Reddit mentions: The best watercolor painting books

Wow, thank you!

I work in a pretty traditional way, blocking out everything with flat color, then building things up in layers. The block-in is dry when I start working details...for this one I did a lot of glazing and wet-on-wet work - no retarder medium on this one, though I don't hesitate to use it when I need to do smooth blending in large areas, like a sky during sunrise - to build up the volume on the stones. In a couple places to get some colors and values right, I used glazing or gel mediums to add some transparency.

To get the colors to pop, I try to carefully select my palette. Some of those yellows are actually quite dull, but look brighter because of the colors they're next to. I try to coordinate my colors, paying attention to complements and temperature (the shadows, for example, are very warm, using a warm blue mixed with burnt sienna...that makes the lighter blue glow a bit more, plus it is a sort of purplish-black, which complements yellow and so makes that stand out, too). I also have learned that it's important to pay attention to the opacity of your pigments. It's easier to get the sharp edges using opaque colors as opposed to transparent ones.

The other thing to keep in mind with edges: it's easier to make defined edges using contrast.

Sometimes for lightening colors, I will use a zinc white or unbleached titanium as opposed to titanium white. Titanium white can pastel-ize your colors easily. Zinc white or unbleached titanium can lighten your values without washing out the hue. It'll make a red a light red as opposed to a pink, if you know what I mean.

For paints, I use full body acrylics. For this, most everything was done using Liquitex Heavy Body paints, but I have a lot of student-grade paints that I intermix freely: Liquitex Basics, Daler-Rowney System 3 (a very underrated brand, imo...avoid their Simply... line, but System 3 is great and inexpensive) and even some really cruddy ones I found at my local Ocean State Job Lots. I wanted to use the pro-quality stuff on this one because I was concerned with lightfastness...I'm pretty sure he's got UV lights on that aquarium and I didn't want anything to fade.

Hope that helps! And thank you again. I'm humbled that you like my work.

ETA: My favorite books on the technical aspects of painting (so far) have been Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensible Guide by Lorena Kloosterboer and How to Paint Fast, Loose and Bold by Patty Mollica. Both of them have lots of information on color mixing and value, and I'm still working my way through applying the lessons I've learned from them.

Further edit: for what it's worth, I've never been able to use oils effectively at all. Acrylics are just a medium that speaks to me more...I might be coming to you for tips one day if I try to use oils again!

Edit3: I have a process pic gallery here to give you an idea how I did this one: https://imgur.com/a/yn1EiUZ

Rick Surowicz’s YouTube channel is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_RHSK_GEIoVTF-QNKDRvgA

I recommend his podia “Rocks and Water” was worth every penny: https://ricksurowicz.podia.com/rocks-and-water

Joseph Zbukvic’s book is amazing. It’s out of print, but you can find a pdf here: https://archive.org/details/ZbukvicCompressed

Ron Hazell’s Book Painting Water in Watercolor is a great resource for painting water: The Artist's Guide To Painting Water In Watercolor: 30+ Techniques https://www.amazon.com/dp/144033725X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_1QpCDb00QVENB

Liron Yancosky’s YouTube is really good: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChJff_wMy_bByb0jFTfw0xw

I love Tim Wilmot’s videos as well because he explains so well as he goes: https://www.youtube.com/user/timwilmot

Stan Miller hasn’t updated in a while, but his videos are really helpful: https://www.youtube.com/user/Stanleylestermiller

Oh boy! Watercolor is beautiful and relatively easy to get started with, but the medium has a unique character that people find difficult to master. I find that instead of learning to control watercolor, I learn to work with it.

This book is one of my favorites, and youtube has a lot of excellent videos which will show you how to approach painting. Just search for 'Watercolor Speed Painting' or 'Watercolor Tutorials'.

If you have no experience with them, start with a cheap set of tube paints, and any heavy paper. Get a set of real-hair watercolor brushes, or a couple decent synthetic ones. Bigger is better! Get at least an 8 and a 12. If you want to buy better individual paints, start with a minimal palette like one of the two mentioned here.

Practice, practice, practice, and keep asking questions :) Good luck!

I second both books posted by Sykirobme.

The first one I got was Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings and it was great for someone like me who have zero background on drawing and painting. Started out slow and super basic and I noticed myself putting more and more effort as I went along the projects.

Then I got Acrylics for the Absolute Beginner, a landscape instructional, which was fun to follow and I learned a lot. I kept getting "you painted that?" reactions lol very encouraging and I have to make clear the paintings were not originals and I followed tutorials from a book.

I purchased Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide as a reference for tools/theory/techniques. And I like it so far but haven't read in depth because I keep getting distracted by other books I find at the library and attempting some originals.

I hope that's helpful. Also, reiterating that this is from the perspective of a beginner (5 months in!). Folks with more experience might have different/better suggestions. Happy painting!

Robin Berry's Watercolor Secrets is a great book for getting started. Pictures, explanations, and step by step instructions for just about every watercolor technique you could imagine.

If you don't want to commit to artist quality materials, thats ok. Student grade paints (get the tube kind) and brushes are good for starting out, and you can always upgrade if you fall in love with watercolor.

But if nothing else, get good paper. Painting on bad paper like trying to paint a cute stencil on a wall full of scrapes, holes, and bumps. You could paint something great, but without a good base it will never look right. Arches 140 pound paper is amazing. It comes in sheets and blocks, so it can fit a range of budgets. Art Supply Warehouse can have some amazing deals if you hunt around.

PM me if you have any questions about materials or books.

Off the top of my head......John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Wyeth family, Paul Klee, Whistler, O'Keefe, Eakins, JWM Turner are some of the most famous of the past and lots can be learned from them. Today it depends on what you are interested in....figures: I like Mary Whyte Charles Reid, Color:....Nita Leland, Steven Quiller, Anne Abgott, Jan Kunz... Techniques: Zoltan Zsabo, Gordon MacKenzie, Cheng Khee Chee, Jo Taylor....Abstract watercolor landscapes: Ann Blockley Miles Batt, Shirley Trevena, Jane E Jones. On youtube "Mind of Watercolor" & Yong Chen, Grant Fuller, ....................Here's a book that might help https://www.amazon.com/Watercolor-Masters-Legends-Techniques-Visionary/dp/1440335265/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505169173&sr=8-1&keywords=watercolor+masters+and+legends.
So many watercolorists are amazing: John Salminen, Alvaro Castagnet & Alexey Chernigin

No answer to your question and I'm not OP, but if you're just getting into watercolor I recommend the book Watercolor Painting by Tom Hoffmann. It's the best watercolor book I've ever seen by leaps and bounds.

Found an Amazon listing for it so you can save it in a wishlist.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0008226741/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i13

I still don't know what I'm doing either, but I've been working through the super-accessible and helpful book "Learn to Paint Acrylics in 50 Small Paintings" by Mark Daniel Nelson: http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Paint-Acrylics-Small-Paintings/dp/1631590561

this one. it's pretty interesting because the pages are really large and she breaks down each texture approach in 3-4 steps so you can paint along if you want. i've been unhappy with my own approach to trees lately and i wanted to try some different things.

I would recommend any combinations of the following items:

[Cotman Watercolor pan set] (http://www.dickblick.com/items/00337-1059/) maybe with an extra brush as the one included is teeny.

Copic Multiliner Pen Set

The Art of Urban Sketching

100 Things Every Artist Should Know

Souce (Pfft): Art courses and worked in an art supply store for 5 years

I was really into that book until i found another book that was almost exactly the same book from 10 years earlier. Kind made me mad that whole pages and illustration styles got pretty much ripped word for word. Now I endorse https://www.amazon.com/Very-New-Orleans-Celebration-History/dp/1565124472/ref=asc_df_1565124472/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312030722538&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1713530055378017151&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-523850450627&psc=1
Im not sure if emma fick was aware of this book, but there are some glaring similarities

pugs, man

this book would be awesome

https://www.amazon.com/Watercolor-Bible-Painters-Complete-Guide/dp/1581806485 I dunno if you'd find this useful but this has been my go to book since I started experimenting with watercolor.

Here you go

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hobbit-Sketchbook-Alan-Lee/dp/0008226741

[Watercolor Tricks & Techniques: 75 New and Classic Painting Secrets
]
(http://www.amazon.com/Watercolor-Tricks-Techniques-Classic-Painting/dp/160061308X/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331616530&sr=1-6&tag=bookforyoudm-20)