Watercolor

July is World Watercolor Month.  Here are 10 books on the art of watercolor.

600 Watercolor Mixes: Washes, Color Recipes, and Techniques by Sharon Finmark - Beginning with comprehensive charts demonstrating the nuances of each color pairing, 600 Watercolor Mixes offers thorough color swatches of expected results when using different color mixing techniques like palette mixing, wet-into-wet, and overlaying. Plus, you'll get the basics on color theory and concepts, including saturation and value. Next, you'll learn about advanced color mixing, such as creating grays and neutrals. With Sharon Finmark's expert guidance, you'll discover how to get the precise depth of color needed.
600 Watercolor Mixes illustrates how colors can be used to enhance a painting--to create spatial effects, add contrast, and make shadows. Filled with watercolor illustrations and examples, this manual gives all the color mixing fundamentals for watercolorists of all levels.

The Art of Creative Watercolor: Inspiration & Techniques for Imaginative Drawing and Painting by Danielle Donaldson - Welcome to your watercolour happy place! The world of Danielle Donaldson is as wondrous as a jar full of fireflies. Her whimsical illustrations are known for their offbeat color combinations, artful arrangements and endearing quirkiness. In this book, you'll learn how to partner with the wonderfully spontaneous medium of watercolour to create your own brand of magic. Start by creating a handmade journal, then follow exercises and start-to-finish projects to fill it with illustrations that are small in size but big on color. Along the way, Danielle shares her fresh takes on colour theory, perspective, composition and more. Designed to get your brush moving, this book makes practice feel like play. It's a one-of-a-kind journey for any artist wishing to tap into the utter joy of watercolour painting and make it a cherished part of your daily life.

Creative Watercolor: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners by Ana Victoria Calderon - In Creative Watercolor, popular watercolor artist and workshop instructor Ana Victoria Calderon shares her step-by-step techniques for painting modern motifs in this classic medium. Through a series of easy tutorials and projects, you will:
Get an overview of basic materials and tools, plus options for embellishing your paintings
Master essential techniques, starting with easy warm-up activities, learning to layer, and getting into the flow with watercolor, plus an introduction to scanning and digital editing for making multiples
Learn to paint a variety of simple, beautiful motifs: flowers and leaves, butterflies and critters, fruits and vegetables, and delightful lettering
Use what you've learned to create unique, stylish  stationery, including beautiful invitations, place cards, menus, monograms, recipe gift cards, thank you notes--any project you can imagine, for any kind of event you can think of!

Dreamscapes Fantasy Worlds: Create Engaging Scenes and Landscapes in Watercolor by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law - Breathe Life Into Your Fantasy Worlds! Heroes and heroines seek their fortunes in mysterious forests. Towering castles are built into the sides of mountains. Dragons and fairies soar through the sky and among the stars. And bestselling author Stephanie Pui-Mun Law is here to lead you, step-by-step, through the process of creating the forests, mountains, skies, stars and vistas in which these grand fantasy adventures occur. Follow along with tips, techniques and 20 step-by-step demonstrations to create the dark shadows of an enchanted forest, the twisting branches of an Elven home, the glowing light of a magic portal and more! From basic watercolour techniques to beautiful finished pieces, learn how to pick the right paper and tools, how to paint many different watercolour effects and how to put it all together to bring your fantasy settings to life. Get inspired by Stephanie's signature style and beautiful images. Imagine the stories behind each piece, then create your own! Learn to paint beautiful fantasy landscapes and worlds step by step.

Everyday Watercolor: Learn to Paint Watercolor in 30 Days by Jenna Rainey - This beautifully illustrated and inspiring guided watercolor-a-day book is perfect for beginning watercolor artists, artists who want to improve their watercolor skills, and visual creatives. From strokes to shapes, this book covers the basics and helps painters gain confidence in themselves along with inspiration to develop their own style over the course of 30 days. Featuring colorful contemporary art from Mon Voir design agency founder and Instagram trendsetter Jenna Rainey, this book's fresh perspective paints watercolor in a whole new light.

The Joy of Watercolor: 40 Happy Lessons for Painting the World Around You by Emma Block - For a soothing boost of creativity and whimsy, try your hand at watercolour. With a few simple steps, anyone can discover their artistic side and achieve moments of peace and tranquility doing so. Forty straightforward lessons promise fun and colourful results: no previous artistic skill required. This simple painting medium produces colorful, modern paintings to adorn invitations, gifts and walls.
The 40 lessons cover useful topics like: painting on vacation; painting your pets; layering colours; mixing colours; painting flowers and plants
Supplies are minimal: a basic palette of watercolours and a selection of brushes, plus nice thick paper, will do the job, yielding bright and whimsical results guaranteed to bring colour to any gray day.

Tate Watercolour Manual: Lessons From the Great Masters by Tony Smibert & Joyce Townsend- A classic medium, watercolor is practiced by many but mastered by few. This accessible and clear workbook is both a practical guide and an informative history. Beginning with a "1-day course," the chapters cover technique, equipment, general theory, painting plein air, and conservation. The authors also examine the work of watercolor masters, among them Claude Lorrain, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, and John Ruskin. Each chapter includes photographs and helpful examples of works in progress, explanations of methods, and how-to demonstrations. Designed for those who have not picked up a paintbrush since high-school art class as well as more seasoned practitioners, this guide is a must-have for anyone who wants to start out in watercolors, become a more assured and better artist, or simply gain a new understanding of the great watercolorists.

Urban Watercolor Sketching: A Guide to Drawing, Painting, and Storytelling in Color by Felix Scheinberger - Bring new energy to your sketches of urban scenes with this fresh and simple approach to watercolor painting. Whether you're an amateur artist, drawer, doodler, or sketcher, watercolor is a versatile sketching medium that's perfect for people on the go--much like pen or pencil. Accomplished designer and illustrator Felix Scheinberger offers a solid foundation in color theory and countless lessons on all aspects of watercolor sketching, including:
Fundamentals like wet-on-wet, glazes, and washes
Materials and supplies to bring on your travels
Little-known tips and tricks, like painting when water
isn't handy and seeking out inspiration
Vibrant watercolor paintings grace each page, and light-hearted anecdotes (why do fish make great subjects to paint, you may be wondering...) make this a lively guide to the medium. With an open mind and sketchbook, you will be ready to capture the moments around you in luminous color with confidence, creativity, and ease--no matter what your skill level may be.

Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium by Tom Hoffman - 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 Essentials: Hands-On Techniques for Exploring Watercolor in Motion by Birgit O'Connor - Everything you need to know to make magic with watercolour! Features 80+ lessons, exercises and demonstrations, including live instruction on the enclosed DVD Watercolour moves like no other medium. Just add water, and the pigment takes on a life of its own. This book makes learning to paint equally dynamic, with page after page of step-by-step demonstrations, plus more than 40 lessons on the companion DVD. Get off to a happy start with basics such as laying a wash, applying a glaze and keeping whites white. Expand your skills and discover new ways to express yourself with advanced techniques, including special effects using salt, rubber cement and foil. From selecting and caring for your brushes to secrets for painting big, bold, beautiful shadows, Watercolour Essentials contains everything you need to paint with confidence.