Learn to express yourself through color while painting on location with the in-depth tips and techniques of Working with Color, the fifth volume in the Urban Sketching Handbook series. Expert watercolorist, illustrator, instructor, and co-founder of Urban Sketchers Montreal Shari Blaukopf shares her essential color tips about color-water ratio, achieving bold color, avoiding muddy washes, painting in layers, and using wet-in-wet techniques. This essential handbook covers: supplies and materials sample color palettes color mixing using limited palettes monochrome sketches the power of complementary colors using evocative, expressive color With a focus on using watercolor with greater confidence and knowledge, the book also delves into pencil and ink and watersoluble pencils. The instructional text is enhanced with stunning watercolor illustrations by the author and other expert urban sketchers from beautiful locations around the globe. The illustrations include examples of color swatches showing value; mixing; illustrations of complementary, analogous, and neutral color schemes; and sample galleries. Working with Color is an indispensable guide for on-location artists looking to expand and strengthen their expressive use of color.

Unleash Your Creativity with Beautiful Watercolor Blooms From delicate magnolias and zinnias to exotic hibiscus and tiger lilies, you'll be ready to paint an entire garden with 25 breathtaking projects. Renowned watercolor instructor Cara Rosalie Olsen covers everything you need to know to get started--even if you've never picked up a brush! Learn how to select art supplies, blend Cara's unique colors, prepare a palette, master different brush techniques and so much more. Each project provides detailed step-by-step instructions along with helpful illustrations so you can confidently create elegant botanical masterpieces. And with Cara's encouraging and beginner-friendly approach, you'll be inspired to find beauty in everything you paint.

Award-winning artist Harriet de Winton shows you how to create contemporary watercolour artworks to treasure and share. Through more than 30 step-by-step projects, discover how to paint individual flowers and foliage, as well as beautiful botanical compositions. Use your new skills to make art for your wall, unique cards, invitations, or simply paint for pleasure.

Combat stress and anxiety and release your own inner creative with this beautiful mindful watercolour book. In this simple and vibrant guide, hugely popular Instagram muse @TerryRunyan explores the art of watercolour through the lens of mindfulness, presenting activities and projects which you can paint along with as you allow your creative side to flourish. This watercolour guide is easy and accessible for beginners, as Runyan gently delves into the basics of the artform, starting with simple techniques which you can follow along with, as well as presenting some fun projects ideas for painters to explore. Alongside beautiful examples of the techniques and styles explored in the book, Runyan also encourages readers to practice mindfulness as they paint, and explores the ways in which art can be used to help improve mental health. Exploring the idea of 'perfectly imperfect watercolours', Runyan places emphasis on self-expression and allowing yourself to make mistakes. Painting Happiness also includes fun projects for readers to try at home, including: Turning blobs into birds Creating wild hairstyles Experimenting with different prompts to paint at least one thing a day From technical skills and notes on materials to insight into the creative process, this book has everything you need to start flourishing in watercolour.

Renowned botanical artist and professional gardener, Carolyn Jenkins combines her love of art and gardening to create stunning compositions (often very different from traditional botanical painting) with vibrant colours that leap from the page.The first part of this book - Botanical: Grow - explores time well-spent in the garden and covers much of the traditional details of botanical painting, from observation to capturing light, colour and texture. The second part - Contemporary: Paint - explores how Carolyn works with photography, using the computer to help with crop and composition, achieving maximum impact and creating luminous paintings that shine from the page. Her stunning illustrations are full of vibrant colour, and her larger-than-life artworks have gained an enthusiastic following on Instagram.This practical guide contains all the techniques and practice you need to create beautiful botanical art, plus step-by-step photography, crop, composition and photoshop demonstrations, to bring luminous colours, textures and impact to your own work.

Get the perfect coffee-table book for birders and nature lovers, pairing naturalist knowledge with beautiful watercolor paintings. This is the bird book for people who love birds! Naturalist, watercolorist, and debut author Jenny deFouw Geuder combines her vast knowledge of birds, wildflowers, and nature with her artistic expertise to create a book like no other. Drawn to Birds presents more than 120 beautiful watercolor paintings, along with Jenny's fascinating insights that add unique appeal to each page. Drawn to Birds begins with an introduction to bird anatomy, as well as details about nests, eggs, and migration. From there, more than 50 different bird species are showcased, with the watercolors divided into groups like backyard birds, raptors, and wetland birds. As an added bonus, there's a section dedicated to insects and wildflowers. You'll appreciate Jenny's tips on how to welcome birds to your yard and how to become a naturalist. Being a naturalist is about more than simply stopping to smell the flowers. It's about observation and making a record. Pause and notice the shapes, colors, and patterns around you. Jenny's goal is to inspire you to try your own hand at being a naturalist! She also includes step-by-step guides for drawing, painting, and inking your own pictures. Anyone can be an artist. Be brave, try it out, and keep noticing the marvels around you. Extra pages for journaling and sketching make this book a keepsake to cherish forever. If you enjoy birding, gardening, or the great outdoors, Drawn to Birds belongs in your book collection. Get one for yourself, and give one as a gift!

Everybody loves flowers, and here are 100 beautiful blooms for you to draw! Whether you prefer the understated beauty of a simple daisy or the garish good looks of a flamingo lily, you're bound to discover a flower in this book that you will find irresistible - and you will just want to pick up your pencil and start drawing! There are everyday garden blooms such as roses and tulips, delicate wild varieties such as primroses and bluebells, and a whole range of exotics, too, if you want to try something a bit different. Each flower is broken down into six simple stages that lead you effortlessly through to the finished drawing. There are no written instructions to follow - just basic shapes and pencil strokes. Even if you've never drawn anything before, you will be amazed at how quickly you will achieve incredibly impressive drawings. Every project also shows two finished examples of the flower - one shaded with pencil and the other with colour. This is the perfect book for budding artists yearning to draw their favourite posies, or the experienced artist looking for a variety of subjects to inspire. The material in this book is taken from the following books in Search Press's successful How to Draw series: Flowers, Garden Flowers, Wild Flowers, Exotic Flowers.

Welcome to the wonderful world of painting with gouache, with the creative guidance of popular artist and illustrator Zoe Ingram. In this comprehensive beginner's guide, Zoe shares everything she possibly can about getting started with gouache painting. Why gouache? Because this exciting paint medium creates opaque effects making it more vibrant and graphic than traditional watercolours, meaning you can layer it, paint on dark backgrounds and much more. Gouache is one of the easiest of paint mediums to use. It's very forgiving and fun to use and is also versatile. Gouache paint can mimic watercolour and can give the opacity of oil paint if used with less water. You can use it to paint large, smooth, flat blocks of background colour and the finest lines and details. Gouache paint also dries quickly too, which is a big bonus! Starting at the very start, Zoe takes you through the basics and explains what tools and materials you'll need, then explores a wide range of techniques and finally, there are a host of fun and vibrant step-by-step projects that you can follow along with or use as a springboard for your own ideas. Zoe Ingram's distinctive art makes this book a visual treat, as she shows you how she paints a variety of subjects, from birds and bugs, to flowers and foliage, to abstract collages, hand lettering and patterns. Along the way you'll learn about colour theory, colour mixing, sketching, washes, mark making, line work, overlaying, working on dark backgrounds, how to get crisp edges, how to add details, different approaches to collage and even how to digitise your work so that you can create repeat patterns and custom prints. In the projects section you can follow along step-by-step as Zoe paints a very handsome pheasant, a funky beetle pattern, a trendy houseplant, colourful caterpillars, bright butterflies, jumbled geometric patterns, a striking owl, pretty florals, creative lettering, a curious cat and a free-flow abstract floral piece - after which there will be no stopping you! Beautifully illustrated, expertly explained and a riot of colour, this book will kickstart your love affair with gouache, so all that's left is deciding how to pronounce it... "gooash"..."gwash"..."goo-uhsh"?!

J.M.W. Turner's elegant pencil sketches and watercolours of Venice are so poignant and evocative that the gentle sound of water lapping against gondolas can almost be heard when looking at them. In this beautiful selection, Ian Warrell employs the very finest examples of Turner's Venetian studies to either guide your next visit or awaken your memories of trips past. Join Turner as he progresses through the city, beginning at St. Mark's Basilica with the Campanile towering above and the coral-coloured exterior of the Doge's Palace. Drift onward toward the Bridge of Sighs and take a detour past the Hotel Europa where Turner preferred to stay. Travel onwards past the Giardini Reali, the Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute on your way to San Giorgio Maggiore and the Accademia. Drift away from the bustling markets around the Rialto on the Grand Canal heading toward the Frari and the Scuola di San Rocco, demonstrating the inspiration taken from Venetian masters such as Tintoretto and Veronese.

Painting expressive portraits of iconic faces has never been easier with this unique approach to watercolor painting. In this fresh and super-accessible approach to modern portraiture, artist Nelli Andrejew removes any barriers to painting instantly recognizable faces. In just a few simple brushstrokes you can capture the essence and likeness of 15 international icons and create modern watercolor portraits you will be proud to hang on the wall. The 15 famous personalities included have all made a valuable contribution to the world in some way - be it science, art or human rights. The subtle style of the portraits you'll learn how to paint in this book bring these heroes to life in watercolor, with step-by-step instructions and practical templates for tracing, removing the need for any real skill - just trace, paint, have fun, and paint portraits that will surprise and delight all who see them. With this book you will learn how to paint: Leonardo DiCaprio * Virginia Woolf * James Dean * Lana Del Rey * Bob Dylan * Michelle Obama * Albert Einstein * Marilyn Monroe * Girl with a Pearl Earring * Martin Luther King Jr. * Audrey Hepburn * Mona Lisa * Coco Chanel * Emma Watson * Vincent Van Gogh In addition to the step-by-step tutorials, Nelli shares her tips and experience in the basic techniques you will need, from how to transfer the templates to your watercolour paper, to different ways to work with watercolors to successful portraits. This beautiful guide will inspire you to try all the faces included and then go on to paint your own original portraits with the same techniques. The perfect way to spend a creative afternoon!

A unique artist's manual that allows you to become an apprentice to one of the world's greatest painters

How can a modern painter go about learning the techniques and methods of a long-dead master? Drawing on years of research and practice, Tony Smibert brings us a virtual apprenticeship, sharing his own method and approach that emulates J. M. W. Turner yet is contemporary, original and innovative. Turner had an extraordinary capacity to paint in ways that confounded his contemporaries and still amaze us today; Smibert s method of painting in Turner s style ingeniously draws together ideas and principles from East and West to bring out an entirely new perspective on Turner s practice.

A working manual, Turner s Apprentice brings together elements of practice from historic masters, including Claude Lorrain and Claude Monet: this is a book for anyone aspiring to learn from any master. Fully illustrated with works by Turner and other major artists, as well as practical, step-by-step demonstrations, it offers a perfect companion for anyone seeking to understand by doing. Even for those who may never paint, Turner s Apprentice offers a tantalizing glimpse of the thrill of painting and learning.

From domestic cats and dogs to wild lions and giraffes, best-selling artist and author Jean Haines shows the reader how to bring a vitality of life to their animal artwork. Known for the vibrant colours and exciting, innovative painting techniques that she brings to her work, Jean's latest book invites beginners and more experienced artists alike to share a journey through painting animals from around the world. Painting animals requires a delicacy of touch. Jean starts with simple monochrome artworks and progresses on to more vivid paintings that incorporate exciting textural effects. Using lessons from nature to help bring the reader closer to the animals, Jean shows how to portray the animal's spirit and bring vitality to the reader's artwork. Suitable for all abilities, from first-time painters to experienced artists, Jean shares all the materials and unique techniques she uses, and provides a wealth of expert tips and advice inspired by the animals themselves, helping the reader to progress and find their own path. Scattered throughout the book are dozens of Jean's wonderful paintings, showcasing a veritable Noah's Ark of different animals to inspire the reader on their artistic journey.