How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself: Experimental Techniques for Achieving Realistic Effects

Quick read and useful

Amazing techniques. Amazing Book. Enjoying...well thought. Much design. A wonderful teacher! She went to the Lord a few years ago.. She left her Blessings for us to enjoy!

Loved the book

Another of my favorite award-winning wc artists. Ever since I saw her work published in a leading wc art magazine many years ago. She presents an unusual starting technique, including colors applied from squirt bottles -- where you wonder whether anything beautiful can come from such chaos, but it does. Her landscapes are readily recognizable but still have a dreamy quality about them, difficult for the artist to effectively pull off, but she does. The different techniques she uses to preserve white spaces is alone worth the price of the book -- together with other unconventional "tools" such as the use of sand and gravel, pine needles and grass, powdered pigments, soap bubbles, heat gun, and similar. As far as some review comments that it is not detailed enough re: steps used to get from start to finish. I have found that virtually any art book on a gallery quality painting comes up short there -- and only attending a workshop or somehow watching an artist from start to finish can supply that insight. But Nita's book gives enough clues to an artist with some experience to allow the trying of several of her techniques successfully. No one, including her, gets it right always -- see her revealing comment on pg 110 "Redesigning a Finished Painting" -- even the masters many times painted their final masterpieces over a previous failed painting. Note too her comments on correcting a composition failing in her painting Island Lake II, pg 105: " ... made a very detailed tracing of the design... After erasing the chalk, I removed some of the paint from the necessary areas with a toothbrush, razor blade, and sandpaper, then washed in the new colors and repainted some darks while the wash was still wet." Corrections, another useful technique Nita discusses. So, for me this book at least is a highly recommended text for the wc artist, no matter what style one paints, and no matter the experience level, provided one can deal with some frustration to gain mastery of a new technique.

I really love this style of painting and found the book inspirational. Unfortunately, Ms. Engle's technique requires a lot of removing paint by erasing, scraping, sanding or whatever, but she doesn't describe these steps in enough detail to follow her process. A video would be more helpful than this book, and I discovered she has several but they are pricey. The first part of the book where she explores the philosophy of creating art helped to focus my mission statement (for lack of a better word). The wash techniques are exciting and produce wonderful, somewhat uncontrolled results. They also use a lot of paint and water and require paper that can handle it. And experimentation.Also, despite the title, the "painting itself" part is only the first step. Once the initial washes are on, the author spends considerable time removing paint and adding details. Chances are, to get similar results, similar effort and extensive experience must also be applied.I'd recommend this book for the concepts presented, but with the caveat that it isn't exactly the detailed instruction in the technique that I'd hoped for.

This book is so well done with great explanations and step by step that I recommend it for beginners and advance artists .It’s better to start watercolour in a loose way than in a tight way !The author shares all her knowledge which is very rare, so many watercolour books are more a gallery of the author ‘s paintings than given you tips and advices.I definitely recommend this book for every artist.

I saw this in my public library and decided I needed to own it. Full of good information and fun ideas

This is an excellent book for beginners. I am really enjoying it.

O livro é ótimo para iniciantes que querem aprender conceitos antes de se aventurar no mundo da pintura em aquarela. E é ótimo para pintores experientes para evitar alguns equívocos ou evitar maus hábitos que o tempo trás.

Muy buenos para guías de pintura

Liked the way the author explained her reasons for the techniques she favours

筆跡を極端に嫌ったのかどうかは分からないが、筆で色を塗らない水彩画家。製作過程を追ったページが多く写真と文章で説明されているが一番キモとなる部分の写真がない（大事な何工程かすっ飛ばされている）。これは故意なのか写真を撮った人が絵を理解していなかったのか分からないが、この画家さんはとても感覚的にやってらっしゃると思うので説明のしようが無いのかもしれない。一見の派手さで引き付けそこをクローズアップしているが、実はもの凄く地味に丁寧にマスキングをかけているのが分かる。素晴しい技術なので水彩を使う人は学ぶことがあると思います。私は勉強になりました。

Ótimo Livro.