Featuring 8 beautiful watercolor flower demonstrations, Birgit O'Connor's lessons are perfect for the beginning watercolorist. She'll explain information critical to beginners such as value, shadow composition, creating shape, layering color, simplifying backgrounds, establishing focal points, masking and more. A focused and direct approach to watercolor painting that incorporates essential basics, exercises and techniques, and fully stepped out demonstrations, taught through the lens of painting truly gorgeous watercolor flowers--a true workshop book by one of North Light's most popular authors.

Everything you need to know to make magic with watercolor

Features 80+ lessons, exercises and demonstrations, including live instruction on the enclosed DVD

Watercolor moves like no other medium. Just add water, and the pigment takes on a life of its own. This book makes learning to paint equally dynamic, with page after page of step-by-step demonstrations, plus more than 40 lessons on the companion DVD.

Get off to a happy start with basics such as laying a wash, applying a glaze and keeping whites white. Expand your skills and discover new ways to express yourself with advanced techniques, including special effects using salt, rubber cement and foil. From selecting and caring for your brushes to secrets for painting big, bold, beautiful shadows, "Watercolor Essentials" contains everything you need to paint with confidence.

• 33 exercises, from foundational skills to advanced techniques for painting clouds, rock textures, moonlit water and more
• 7 start-to-finish demonstrations take you through the process of painting a variety of subjects, including atmospheric landscapes, waterscapes and flowers
• 70-minute DVD puts it all into action, so you can see how the paint is applied and reacts on the paper