The beauty of a watercolor painting lies in its diaphanous layers, delicate strokes, and luminous washes. However, the very features that define the beauty of the medium can make it difficult to master. This complete guide to understanding the relationships between color, value, wetness, and composition unravels the mysteries of watercolor to help your practice evolve.
Experienced teacher and acclaimed artist Tom Hoffmann offers a unique, inquiry-based approach that shows you how to translate any subject into the language of watercolor. With Hoffmann as your guide, you'll learn the key questions to ask yourself at every turn and time-tested methods to help you reach solutions.
Hoffmann's thorough explanations and step-by-step demonstrations delineate the process of composing a painting in watercolor, while art from more than thirty-five past and present masters, including John Singer Sargent, Ogden Pleissner, George Post, Emil Kosa, Jr., Mary Whyte, Trevor Chamberlain, Lars Lerin, Torgeir Schjølberg, Piet Lap, Leslie Frontz, and Alvaro Castagnet serve to illustrate and inspire. Whether you're a serious beginner or a seasoned practitioner, this book will guide you toward the all-important balance between restraint and risk-taking that every watercolorist seeks.

Watercolor Painting
Contents
Introduction: Understanding Watercolor    
Chapter One: Translating a Subject into the Language of Watercolor  
Being Mindful of Your Subject         
Revisiting Your Purpose      
Identifying the Tricky Parts  
Knowing Where to Begin    
Knowing When to Stop        
Maintaining Intentionality with Your Marks 
Recognizing What Works   
Using the Language of Form          
Chapter Two: Knowing What Not to Paint 
Identifying the Major Shapes          
Creating a Five-Value Monochrome Study           
Evaluating a Simplified Study         
Creating a Two-Layer Geometric Sketch 
Thinking about Stopping     
Creating a Three-Layer Thumbnail Sketch           
Chapter Three: Seeing in Layers   
Resolving an Image through Layers
Learning to Exercise Restraint       
Identifying Individual Layers   
Evaluating the Layers             
Chapter Four: Understanding Value             
Identifying the Lightest Part of the Picture    
Reserving the Whites             
Reserving Non-White Elements        
Identifying the Darkest Part of the Picture    
Bracketing the Values            
Knowing How Dark You Can Go       
Critiquing the Darks    
Knowing When to Depart from “Accuracy”  
Chapter Five: Sharing Control of Wetness              
Working with Hard and Soft Edges              
Planning the Wetness of the Paper              
Providing Enough Time for Each Task         
Gauging How Much Paint You Need            
Gauging the Wetness of the Brush   
Rewetting an Area      
Knowing When to Depart from “Accuracy”   
Chapter Six: Getting the Most out of Color              
Serving Your Main Goals with Color             
Evaluating Your Palette          
Mixing Your Colors      
Identifying the Dominant Color          
Evaluating the Effects of Color Temperature           
Knowing When to Depart from “Accuracy”   
Enlivening Your Darks            
Choosing Colors for Your Neutrals   
Chapter Seven: Developing an Instinct for Composition    
Sketching Your Subject          
Translating Form into Content           
Knowing When to Depart from “Accuracy”   
Creating the Illusion of Space            
Being Mindful of Abstraction              
Establishing Balance              
Chapter Eight: Becoming Your Own Teacher          
Identifying the Qualities of a Good Teacher             
Establishing Who Is in Charge          
Painting for Its Own Sake        
Devising Alternate Strategies           
Identifying What Worked Well            
Expanding Your Range          
Asking the Questions             
Index