The Bottom Line
A book about building up colors by applying multiple layers of transparent watercolor. If you do all the exercises (twice is recommended) you’ll be well on your way to mastering this approach.
Pros
- How to build up color with transparent layers
- Technique produces paintings with a feel of light
- Each chapter builds on the previous one
Cons
- Building color in layers requires patience
- Not a quick-secrets book, but one that takes time
- Technique requires top quality paints
Description
- Hardcover book, 128 pages, ISBN 1-58180-189-0, publisher North Light Books
- Chapter 1: Materials to get started, how to stretch paper properly
- Chapter 2: The three main painting techniques – brush line, wash, and wet-into-wet
- Chapter 3: Simple color theory so you can mix your own colors
- Chapter 4: How to create convincing space and form, essential for 3-d
- Chapter 5: Saving the white of the paper, creating texture to add to realism
- Chapter 6: A formula for creating luminosity and how we perceive light
- Chapter 7: Using photos for paintings, preparing to paint
- Chapter 8: Step-by-step demos for layering colours on both simple subjects and full paintings
- Author Linda Stevens Moyer has won a number of US and international watercolor awards.
Guide Review - Review: Light up Your Watercolors Layer by Layer
This book is about building up colors by applying multiple layers of transparent watercolor which then mix visually, rather than mixing a final color on a palette and then applying it. The author likens it to laying pieces of colored cellophane on top of one another and says the result is a painting with a great illusion of light in it. The first two-thirds looks at the techniques and has exercises to learn these. The last third is a series of demonstrations. If you do all the exercises (the author recommends twice so you learn from your mistakes) you’ll be well on your way to mastering this approach. It’s not a book for painters wanting a quick-fix, but for those desiring to take their watercolor skills up a level.
