Zoltan Szabo's 70 Favorite Watercolor Techniques

This book is wonderful to reference for watercolor techniques.

This is one of the best watercolor lesson books I have. It is very organized and detailed into how to use various techniques to achieve certain outcomes. Example: Using the brush handle or using a palette knife for scraping and also lifting out color. Not only does it show you how to do this, but it also discusses the use of opaque vs transparent colors in relation to using these techniques to achieve a desired effect. Here is an outline of the chapters and content: CHAPTER 1. Qualities of TRansparent Watercolro Pigments Transparent colros, opaque Colors, Reflective colros, Sedimentary colors, staining colors, Nonstaining colors, Dominance, Palettes CHAPTER 2 THE RULES OF REFLECTION: Ten easy to use rules that will help you paint reflections accurately, including reflection angles, color, value, perspective, and characteristics of waves. CHAPTER 3: COMPOSITION and DESIGN THE illustion so Space, Graphic Symbols, Path of Vision, Planes CHAPTER 4 BASIC TECHNIQUES AT A GLANCE Charging a Wash, Lost and Found Edges, Wet and Blot Lifting, Back Runs, Brush Handle Scraping, Using a Palette Knife, Lifitin Out Color, Luminous Opaque Colors CHAPTER 5 WATERCOLOR TECHNIQUES FOR PAINTING Background Forest, Birch Trees, Brush Handle Trees Charged Washes, Cobweb Colorful Darks, Cummulus clous, Dramatic Clouds, Falling snow, LFlowering Trees, Frost on Trees, Flazed Tree Bark, Heavy Fog, Ice on Trees, Jagged Granite Rocks Lifted White Trees Mist Negative Shapes, apalette Knife Trees, Pine Branches Puddle Reflections Rock Setting Rolling surf Rolling Snow Banks Rough Tree bark Rounded flacial Rocks Setting sun Shadows on snwo Simplified Planes Smooth Tree bark, Soft Lifted Trees, Status clouds sunlight on snow sunlight on wood sunlit Mountain Tops Tree iompressions Trees in Heavy Snow Warmly Lit Snow Weeds Wet into Wet Evergreens Winter Island Wispy Clouds young Spruce in Snow CHAPTER 6 PAINTING DEMONSTRATIONS: A STEP - BY- STEP GALLERY: Flowers: Glazing with Staining Colors Icy Creek: Glazing and Lifting Shadows on Wood: Staining Texture and Lifted Sunlight Autumn Colors Controlling Edges Misty day Wet-Into - Wet reflections Fallen Timber: Emphasizing Texture Fisherman's Shacks: Negative shapes as Focal Point Snad Dunes: granulating Washes Forest rapids: wet-into Wet Technique Mountain Meadows: Palette Knife T4echnique Trees: Idealized Design Quiet Harbor: Contrast and Reflections Daffodils: Backlighting

This is one of the best watercolor lesson books I have. It is very organized and detailed into how to use various techniques to achieve certain outcomes. Example: Using the brush handle or using a palette knife for scraping and also lifting out color. Not only does it show you how to do this, but it also discusses the use of opaque vs transparent colors in relation to using these techniques to achieve a desired effect. Here is an outline of the chapters and content: CHAPTER 1. Qualities of TRansparent Watercolro Pigments Transparent colros, opaque Colors, Reflective colros, Sedimentary colors, staining colors, Nonstaining colors, Dominance, Palettes CHAPTER 2 THE RULES OF REFLECTION: Ten easy to use rules that will help you paint reflections accurately, including reflection angles, color, value, perspective, and characteristics of waves. CHAPTER 3: COMPOSITION and DESIGN THE illustion so Space, Graphic Symbols, Path of Vision, Planes CHAPTER 4 BASIC TECHNIQUES AT A GLANCE Charging a Wash, Lost and Found Edges, Wet and Blot Lifting, Back Runs, Brush Handle Scraping, Using a Palette Knife, Lifitin Out Color, Luminous Opaque Colors CHAPTER 5 WATERCOLOR TECHNIQUES FOR PAINTING Background Forest, Birch Trees, Brush Handle Trees Charged Washes, Cobweb Colorful Darks, Cummulus clous, Dramatic Clouds, Falling snow, LFlowering Trees, Frost on Trees, Flazed Tree Bark, Heavy Fog, Ice on Trees, Jagged Granite Rocks Lifted White Trees Mist Negative Shapes, apalette Knife Trees, Pine Branches Puddle Reflections Rock Setting Rolling surf Rolling Snow Banks Rough Tree bark Rounded flacial Rocks Setting sun Shadows on snwo Simplified Planes Smooth Tree bark, Soft Lifted Trees, Status clouds sunlight on snow sunlight on wood sunlit Mountain Tops Tree iompressions Trees in Heavy Snow Warmly Lit Snow Weeds Wet into Wet Evergreens Winter Island Wispy Clouds young Spruce in Snow CHAPTER 6 PAINTING DEMONSTRATIONS: A STEP - BY- STEP GALLERY: Flowers: Glazing with Staining Colors Icy Creek: Glazing and Lifting Shadows on Wood: Staining Texture and Lifted Sunlight Autumn Colors Controlling Edges Misty day Wet-Into - Wet reflections Fallen Timber: Emphasizing Texture Fisherman's Shacks: Negative shapes as Focal Point Snad Dunes: granulating Washes Forest rapids: wet-into Wet Technique Mountain Meadows: Palette Knife T4echnique Trees: Idealized Design Quiet Harbor: Contrast and Reflections Daffodils: Backlighting

I had the best results from Mr. Szabo's watercolour books. I could actually follow the instructions and come up with something that I wanted to frame.

The best part of this book is Zoltan Szabo's explaination of watercolor paint. He explains transparent colors, opaque colors, reflective colors, sedimentary colors, staining colors, and nonstaining colors. I've read many books on watercolor painting and this is the first one I've seen that explains the nature of the paint. Also covered in this book are many techniques of applying paint. Several exercises are included.

I am a mexican water-colorist. The book has proven very useful and I recommend it to any one wishing to explore this territory. I would like to know if a translation into Spanish is available or is being considered in the future. The techniques are perfectly applicable and there is a dramatic progress as one follows the recommendations given in the book.