The Essence of Watercolor

Here is a book that truly speaks to artists who are encountering transparent watercolor for the first time. Drawing on her long experience as a watercolor teacher, author Mary Baumgartner focuses on those essentials of watercolor painting that beginners most need to know, including color, value, and the building blocks of composition. The effectiveness of Baumgartner’s instructional method clearly shows in the many examples of her own and her students’ work that she uses to illustrate recommended techniques. If you’re just approaching the study of transparent watercolor – or if your prior experience with watercolor hasn’t yielded the results you wanted – this book will give you encouragement, inspiration, and the basic skills for success in this challenging medium.

Features Include:

• Color and glazing charts that provide explicit guidance on mixing paints to achieve desired hues.
• Lists of all the tools and equipment you’ll need for painting in your home studio and out of doors.
• Step-by-step instructions that make doing the “hard stuff” – whether painting metals, clouds, foliage, or reflections on water – surprisingly easy.

• Guidance on stretching watercolor paper, doing thumbnail sketches, using masking fluid, and correcting errors
• Knowledgeable advice on how to jump-start your own career as a professional watercolorist

Mary Baumgartner has taught her Wonderful World of Watercolor classes at art centers in San Diego, California, and Knoxville, Tennessee, as well as “on location” in cities and towns around the country. Her work has been shown widely, and many of her students have gone on to successful careers as watercolor painters. She now resides in Knoxville, Tennessee.