The One-Hour Watercolorist

I have been painting watercolors my entire life, but I picked up this book because of the title. One of the great secrets of watercolor painting is NOT to overwork a painting; hence, one hour (more or less) is enough. If you begin to overwork the painting, you run the risk of ruining it. This book has no drawing instructions; if you are weak in drawing skills, pick up a drawing course book (they can really help) or use the suggestion in the book to project slides on a wall or to use an opaque projector. If that sounds like "cheating" be comforted that many professional artists use these tools to help, especially when doing large super-realistic paintings. Don't worry that this is "tracing" because the work of putting paint to paper takes skill and practice. It is NOT coloring book work.This book also gives important advice about paper and paints; this is helpful as using the wrong paper will just frustrate you. In addition it helps to copy some of the exercises in the book and follow the stages of putting the layers of paint on. This again isn't "coloring book" copying; copying work is a very good artistic exercise to learn technique. In short, if you are starting watercolor, this is an excellent book to try.