Painting Vibrant Watercolors
First, I should make clear that I am just getting started in watercolors. I got Painting Vibrant Watercolors by Soon Y. Warren as a long term plan. I figured I probably couldn't master her techniques right away - but that this would give me inspiration about what to work toward. It would also help me make sure I developed good habits by the beginning.
I was quite pleasantly surprised, in that I wasn't sure it would have a lot of "getting started" material for me. In fact, compared with several other books I got, this one is wonderful in some of its introductory material. Warren is encouraging and gentle. She encourages you to keep learning, to accept mistakes as the way to grow, to develop a personal palette, and to chart your own path.
She provides a wealth of practical advice. She shows visuals of how the exact same "named" color from different vendors can look quite different. She talks about developing your own color chart for this reason. She has gorgeous examples of lighting, reflections, surfaces, and more. She explains the differences between different types of paint choices with clear visuals.
Then she has step by step tutorials, with images shown of each stage, of how she creates her images.
I was quite pleased. I thought I'd have to hold onto this book as something I could use much later in my growth - but there was a great deal of information which was useful and helpful right away. I can also see that the book will be quite helpful even after I've been painting for a while.
Highly recommended for people at all stages of using watercolors.
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