Look inside VIDEO: Flipthrough - The Watercolour Companion

Publisher: Search Press
Edition: BB Hardback with elastic band and envelope containing picture finder
Publication: 22 July 2022
ISBN 13/EAN: 9781782219484
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Size: 127x180 mm
Illustrations: 600
Pages: 128
RRP: $16.95
Series: The Companion Series

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The Watercolour Companion

$16.95

Techniques & tips to improve your painting by Matthew Palmer

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Book Description

Let this innovative and indispensable book be your painting companion: simply dip in and out whenever you need advice and guidance from best-selling author, Matthew Palmer.

Start with watercolour basics and learn to plan successful pictures, then select expert guidance, tips for success, and beginner-friendly troubleshooting from within the sections on flowers, trees, buildings, water, people and wildlife. Discover how to make your moonlit sky really glow; learn how to paint lush, realistic foliage; add believable figures; and create driving rain and sparkling water.

Unique to this book are Matthew’s key mix swatches. These allow you to achieve perfect results every time; explaining the colours you need and in what proportion. The paint mix is shown both wet and dry, so you can compare your palette with the wet mix, and know what it'll look like once applied. The dry swatches stretch to the edge of the page, so you can also simply hold the book up to the object you’re painting, find a colour match and create the right mix with ease.

The book also includes a pull-out picture finder, which will help you create the best composition from the scene in front of you, isolate and identify a colour, try different picture formats and help with proportion and size. Designed to aid you whilst painting either indoors or out, the small format and hard cover make the book easy to transport and to store with the rest of your painting kit.

Painting basics: Getting started 6, Preparing paint 8, What are key mixes? 10, Water and flow 12, Test your strength 14, Brushes and brushmarks 16, What paper? 18, Selecting colours 20, Adding more paints 22
Planning successful pictures: Using the picture finder 24, Finding time to paint 26, What to paint 28, Skies and light, Clear sky 30, Fresh cloudy sky 32, Evening sky 34, Key mixes for shadows 36, Sunset 38, Silhouettes 40, Moonlit sky 42, Stormy sky 44, Rainfall 46
Flowers: Masses of flowers 48, Daisies 50, Foxgloves 52, Poppies 54, Carpet of bluebells 56
Trees and woodlands: Trees in your paintings 58, Midground trees 60, Mixes for spring foliage 62, Cherry blossom 64, Distant woodland 66, Key mixes for summer foliage 68, Palm tree 70, Trees in rows 72, Key mixes for autumn foliage 74, Branches 76, Woodland 78
Building and mountains: Buildings in the landscape 80, Stonework 82, Doorways 84, Architectural accuracy 86, Rocks and cliffs 88, Mountains 90, Snow-capped peaks 92
Water and the sea: Key mixes for the sea 94, Waves and sea spray 96, The beach 98, Reflections 100, Boats 102
People and wildlife: Key mixes for skintones 104, Figures in your pictures 106, Adding a sense of life 108, Stag in wood 110, Small animals 112, Animals in the landscape 114, Kingfisher 116
Watercolour secrets and special effects: Falling snow 118, Fixing cauliflowers 120, Splashes and splatters 122, Leaf stencils 124, Beams of light 126
Glossary 128

About the Author

About Matthew Palmer

Matthew Palmer is a renowned demonstrator of watercolour painting, and his classes are particularly popular with beginners. He has been painting professionally for over 20 years and specializes in landscapes, still life and animals. He has his own studio at his home in Derbyshire, UK and teaches hundreds of people each week, as well as running watercolour workshops and holidays. He participates in several art shows and appears regularly on television as well as on his own internet-based art show at www.watercolour.tv

Matthew has written a number of books with Search Press, with total sales of over 125,000 copies worldwide.

Reviews

Amazon Customer Review

A very handy book packed with information, but small enough to take out with you or to refer to in the studio. The mixing proportions are useful and explained very clearly. The pull out picture finder has handy proportional rulers for estimating distance. Matthew Palmer is a good teacher and explains everything well.

The Artist

It's always a good sign when a book feels welcoming before you even get to the content. This small-format hardback fits nicely in the hand and has just enough heft to make you feel that it's taking both you and its subject seriously. An elastic closure betokens a vade mecum that'll accompany you everywhere.

But enough of the form, what of the function? At heart, this is basically a hints and tips book. There are plenty of basic ideas, simply presented, for handling a variety of subjects: trees, flowers, animals, buildings, water - the usual gamut - as well as technical matters such as colour selection and mixing, which are handled rather well. A handy viewfinder is included too.

Paint & Create, March 2023

This brilliantly simple book brings all the watercolour techniques together under one pocket-sized cover.

Designed to be used in the field, this book covers a wide range of techniques and subjects including skies, flowers, buildings mountains, people and much more. Each section is complete yet concise and Matthew's straightforward explanations are a breath of fresh air. Matthew is a master of explaining things in a way that's always east to follow and understand and his illustrations are pitch-perfect.

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