Watercolour Painting: Step-By-Step
This comprehensive guide to watercolour painting should find a welcome home in the artist's studio. The introduction shows the basic foundations of watercolour painting followed by tutorials, examples, tips and techniques covering landscapes and flower painting. I really enjoyed this colourful book and would not hesitate to recommend it to novice watercolour painters. The seven included artists have different styles and demonstrate their techniques. This book is well-illustrated with easy to follow instructions such as painting skies. There are fourteen demonstrations altogether amongst a wealth of information. This 144 page book includes over 300 photographs.-KarenPlatt.co.uk The seven authors of this book bring together a wealth of experience and useful help to anyone who wants to discover the delights of watercolour paints. They show us how to lay transparent and luminous washes, soft delicate areas of colour creating mood and atmosphere though to dramatic and bold sweeps of colour. Beginning with basic advice on choosing materials, through to some practical and useful help with colour, tone and composition it goes on to more detailed specifics of working with this medium, and the more advanced techniques that can be used to produce some wonderful and ethereal effects. Each are accompanied by many illustrations from each artist explaining just how the effects were created. We are shown in easy and clear to follow stages how to create wonderful soft skies, realistic trees, water and reflection to buildings in the landscape and lifelike flowers. Having been shown expert tips and illustration on techniques and skills used to create these images we are given useful demonstrations on each to practice them for ourselves. A practical an informative book full of expert tips and advice that will aid all watercolour artists to enjoy the delights of working with this fabulous medium,whether they are complete beginners or more experienced artist.-JeannieZelos.com Each of these step-by-step books on drawing, watercolour and acrylics draws on the experience of experts of the medium. There are general chapters, which serve as a basis from which to work up, but specific topics are allocated to one of the many experts. This demonstrates distinctions in style and explains the techniques behind them. It's rare to find guides that successfully cater to so many levels of ability. The opening chapters are dedicated to the beginner, with plenty of focus on mixing colour. However, these books are not just for the uninitiated - all three hold plenty of precious knowledge nuggets for even the most seasoned artists: acrylic texture and lighting in watercolour are both exacting matters and not for the fair-weather painter. All three volumes share more or less the same format; pages littered with plenty of pictures and short bursts of text, so that readers don't have to wade through excessive information in order to get to the point. The study topics are traditional, with nature and animals featuring almost exclusively, and you can't help thinking that each volume could benefit from branching out, even if for just one chapter, into something a little less conventional. Although three entirely separate books, and more than valid on their own, there is something attractive about linking them as a comprehensive learning experience, with disciplines from three different areas serving to complement each other.-Artists & Illustrators Search Press is renowned for its high quality, great value books, and it lives up to its reputation with its new series of step-by-step guides covering key topics in drawing and painting. Each book is written by a range of well-respected artists, thus providing varied approaches to each topic or medium. Some readers might note that these titles draw together elements from the Leisure Arts series. They do not, however, feel like patchwork texts, and unless you already have the full set of the earlier smaller works, these compilations provide fantastic value for money.  The books all have a similar structure, starting with chapters covering the basics of the topic, thereby making them very accessible for beginners. For example, in Drawing Step-by-Step, Richard Box introduces the subject by looking at fundamental drawing techniques and a wide range of suitable media, interspersed with step-by-step demonstrations; whilst in the Watercolour Painting title, there is an exploration of techniques, media, composition, colour and tone. Following these introductory sections, various experts provide instruction on their specialist topics, developing skills, and providing further inspiration. The Acrylic Painting and Drawing books are constructed with defined chapters, whilst the Watercolour Painting book, created by seven artists, appears more fluid, concealing any sense of it being a compilation of other texts. In the Acrylic Painting guide, for instance, David Hyde and Carole Massey follow on from Wendy Jelbert's introduction, which demonstrates the flexibility of the medium, providing specific guidance on their specialist subjects; landscape and flower painting respectively. Wendy then completes the book by sharing a range of her exciting ideas for creating texture. In the book on drawing, Box's introductory section is followed by Ronald Swanwick on drawing landscapes; Denis John Naylor on trees; Sally Michel on pets; and finally Carole Massey on water-soluble pencils.  Each book contains at least ten full step-by-step demonstrations, with panels detailing materials. The wide range of subjects and approaches allows readers to move on to more advanced techniques, making the books appealing to artists of all levels. (Theodora Philcox)-Leisure Painter