, Asian, and Hispanic) • Refine these colors into dozens of possible variations within each group • Select your palette and mix hues for clean, beautiful colors • Determine the color and temperature of light that falls on your subject • Paint direct and indirect sunlight, artificial light and highlights of light • Master the four elements that determine color in shadow • Use photographic references when you can't paint directly from life You'll also find seven step-by-step demonstrations and an appendix of sample color charts for each major skin type under a range of lighting variations. It's all you need to bring your portraits to life!

The art of portraiture approached its apex during the sixteenth century in Europe with the discovery of oil painting when the old masters developed and refined techniques that remain unsurpassed to this day. The ascendance of nonrepresentational art in the middle of the twentieth century displaced these venerable skills, especially in academic art circles. Fortunately for aspiring artists today who wish to learn the methods that allowed the Old Masters to achieve the luminous color and subtle tonalities so characteristic of their work, this knowledge has been preserved in hundreds of small traditional painting ateliers that persevered in the old ways in this country and throughout the world. Coming out of this dedicated movement, Portrait Painting Atelier is an essential resource for an art community still recovering from a time when solid instruction in art technique was unavailable in our schools. Of particular value here is a demonstration of the Old Masters’ technique of layering paint over a toned-ground surface, a process that builds from the transparent dark areas to the more densely painted lights. This method unifies the entire painting, creating a beautiful glow that illuminates skin tones and softly blends all the color tones. Readers will also find valuable instruction in paint mediums from classic oil-based to alkyd-based, the interactive principles of composition and photograph-based composition, and the anatomy of the human face and the key relationships among its features. Richly illustrated with the work of preeminent masters such as Millet, Géricault, and van Gogh, as well as some of today’s leading portrait artists—and featuring seven detailed step-by-step portrait demonstrations—Portrait Painting Atelier is the first book in many years to so comprehensively cover the concepts and techniques of traditional portraiture.

Provides instructions for painting landscapes, portraits, and still lifes in watercolor.

Provides step-by-step instructions on how to paint portraits in watercolor, including information about tools and materials.

A Celebration of Light Light has the power to make an ordinary flower extraordinary. Inside, Jan Kunz shares simple, step-by-step techniques for capturing that celebrated "glow" in watercolor. A classic approach to a timeless subject, this encore publication of Kunz's best-selling book covers a fabulous range of inspirations, from lilacs artfully arranged in a sterling vase to daisies skipping along a picket fence. Beautifully illustrated pages feature: 20 special floral painting techniques 6 paint-along demonstrations, complete with preliminary drawings a comparison chart of 21 pigments and their special uses for the flower painter coverage of everything from selecting materials and arranging flowers, to mixing glazes for radiant effects Kunz explains how composition, color theory and other important elements of painting apply to painting flowers, distilling years of experience into key techniques artists can take straight to their work for sparkling results. It's the perfect pick for artists who want to spend more time at the easel and less time reading about it.

Modern Fresco Paintings is the first collection of Ali Cavanaugh's paintings, andit follows her entire career using watercolor on kaolin clay to create hermodern fresco technique and the lovely work that flows from it. Beginning withher hyper-realistic portraits and ending with her latest, more free-flowingpictures, her use of light, color, and the human form captures the essence ofher models and their forms and feelings in a particular moment. Cavanaugh's artistic sensibilitywas developed by two important events in her childhood. Her dependence on the visualworld began when she lost much of her hearing through spinal meningitis whenshe was two, and her creative spirit developed out of her being raised in a ruralenvironment where she had to create her own ways of expressing herself and makingher own fun. She developed her stunningmodern fresco medium almost by accident as she was learning to apply the outerlayer of plaster to her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since that time thisvolume illustrates her growth as an artist and her mastery of the technique. These are lovely works, paintedmasterfully. Both long-time followers of Cavanaugh's work---from the earliest "SockArms" paintings to those who found her through more recent work like the Chroma series---and those who are discoveringher and her art for the first time, will be delighted by this collection.

Charlie O'Shields is the creator of Doodlewash®, founder of World Watercolor Month in July, and host of the Sketching Stuff podcast. Every single day, for over three years, he created a watercolor illustration and wrote a short essay about whatever came to mind that day and posted it on his blog. These are some of the collected favorites along with some brand new musings. With over 180 illustrations, this book is part personal memoir and sometimes just a randomly fun romp through the sillier bits of this crazy world we all inhabit. Written to take on the impossible task of inspiring creativity, unleashing your inner child, and instilling hope, it will, at the very least, make you smile and touch your heart.

Capture the essence of people in your paintings Add a personal touch to you watercolors with 11 step-by-step demonstrations that cover people in a variety of scenes and situations. Award-winning artist, Laurel Hart, gives you the techniques you need to capture the living, breathing essence of people. Inside you'll find: Tips for seeing the basic shapes of your subject using lighting and shading techniques Easy methods for successful design and composition Techniques for translating photographs into compelling, beautiful paintings Complete instruction for placing people in settings including cityscapes, landscapes and interiors Laurel guides you through the process with practical tips, chapter summaries and motivational "Hart-felt insights" that will inspire you to see the beauty of your subject and transfer your emotional response to watercolor. Putting People in Your Paintings gives you all the tools you need to make your paintings come alive!