A practical and inspirational resource for any visual artist who wants to paint in a less figurative way and take their first steps into the realm of abstract art. Through practical projects and easy-to-follow demonstrations, renowned artist Laura Reiter shows you how to create beautiful and unique abstracts in mixed media. Whether you want to simplify a subject into its abstract elements, or experiment with colour, line and form to make something completely new, this book will help you find an approach that works for you. It covers how to use materials creatively, focusing on watercolour, acrylics and combining different paint media, and how to have fun with colour and composition to create something unique. The author explains how to find sources of inspiration and build up a mark-making repertoire, bringing in texture and collage, and includes a wealth of playful exercises to help you develop your own individual abstract painting style. Beautifully illustrated with the author's vibrant abstract compositions, the book also features stunning examples from other leading artists whose work is partly or wholly abstract. This fascinating book is all any artist needs to successfully make the move into abstract painting.

A complete introduction and a wide range of techniques in the medium of watercolor.

An inspiring guide to creating successful landscapes and seascapes in mixed media, including watercolour, pastels, wax crayons, ink and acrylics. Mixed media is ever growing in popularity. In this useful and insightful book, artist and teacher Chris Forsey shows how to use this technique to create stunning landscapes and seascapes. The book concentrates on combining water-based media – watercolour, pastels, wax crayons, ink and acrylics – to create an exciting and often unpredictable way to paint. It allows the artist to create textures and effects that can exhilarate the painting surface with unusual serendipitous washes, smears and drifts of colour and tone. The book encourages readers to experiment with media, wile providing advice, instruction and step-by-step demonstrations to show how to get the best from two, three or four different media working together. The introduction helps the reader determine what they wish to achieve in a painting. The following chapters then goes on to focus on one of the media combinations: wax crayon and watercolour; oil pastel, watercolour and acrylic; oil pastel and acrylics; oil pastel, watercolour, ink and acrylics. Featuring plenty of step-by-step demonstrations on how to combine the materials, with finished examples of finished paintings. The book offers the reader an array of ways to improve their landscape and seascape painting, taking it to a new level.

A unique and exciting approach to botanical illustration, this beginner guide demonstrates everything you need to know about capturing beautiful botanical specimens on paper. Each exercise guides the reader through a different aspect of botanical illustration, breaking the whole process down into simple, easy-to-follow stages. Whether you are a beginner looking for advice on composition and how to plot out your initial drawings, an experienced artist looking to develop your skills at colour mixing and working with unusual colours, or an old hand looking to capture more challenging and complex textures and shapes, there is something for botanical artists of all levels. Acclaimed artists Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan ran the popular botanical painting course at the Eden Project and have filled this fantastically illustrated guide with practical and inspirational worksheets, colour swatches, sketches and stunning finished paintings.

Take your artwork further with this lively, informative guide to combining traditional watercolour with other media. Adding other media to your watercolour paintings is a fantastic way to take your work in new, more exciting directions. However, the vast array of painting media and materials on the market can be daunting, especially for the absolute beginner. This book introduces the reader to the range of media that is available, explains briefly and clearly how to use the materials and provides six step-by-step projects and inspiring finished paintings to encourage the reader to take a definitive leap into the exciting world of mixed media art. Author Alison Board covers a multitude of topics in her work, and this book features projects on the subjects of flora, animal portraits, dancers in motion, cities and cityscapes, and landscapes. She explores how to combine wet and dry media, and how to create vibrant collages from man-made and natural found objects. There are no mistakes in mixed-media artwork; Alison encourages the reader to embrace the experimental and be unafraid.

An invaluable compendium of 75 creative art projects for art educators and classroom teachers This authoritative, practical, and comprehensive guide offers everything teachers need to know to conduct an effective arts instruction and appreciation program. It meets secondary art teacher's unique needs for creating art lessons that cover everything from the fundamentals to digital media careers for aspiring artists. The book includes ten chapters that provide detailed instructions for both teachers and students, along with creative lesson plans and practical tools such as reproducible handouts, illustrations, and photographs. Includes 75 fun and creative art projects Fully updated to reflect the latest changes in secondary art instruction, including digital media and digital photography Heavily illustrated with photographs and drawings For art teachers, secondary classroom teachers, and homeschoolers, this is the ideal hands-on guide to art instruction for middle school and high school students.