Watercolor: Miscellaneous
| Every watercolor artist needs a book that can help you predict what colors you will obtain when mixing colors. This truly is a “recipe” book and has helped me quite a bit. Mixing pinks in watercolor for instance can be a bit of a challenge, as well as greens and any darks such as grey and black. I would highly recommend an investment in a book such as this. | |
| I love Linda Kemp’s style and had the opportunity to do a day long workshop with her. She is terrific and this is the book that explains how she works. As you might imagine from the title, she works entirely in the negative. In other words, when she paints a shape, she is actually painting the negative space around it and not the shape itself. It takes a little getting use to, but your painting abilities really improve when you can master this change in thinking. | |
| I had the opportunity to attend a week long watercolor workshop with Brenda Swenson at Cheap Joe’s in 2009. It was one of the best times of my life. Brenda is terrific and I really like her loose style. This workshop was focused entirely creating memories in watercolor sketchbooks. The little vignettes are real keepers and if you are interested in chronicling your life and your travels, this is a great little book. It is no longer in print, so if you can’t find it on Amazon, try Cheap Joe’s. | |
| This is a great book if you want to learn how to paint crystal and glass in watercolor. That said, I would not say that this is the best book for a beginner. It is beautifully done, but probably really more for someone at the intermediate level. It is hardcover and just a beautiful book with stunning watercolor works.There are 10 demonstrations and more than a dozen exercises. | |
| This is a good book I picked up at Borders in the bargain rack. You will often find watercolor instructional books on sale. I think I got this one for $5.99. This covers not only watercolor, but oils, acrylics and gouache (pronounced “gwash”) which is opaque watercolor. There are guite a few demonstrations. The steeple that appears in my gallery came from this book, a good exercise in shadows. | |
| If you ever have the chance to meet “Cheap Joe” (Joe Miller), I recommend you do just that. He is one of the most modest and funny guys you will ever meet. His story is fascinating and this book is a chronicle of his life through his paintings. Joe is proof that someone who can’t paint can learn to paint. By his own admission, in the beginning he was horrible. However, with some mentoring and a lot of practice, he is now a master in this medium. I believe if he can do it, so can I. This is a great book which if you can’t find on Amazon, just call Cheap Joe’s and buy it from them. Don’t forget to ask them to have him autograph it. |
