Watercolor Painting Books

Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium

Nancy Reyner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Liberate Your Creativity With Acrylic Paints!

Acrylic Revolution is your essential, all-in-one guide for acrylic painting techniques and more. It features over 101 ways to break through the boundaries of conventional painting and re-define the creative potential of this all-purpose medium.

Every page provides insight on how to use acrylic paint in ways you never thought possible to create stunning visual effects and textures. Ten complete sections detail a range of empowering applications, including how to:

• Prepare and paint on virtually any surface
• Create textures of all kinds
• Work with transfers, collage, resists and mixed media
• Achieve innovative stenciling and line work
• Customize your paint to adjust thickness, transparency and drying time
• Simulate other mediums, such as oil, tempera or watercolor
• Create faux finishes, magical effects, sheens and more

To give you additional insight and inspiration, this book features a gallery of finished works by fellow painting revolutionaries that blend various acrylic techniques to create amazing effects. You'll also find practical advice that covers the basics and beyond--from selecting materials and cleaning your brushes to finishing and preserving your artwork. There's even a complete glossary of terms for fast and easy referencing.

Pick up a brush and start your own acrylic revolution today!

Use the techniques in this book to free your creative spirit and create the paintings you've always dreamed of.

Painting Abstracts: Ideas, Projects and Techniques

Rolina van Vliet

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Best Instructional Art Book Ever 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

I love this book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants some instruction in abstract art. Very easy to follow & all kinds of ways to use all sorts of media.

No 'right' recipe 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

For me, this book is too formulaic; it is more about "getting it right" than about awakening creative inspiration. While it is true that the abstract artist needs a good grasp of design, this is not the essence of abstract art; it is a medium for expressing intangibles visually.

If you believe a 'paint by numbers' kind of approach will give you confidence to begin, by all means start with Painting Abstracts. But if you want your abstracts to sing, I would recommend working from Mary Todd Beam's book, "Celebrate Your Creative Self." (She also has a new book coming out in March of 2009.)

For me, all the examples in "Painting Abstracts" have the same emotional temperature and use exactly the same visual metaphors. To get the idea of different visual metaphors, I would recommend looking at works by artists using other mediums, especially fibre artists and ceramic artists.

What I most find missing in this book is help with awakening inspiration: in the texture of rocks and leaves and trees for example, in different moods of water. Have you ever looked at a sunset that made you gasp? No doubt we cannot all aspire to creating the same emotional impact, but it is possible to put some of that feeling into an abtract painting.

Look further than this book if you want to do more than know how to handle your medium or how to create a pleasant design.

Editorial Review:

Full instructions for 65 abstract paintings are provided in this guide that urges beginners to plunge right in, learning about composition, theme, and design while they paint. The history of abstract painting and its importance as a means of self-expression are covered in the guide's beginning pages, and each of the paintings that follow conventional step-by-step instruction is replaced with information on composition, imagery, method, materials, and technique, allowing the painter to copy straight from the book—or make changes according to the flow of creativity.

How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself: Experimental Techniques for Achieving Realistic Effects

Nita Engle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent resource 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Book purchased to present to our watercolor instructor at the end of our session. It has so many different techniques, and really lovely examples. At least two members of the class have ordered the book after examing this one. She plans to incorporate some of the unusual techniques in the next session she leads.

Editorial Review:

Award-winning artist Nita Engle’s breakthrough approach to watercolor shows readers how to combine spontaneity and control to produce glowing, realistic paintings. Her method begins with action-filled exercises that demonstrate how to play with paint, following no rules. Subsequent step-by-step projects add planning to the mix, demonstrating how to turn loose washes into light-filled watercolors with textural effects achieved by spraying, sprinkling, pouring, squirting, or stamping paint. Engle’s approach, and her results, are dramatic and dynamic; now watercolor artists can create their own exciting paintings with help from How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself.

The Watercolorist’s Essential Notebook

Gordon Mackenzie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Landscapes 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This has some great step-by-step lessons for creating different effects in a landscape watercolor. The only criticism I have of it is the drab coloring in many of the examples.

2008 Review 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

-I last painted with watercolors when they were in paintbox form -40 years ago in high school art.This book has been a valuable tool in getting me up to speed on present day brushes,paints and techniques.I
am very pleased with the results I have been able to achieve in
just a few months time.This book is a definite buy for newbies or as a
refresher.

Excellent Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is really a must-have. Very detailed in a clear and direct language. Excellent for every level of watercolor painters!

Just what I needed 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have been interested in painting water in acrylic and watercolor and this book was very helpful. Explains in detail how to paint various types of water, such as calm water, rapids, waves, foam, and best of all, how to "look through water," to make fish and rocks look like they are under the water, rather than on top of the water. It gave me just enough detailed information to accomplish the task, and not so much that I got bogged down. Discussion of growth patterns of different types of trees will also help me make sense of tree forms. The "sketchy" style of the book is refreshing and different from other watercolor how-to books. A great addition to my painting library.

Editorial Review:

This attractive, inspirational guide is full of sound techniques, advice and hands-on instruction for anyone looking to explore the magic of watercolor.

Charles Reid's Watercolor Solutions: Learn To Solve The Most Common Painting Problems

Charles Reid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Reid's best book yet? 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

The problem I usually have with Reid's books is that his style is SO distinctive that I feel I don't want to follow his advice. This is because I don't paint in a style at all like his. But unlike many watercolor books, where you pick the book based on the style of painting (realism, abstract, impressionist, expressionist) here, you can follow Charles Reid's advice and APPLY it to how YOU paint.

For example, there is a wonderful section on lost and found edges--how you blend areas of similar intensity and value with soft edges and make hard edges where values (lights and darks) are very contrasty. This gives the effect of diffused light and sharp, angled light where needed.

There is also a very fun section on how to convert a photo to a portrait without it looking like a cartoon--for this example, Reid takes a famous photo of John Singer Sargent and paints it in not only HIS style but in an extremely clever homage to Sargent's characteristic watercolor figure style. This is absolutely outstanding work and when you see Sargent under his parasol, you'll remember his own beautiful "Simplon Pass: The Lesson" and "Reading". This is very clever, very wonderful work and gives you the feeling of double-vision; you're seeing a Reid painting AND a Sargent painting. Worth the price of the book alone for that.

One of the best things Reid can teach you is how to do a contour drawing. This art class exercise, where you don't take your eyes off the subject and you don't lift your pencil from the paper as you draw the outlines of forms seems almost irritating when you first learn it. You get a funny, squiggly drawing that doesn't look like a finished sketch. But Reid shows you how to use contour drawing to great advantage when composing a watercolor.

As always, there are abundant large photos of Reid's work, and also some works of other artists to give perspective on watercolor technique. If you admire how Reid paints, then this is just fun for visual eye-candy. But if you are serious about watercolor, the book has much to offer and is really an excellent extension to the books Reid has written in the past. Highly recommended--in fact, if you own just one of his books, I'd say this would be the one to have.

Editorial Review:

As one of the most sought after workshop instructors, Charles Reid possesses certain skills that set him apart from his students. In Charles Reid's Watercolor Solutions, he shares that knowledge with readers, teaching them how to become better watercolorists. Through before and after photos of various paintings, the author clearly identifies the existing problems in the painting and provides a detailed action plan with solutions to rectify the issue. A variety of topics are covered such as still life, figures, landscapes and more. Readers will appreciate the clear step-by-step format, which makes the solutions easy to understand and implement.

Dreamscapes: Creating Magical Angel, Faery & Mermaid Worlds In Watercolor

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A magnificent book! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I received my copy of Dreamscapes and I am thrilled with it. What I like about her book apart from the beautiful artwork, is that she is very detailed about how to start the process of a watercolour painting. Little things are not overlooked and she assumes you haven't painted before. There is even guidance on how to draw. If you have a little drawing experience, it will be easier to follow however the way she lays it out makes you feel like you can tackle her projects. And there are a lot of them! The author also covers materials in depth. If you love fantasy you are going to be really inspired by this beautiful book as I was.

Editorial Review:

Dreamscapes is a unique guide to painting beautiful watercolor angels, fairies and mermaids in their own worlds (celestial, woodland, garden, sea and castle scenes) step by step. Fantasy artist Stephanie Pui-Mun Law walks readers through her process, showing and describing her techniques for creating fantasy scenes full of wonder and mystery. Readers will begin by learning about essential materials, including brushes, paints, paper, then will move on to important techniques such as planning and sketching; figure proportions; specific characteristics of angels, faeries and mermaids (including clothing); developing backgrounds; and finishing techniques that add an air of magic.

Watercolor Basics - Let’s Get Started (Watercolor Basics)

Jack Reid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

GREAT BOOK! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is for the "Very Beginer". It tells you what to purchase to start...ie..which brushes, what paint colors, and paper type. It then goes on to show you step by step how to use those supplies to create a picture.

Great tool and teaching book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

After looking at the library copy of Jack Reid's books on water color tecnniques, I knew it was the best way to learn and feel confident that I can do it! I had to have a copy of my own. The illustrations are great as the painting develops step-by-step, gently leading me to a new skill. Enjoyable confidence builder. Also, Mr. Reid's approach on materials is easy on the budget and makes the picture more important than the kind of brush that paints it. Styrofoam and twigs are right up my alley.

Great book for beginners 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I am teaching myself watercolor painting and this book has helped me tremendously. The step by step exercises make is so easy to learn technique and the reasons for different techniques. It has also helped me to learn to draw better. I highly recommend it to any beginner!

Was very pleased. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The product came quickly and was like brand new. A great way to buy a book.

Watercolor in Motion: How to Create Powerful Paintings, Step by Step (Book & DVD)

Birgit Oconnor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Practically a steal at this price!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have a few DVD's showing watercolor how-to and so far, this is the best one.
Birgit really explains and shows how she does each technique; nothing done fast nor glanced over. This is the first Video I have ever gone threw that I did not have to stop and repeat on because I just did not get it. What is even better is she is not focusing on her work to the point you are learning "how to reproduce my paintings" versus learning the technique and being able to apply it to your own ideas. I think that is what I love about this DVD the most.In the video, you see exactly how to mix the colors and not only how to apply the paint, when and why but also the water, how much, when and why. No small detail is ignored. Unfortunately, for the more advanced painter some things are probably overkill but that is moot. She is showing you how to go beyond what she painted. Now I am spoiled and will be comparing all future DVD's to this one.
Cheryl

Editorial Review:

Painting wet-into-wet is one of the most popular yet challenging ways to paint with watercolor.

There is no other book that contains this type and quality of instruction in print and DVD/video.

Features a 50-minute DVD that allows readers to actually see how to manipulate paint and water.

Watercolor in Motion not only provides dynamic step-by-step photos of watercolor painting, it also points readers to specific tracks on the accompanying 50-minute DVD that will show them the techniques they need to successfully paint wet-into-wet. The book covers color and design, value, shapes and shadows. Readers will find step-by-step demonstrations of many different flowers and still life subjects as well as 18 mini-demos teaching the techniques needed to be a successful painter. Throughout the mini-demos readers will find cross-references to the DVD showing how to correctly hold the brush and apply paint using the popular wet-into-wet technique.

Paint Watercolors That Dance with Light

Elizabeth Kincaid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Similar philosophy of painting 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Elizabeth shares with me the meditative and contemplative aspects of painting. Additionally she values pure colour glazes and this has provided me with a new way of glazing, a technique that I love. The book is suitable for someone who has been painting and is dedicated to impovement. It builds on the knowledge that you already have and doesn't treat you as a novice. Thankyou Elizabeth, it is a delight to own your book.

Editorial Review:

Elizabeth Kincaid invites readers to follow her proven techniques for painting dazzling scenes drenched in color. Her beautiful flowers, foliage and landscapes will have readers eager to create their own--and they will, using:

* Easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions that take the mystery out of composition, color, light and shadow

* A practical guide to masking and glazing

* Newly trained eyes to visualize before painting and to better perceive abstract form, value, line and color

All levels of watercolorists, as well as color enthusiasts of all mediums, will enjoy using Kincaid's tips to create vivid paintings infused with light!

Creating Textured Landscapes With Pen, Ink & Watercolor

Claudia Nice

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Tips and Techniques 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Just received this book today. It is very colourful and well layed out.

There are tonnes of tips and techniques on watercolour painting as well as specfic examples and step by steps on different effects and how to acheive more contrast etc with texturing.

Well worth it.

Editorial Review:

Texture makes the difference between run-of-the-mill landscapes, and paintings that spring to life. In Creating Textured Landscapes with Pen, Ink and Watercolor, pen and ink is used to add depth, impact and textural contrast - the key to realism in landscape painting. With the help of reference photos and field sketches, the author shows how to create realistic and colorful paintings of landscapes ranging from expansive mountain vistas to more intimate vignettes. Various components of landscape paintings are simplified for the reader and brought together throughout each chapter into full-page finished landscapes, giving readers a goal to work towards. The tools demonstrated are simple and fun to use plus pen and ink is used to enhance the more highly textured areas of the paintings.