Capture the Rich Textures of Nature, Step by StepCapture nature's beauty as you never have before. Beloved artist and teacher Claudia Nice leads you on an inspired journey through the great outdoors. With paints in hand, she shares with you her best techniques for creating landscapes that come alive with richness, depth and textured detail. Open this guide and start painting right away. As you follow engaging, step-by-step demonstrations and exercises, you'll learn to recreate the textural elements of a range of terrains and landscapes. Chapters include: Creative clouds and skies Majestic mountains, hills and mesas Texturing trees, trunks and foliage Rugged rocks and gritty gravel Transparent textures for rivers, falls and lakes Flowers of the field In a special section, Claudia covers basic texturing techniques with mini demos using lines, dots, bruising, scribbling, spattering, blotting, printing, stamping and more. From paints and pens to sponges, leaves and facial tissue, you'll explore all kinds of fun and inventive ways to create amazing textures. And to help you put it all together, Claudia includes her masterful advice for creating compositions using reference photos, field sketches and your own creative license. Each demonstration features a large image of the completed landscape, so you can see exactly how Claudia's methods work - from start to finish.

Claudia Nice shows you how to turn ink and watercolors into the coarse-barked trunk of an oak, or the burnished smoothness of brass, or the verdant velvet of moss. Or any of many other things. She shows you how to use dots, fine lines, brushstrokes, black and white, color--a mixture of mediums and techniques--to suggest:

• glass
• cast iron
• adobe and brick
• sunrise and sunset
• driftwood
• leaf textures
• basketry
• surf and ocean waves
• enamelware
• rainbows
• wood grain
• distant trees
• eggs and onions
• animal hair
• and dozens of other textures

You'll learn how to use materials, from technical pens to paint brushes, colored inks to liquid acrylics. You'll discover ways to blot, spatter, stamp and otherwise alter and combine ink and watercolor for exciting texturing effects.

Imagine having the ability to draw any subject with precision, detail and expression. With Claudia's help, you can do it! In How to See, How to Draw, you will discover how to tap into your powers of observation, strengthen your hand-eye connection, and draw the world around you with new skill and accuracy. Just take it one step at a time. Claudia is an expert teacher, breaking down complex compositions into a series of achievable shapes and values that even beginners will understand. Through dozens of mini demonstrations, fun-to-do exercises and complete step-by-step instruction, you'll learn everything from basic drawing techniques to more challenging methods for rendering wonderfully rich, in-depth compositions. Her visual instruction details how to: Use a variety of drawing tools to suit your style and artistic intent Learn to let go of preconceived ideas so you can observe lines, shapes and spatial relationships as they actually are Create strong compositions through comparison and proportional control Find, fix and avoid common mistakes by using simple grids and guide lines Understand and work with perspective to create the illusion of depth Reveal form through light and shadow Explore the potential of texture to create mood and movement Claudia's drawings illuminate a range of subjects, including portraits, landscapes, animals and still life. You can practice using her reference photos and drawings, or you can apply her exercises to your own subjects. Start today, Claudia's way! Following her masterful guidance, you'll see the world through new eyes and draw better than you ever have before.

Got a yearning to pick up a pen and see what you can do? Go for it But don't sketch alone--let popular artist and teacher Claudia Nice be your guide. She'll make your first steps fun and successful

In her trademark style--friendly and encouraging--Claudia will show you how to do a sketch of a subject that actually ends up looking like the subject. And she shares her secrets for turning simple lines and dots into all kinds of lifelike textures, including leaves, glass, hair, fruit, water, clouds, wood grain, grass, fur and feathers.

Easy (and fun ) exercises get you started. Step-by-step projects teach techniques as you draw trees, flowers, barns, animals and other subjects--even people And demonstrations show you how to put all that you've learned together to create a finished picture.

So go ahead--grab that pen and have fun Just follow along with Claudia to get the hang of it, and before you know it you'll be making your own, original pen-and-ink drawings

Nobody captures seascapes quite like Claudia Nice. In this guide, she shares her approach to creating dynamic watercolor compositions textured with pen & ink, acrylics and gouache. More than 60 step-by-step demos, simple enough for beginners, teach how to create all sorts of beach scenery, from waves crashing, to people relaxing while the sun slowly sets, and more.