Create art that's more attractive, interesting and eye-catching!Even if your perspective is accurate, your subject realistic and colors vibrant, a weak composition - predictable, repetitious or monotonous - means a weak painting.The Simple Secret to Better Painting ensures that your compositions work every time. It's an insightful artistic philosophy that boils down the many technical principles of composition into a single master rule that's easy ...

• How to mix every color you need from a basic palette• Pages of detailed at-a-glance color charts• Mixing with both dry and water-soluble pencils• Ideas for mixing a wide range of greens• The best mixture for deep, rich colors• Useful techniques for blending and overlaying• Technical information on pigments

A unique system for jump-starting artistic creativity, encouraging experimentation and growth, and increasing sales for artists of all levels, from novices to professionals.Have you landed in a frustrating rut? Are you having trouble selling paintings in galleries, getting bogged down by projects you can’t seem to finish or abandon, or finding excuses to avoid working in the studio? Author Carol Marine knows exactly how you feel—she herself suffered from painter’s ...

The beauty of a watercolor painting lies in its diaphanous layers, delicate strokes, and luminous washes. However, the very features that define the beauty of the medium can make it difficult to master. This complete guide to understanding the relationships between color, value, wetness, and composition unravels the mysteries of watercolor to help your practice evolve.Experienced teacher and acclaimed artist Tom Hoffmann offers a unique, inquiry-based approach that shows you how to...

Because nature is so expansive and complex, so varied in its range of light, landscape painters often have to look further and more deeply to find form and structure, value patterns, and an organized arrangement of shapes. In Landscape Painting, Mitchell Albala shares his concepts and practices for translating nature's grandeur, complexity, and color dynamics into convincing representations of space and light. Concise, practical, and inspirational, Landscape Painting focu...

Learn great lessons about how you can incorporate great design elements into your composition, including five easy formulas that will ensure a strong image every single time. But don't let your great design be ruined by muddy colors! These lessons go beyond color wheel instruction to teach how to achieve tones from skin color to sky and foliage, all of which sets up the final section, where you'll learn great approaches to popular subjects ranging from animals and nature to man-made object...

Banish boring watercolors forever! This guide gives you the "power tools" you need to transform dull, flat landscapes into robust, colorful expressions of your artistic vision. Each chapter focuses on a specific strategy for tackling tough challenges, complete with inspiring examples, hands-on demonstrations and instructional diagrams to make these strategies easy and fun to learn. Following this guide's masterful visual instruction, you'll learn how to:• See beyond "what you see" ...

Through 46 daily exercises which make up a complete 6-week course, you will keep your artistic skills sharp and your imaginations fertile by doing One Drawing A Day. Each spread in the book features a beautiful drawing by one of 8 professional illustrators, with a description and comments by the illustrator as well as a companion exercise. Each exercise includes suggestions for various mediums or mixed-media solutions, advice on how to approach and execute the drawing, as well as professio...

Overcome the obstacles to your artistic expressionImproving your artwork can be as simple as learning how to trust your eyes. Your Artist's Brain shows you how to portray even the most complex subjects by focusing on what you really see - not what you think you see.Expert art instructor Carl Purcell shows you how to overcome dependency on the "intellectual brain" and listen carefully to the more observant "artist's brain."W...

The Landscape Painter’s Workbook is the definitive hands-on guide to the time-honored techniques and essential elements of landscape painting.Written by celebrated landscape artist, instructor, and author Mitchell Albala, this richly informative and beautifully illustrated volume leads you step by step through his approach to the genre, from establishing a composition using basic shapes to applying time-tested color strate...

Watercolor is a magical and often challenging medium. Once mastered, it will reward you with the pleasure of creating striking works of art of infinite variety.This book is a culmination of many years of teaching. Through it, I set out to clear up widespread misconceptions about painting with watercolors. These common confusions hold watercolor artists back from achieving their full potential.Full of practical advice and techniques, my aim is to simplify watercolor painting to assist you i...

Artists & Illustrators magazine's Book of the MonthTaking inspiration from iconic paintings in the Tate collection, discover the techniques of the masters and improve your own painting skills with 30 guided projects. As you work through the exercises, you'll learn how to work 'wet into wet' with Maggi Hambling, master colour temperature with John Singer Sargent and create rhythm and unity in your paintings with John Nash.Whether you are looking to reinvigorate yo...