Painting Watercolors

Part of First Steps

Make your first steps in watercolor fun and rewarding!

Watercolor's vivid colors and fresh, direct brush strokes make it the most exciting way to paint. "But," you think, "Learning to paint must be hard and frustrating." Not with Cathy Johnson as your teacher! Here, she makes learning to paint in watercolor fun—even easy!

With Painting Watercolors, you'll learn to paint by picking up a brush and painting—not by reading about a bunch of confusing theories.

Cathy tells you everything you need to begin—including:

   • Which tools and materials you should buy to get off to a good, affordable start
   • When, what, even where to paint
   • Explanations of watercolor terms (such as "washes" and "puddles")
   • Easy and useful painting tricks—such as glazing and drybrush.


Exercises help you loosen up and learn the ins and outs of putting paint on paper. Easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions show you how to paint water, believable skies, a variety of trees in different seasons and other popular elements. Plus, a dozen demonstrations show you how paintings come together, from initial sketch to final brushstrokes.

With Cathy's help, you can start painting right away!
Cathy Johnson is a nationally acclaimed artist, author, and naturalist who has published more than twenty books, including the very popular Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature. She has also written and illustrated numerous magazine articles and writes regular columns for Country Living and The Artist's Magazine. View titles by Cathy Johnson

About

Make your first steps in watercolor fun and rewarding!

Watercolor's vivid colors and fresh, direct brush strokes make it the most exciting way to paint. "But," you think, "Learning to paint must be hard and frustrating." Not with Cathy Johnson as your teacher! Here, she makes learning to paint in watercolor fun—even easy!

With Painting Watercolors, you'll learn to paint by picking up a brush and painting—not by reading about a bunch of confusing theories.

Cathy tells you everything you need to begin—including:

   • Which tools and materials you should buy to get off to a good, affordable start
   • When, what, even where to paint
   • Explanations of watercolor terms (such as "washes" and "puddles")
   • Easy and useful painting tricks—such as glazing and drybrush.


Exercises help you loosen up and learn the ins and outs of putting paint on paper. Easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions show you how to paint water, believable skies, a variety of trees in different seasons and other popular elements. Plus, a dozen demonstrations show you how paintings come together, from initial sketch to final brushstrokes.

With Cathy's help, you can start painting right away!

Author

Cathy Johnson is a nationally acclaimed artist, author, and naturalist who has published more than twenty books, including the very popular Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature. She has also written and illustrated numerous magazine articles and writes regular columns for Country Living and The Artist's Magazine. View titles by Cathy Johnson

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