Watercolor A to Z

I love this book, I have read it at least twice and go back to reveiw it all the time, great author

This book is easy to use and teaches many watercolor techniques, whether you are a beginner or experienced watercolorist. Step by step instructions are brilliantly illustrated. For the beginner, some omitted steps may cause trouble for beginners, if he skips lessons. The author's palette is limited, perhaps on purpose, but you can easily substitute other pigments. But, all in all, I find this book a great resource for learning and as a handy reference.

The watercolor examples are done in a moderate realism style, some more loose & 'painterly' than others (see customer images); the majority of examples seem to favor landscapes and related subtopics, but there are also some limited sections on animals, still life, people and textures. Overall, this book is a very nice addition to any watercolor reference library. The book itself is designed to stand on its cover (remember the typing tutorial books in high school?) and pages 1-96 go front to back, then you flip the book and 97-198 continue back to front. An interesting design and handy on a table top, but not without problems - the back cover is made of heavier card stock & doubled to bear weight, but the front cover is a little too thin and clumsy for my taste and will probably not withstand long years of use without getting torn or mushed. Each example has several steps for you to follow to duplicate as learning exercises with varied degrees of difficulty - the approach assumes you have a fair skill & knowledge of drawing: shadows, secondary light, reflections etc. It touches on perspective in a cursory way and while it encourages you to keep up with a sketch book to hone drawing skills as a pre-requisite to watercolor painting, it doesn't spend much time explaining nuances of realistic drawing; it only directs you when to add those nuances in and what colors/brushes to use when painting them. The book offers basic but succinct info on care & selection of art materials and watercolor paint characteristics (staining, transparency & opaque colors). The book is sprinkled with little tidbits of info on techniques - using/removing masking fluid, toothbrush spattering, making hard or soft edges, glazing/wash effects etc. I'd have given this one a 5 star rating for beginning to intermediate watercolorists were it not for the cover. Despite that, it is a worthy volume to have.