You Can Paint Watercolors

Alwyn Cranshaw keeps things simple for beginners like me who have never taken an art class since fingerpainting. He recommends that you start with a small basic pallet, 3 essential brushes, a pad of paper, and water. The recommended beginner list in some other books filled a page and I have no idea how to use them. He breaks down techniques and has exercises you can do to demonstrate various techniques rather than only writing a page or two describing them. None of the exercises feel tedious and are nice to look at. They go step by step and build on what you have already learned. I've learned so much in a short amount of time. No major works of art from me yet but I'm just painting to enjoy myself.

Received this book in perfect condition and enjoy the lessons very much. The delivery was in a very timely manner so I am very happy in all respects.

I wish I'd found this book when I was just starting. I'm an intermediate watercolor student who loves books on technique and buys them frequently. But even as someone who's been painting on and off for a few years, I delighted in finding Mr. Crawshaw's book at the library recently. It's chock-full of simple but useful demos--starting with a carton box, for instance--and progresses to fruits, vegetables, still lifes, animals, landscapes, people and water. The text is minimal and practical. Just last week I painted some fruits from his exercise and they were the best I've painted. An instructor teaching true beginners should at least know about this book, and beginners or even intermediate students looking for some simplified exercises from which to practice should try it. I may even add it to my collection.

The author/artist has the gift of taking complex painting subjects (landscapes, animals, people) and expressing their nature in simple strokes of watercolor. The effect is far from simple; it's that stripped-down-to-the-essentials that makes watercolors so appealing yet difficult to learn. One or more strokes of the brush, and you've gone too far and the painting is overworked and wrong. This book will help you over that perenniel problem.Mr. Cranshaw's book is full of examples on which you can learn, copy and base your own outdoor and studio painting. His sense of fun is never far away. I have other books from this author and I did some really great paintings of cattle immediately and easily after reading and trying his methods. If you want to simplify and improve your watercolor, get some good techniques for plein-air (outdoors) work, I can't recommend this book enough.