Bestselling artist and writer Hazel Soan delivers a concise and approachable guide to portrait painting, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations. Whether you are using watercolour, oils or acrylic, Learn to Paint Portraits Quickly explains the key elements of catching a likeness in portrait painting in a mixture of mediums. The book is filled with easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step exercises that can be digested in a short period of time, and written in an accessible way for all artists to learn about portraiture. The key elements of portraiture covered in this concise book include: Finding the likeness Creating form – the light and shade The facial features Painting the hair Skin tone and colouring The body, clothing and background Illustrated with Hazel's magnificent, colourful paintings, and with practical advice and demonstrations throughout, this book is the perfect tool to help beginners master portrait painting – quickly.

A practical guide to learn painting individual people and crowds, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations. Bestselling artist and writer Hazel Soan has distilled her art teaching into the things that matter most and can be digested in a short period of time. Learning to paint is one of the life-long aspirations of many of us and the techniques of painting lively crowd scenes or portraits of loved ones can be picked up faster than you think. In this concise book, Hazel Soan explains everything you need to know about figurative painting in an accessible way. She advises on how to paint people in a variety of poses and settings, dealing with the theories of colour and light in a way that beginners will understand and more experienced painters will find invaluable. She also guides you through ways to insert people into your pre-existing painting to bring them to life; scenes like urban streets and on the beach are explored. Subjects like how to paint portraits and getting to grips with body proportion and perspective are also covered. Both media of watercolours and oils are covered, making this the perfect book for any type of artist. Filled with easy-to-follow exercises and demonstrations, this is a practical and helpful guide to learning to paint people very quickly.

A guide to landscape painting for complete beginners with simple exercises. Hazel Soan is a hugely successful painter and an outstanding teacher and author of art books, which have introduced the wonders of art to a generation of amateur artists. In this book she teaches you how to get to grips with watercolour landscapes in the space of an afternoon. The book explores the basics of watercolour landscapes with lots of simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations that are perfect for beginners. That life-long ambition of painting somewhere that is important to you can become a possibility with the help of this nifty little book. Topics covered include creating space, composition and focus, light and shadows, colours of the landscape and the mixing of watercolours. Watercolour painting techniques such as painting en plein air, brushwork, creating texture, wet into wet and wet on dry are explained. The book also explores specific landscape themes such as skies, foliage, forests, gardens, seascapes, wilderness, sunsets, urban landscapes, panoramas, sunsets and many more.

A paperback reissue Hazel Soan's classic practical art book. Hazel Soan is a well-known and popular artist and an enthusiastic and inspirational teacher. In The Essence of Watercolour Hazel shows how wonderfully versatile and beguiling the medium of watercolour is and how to get the most out of it. Hazel stresses how important it is to understand the characteristics of the medium in order to exploit it to the full. She encourages the reader to explore the properties of watercolour and to be unafraid of strength of colour and brushstroke. Hazel shows through demonstration and projects that tone is king in watercolour and illustrates how to paint light with the use of shade. Armed with this understanding she demonstrates that watercolour is not such an unforgiving medium after all: accidents and mistakes can be disguised, overridden and corrected. The Essence of Watercolour is a culmination of many years of Hazel's teaching and demonstrating, in which she offers inspirational insights into the secrets of watercolour painting and encourages artists to take their art to the next level.

The aim of this book is to inspire amateur artists to create beautiful flower paintings in watercolour by developing their own style right from the start. With this in mind, the book contains plenty of instruction on essential watercolour techniques and methods, and includes the following key features: projects - practical projects, with a system of self-assessment to monitor progress; demonstrations - developing a painting step-by-step; exercises - additional exercises to put theory into practice; ideas - flowers with still life, in garden settings, close-up compositions, flowers in the landscape, flower portraits and studies; and inspiration - a wide selection of flower paintings to show different styles and techniques. The book features paintings by the author and a number of other well-known contemporary artists, including John Lidzey, Shirley Trevena and Ann Blockley. It adopts a workshop approach, with practical projects, exercises and step-by-step demos.

The Artist's Color Guide - Watercolor is an inspiring yet practical guide to using color. Experienced artist and teacher Hazel Soan takes each color of the rainbow and demonstrates how to use the pigments to maximum effect and with lots of practical hints and tips. By exploring all the colors of the palette, this book aims to broaden the knowledge of every watercolor artist-- whatever their experience level-- so they can approach choosing and mixing colors with confidence and achieve the most striking results in their paintings.

Push your watercolor painting to the next level by mastering the use of color, light, and shadows. Go beyond trying to copy what you see by designing with shapes, shadows, and highlights. Deepen the expressive nature of your paintings as you capture the subject's luminosity. Master painter William B. Lawrence offers hands-on techniques and insights for intermediate to advanced artists. Light and color take the viewer on a journey. Properly harnessed, they can convey emotion, create a mood, or tell a story. Whether your work is realistic, expressive, or abstract, the options are unlimited. Lawrence explores pattern, hue, contrast, and texture in this treasured classic. Using a combination of theory, demonstration, and practical suggestions this new arsenal of tools, will help you grow as an artist. Other techniques covered include: How to design with light and shadow The use of overlapping patterns How light can express movement Learning to use light and dark to add drama and intensity to your work Discover how to guide the viewer's eye through floodlights, spotlights, and other advanced light-manipulation techniques. Painting Light and Shadow in Watercolor will help you create radiant watercolor paintings and give you greater painting pleasure as you develop new skills which bring your imagination to life.