Watercolor Success!: 52 Essential Lessons for Creating Great Paintings

I would say this book is written for the advanced beginner or possible the intermediate watercolorist who wants to improve. It begins with the usual fundamentals of watercolor painting--equipment, paper stretching, etc.. If you are an absolute beginner, you might want to consider another book, as this book concentrates more on steps of painting and color combinations, perspective, value sketches and watercolor design and does not fully explain some of the absolute beginner information as well as some other books that I own do. It is still a wonderful book with much to offer, and the step-by-step demonstrations in Chuck Long's loose style and the unfolding development of a masterpiece such as seen on the front cover are very helpful. Some of the less detailed looser style paintings such as a mountain stream scene or a Nova Scotia fishing village would not be so overwhelming for a beginner to follow along with and then progress to the more detailed paintings such as on the cover. There is much to be learned from this book, and the demonstrations are excellent.

Being a novice in watercolor painting, I have perused many bookstore shelves in the Art section looking for that "one book". Chuck Long has written it!

Whether a beginning or advanced painter, every watercolorist will learn something from this book. The illustrations are beautiful. Study the demonstrations and improve your technique! This book is a welcomed addition to my resource library.