For Artists

Learn dynamic sketching and watercolor techniques for creating cityscapes, landscapes, figures and faces, still lifes, and more, enhancing the story you want to tell with form, line, and color. Discover incredible methods and tips for creating dramatic street scenes and vivid landscapes, and capturing dynamic figures and graphic architectural details. Artist Alex Hillkurtz-a top Hollywood storyboard artist, international workshop instructor, and Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society-presents fundamental concepts of sketching with pencil and pen for a number of popular genres. Discover simple ways to jot down spontaneous ideas in pencil, capture rough details in ink, and add watercolor for extra depth and interest. Make sketching more enjoyable by adopting innovative techniques that will make a difference in your practice, and your artwork. No matter your experience or skill level, you'll benefit from learning: • Compositions that draw the eye • How to avoid common sketching mistakes • Ways to create light and shadow to define shapes and add interest • Successful ways to use negative space • The importance of perspective in creating depth • Easy color washes that create drama This series expertly guides and instructs artists at all skill levels who want to develop their classical drawing and painting skills and create realistic and representational art.

“The Landscape Painter's Workbook” is the definitive hands-on guide to the time-honored techniques and essential elements of landscape painting. Written by celebrated landscape artist, instructor, and author Mitchell Albala, this richly informative and beautifully illustrated volume leads you step by step through his approach to the genre, from establishing a composition using basic shapes to applying time-tested color strategies, with all-new lessons, practical exercises, and special topics, including: • The Complete Color Strategy. What are the three aspects of color contrast that guide a painting's strategy? • Notan. Explore this special type of compositional study, which identifies the underlying shapes and patterns of a composition. • Picture Formats. How does the picture format-horizontal, vertical, or square-affect the composition? What are the pros and cons of each? • Color Grouping. A full chapter details this special practice, which helps maintain harmony by organizing colors into a limited number of groups. • Composition. An in-depth review of variation, movement, and active negative space, with illustrations that diagram the action in each example. • Workshop Exercises. Instead of demonstrations that show how the author paints, The Landscape Painter's Workbook includes 10 skill-building workshop exercises to help you work through essential lessons on your own. With examples of work by 45 contemporary landscape painters-more than 80 paintings in all-in oil, acrylic, pastel, and watercolor, the lessons are suitable for all mediums. Each painting is thoroughly analyzed in terms of shape, composition, or color, with supporting diagrams, thumbnails, and photographs. “The Landscape Painter's Workbook” inspires and informs all artists, from aspiring to accomplished, on how to successfully portray the majesty and subtlety of the natural world.

In “Dynamic Still Life for Artists”, noted artist and instructor Sarah Sedwick presents detailed, step-by-step instruction and insights on the many creative possibilities that drawing and painting still lifes can offer. • Develop observational skills by setting up and assessing various arrangements, groupings, and formats. • Evaluate an arrangement's abstract shapes by creating black-and-white value studies. • Learn the process of alla prima painting, from underpainting to color mixing to applying color. Featuring inspiring examples by other distinguished artists working in a variety of mediums, “Dynamic Still Life for Artists” will encourage all artists, from aspiring to accomplished, to explore this timeless genre through new arrangements, styles, and visual studies, empowering them to develop and expand their creative and technical skills.

A comprehensive guide to watercolor landscape painting, Light and Color in the Watercolor Landscape teaches artists how to render light, create depth, and capture atmosphere with expert instruction from Vladislav Yeliseyev.