Watercolor Painting at Home Review & GIVEAWAY

New release! Watercolor Painting at Home: Easy-to-follow painting projects inspired by the comforts of home and the colors of the garden by Bley Hack. She is an artist living in the American Midwest. Her book is about finding inspiration and painting at home. She begins with basic advice on the essential tools and materials (paint, brush, paper, and palette). She also talks about practicalities. One tip is how limiting your paint colors, in the beginning, can be helpful. For example, buying only three primary paint colors pushes you to get familiar with color mixing - a fundamental skill. Once you have assembled your watercolor supplies, practice the painting techniques shown and explained. They include - flat wash, gradient wash, glazing, dry brushing, bleeding, white highlights, and wet-into-wet. Experiment with the brush strokes demonstrated. Explore other aspects of painting, for example, design and the importance of composition, balance, and variety. Familiarize yourself with color by mixing three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) to get twelve shades that include orange, green, and purple. Try the pretty wreath painting exercise. It's ideal for color-mixing practice and will expand your color palette. The bulk of this book is fifteen step-by-step watercolor painting projects. Each project has two parts - finding inspiration and composing a painting. Learn how to get the ideas flowing at home - groceries, greenery, your stuff, outside a window, your space, weather, and more. You'll begin to look at your surroundings in a new way. The paintings are illustrated with large color photos and text so you can follow along - from start to finish. They provide plenty of painting practice. The last project shows some appealing watercolor craft ideas, from cutting out painted motifs and using them in practical ways (this never occurred to me) to a hand-painted table runner created with inexpensive white butcher paper. In summary, this book will guide you in selecting supplies, and help you learn basic techniques, brush strokes, and color theory. It will teach you how to generate ideas of what to paint, provide painting practice and show you how to make some DIY watercolor decor. See excerpts and the complete table of contents below. Walter Foster Publishing released this 128-page paperback on May 31, 2022. Get your copy below!

Table of Contents

Introduction

Finding Inspiration

Tools & Materials

Painting Techniques

Design

Color Theory & Color Palettes

Step-by-Step Projects

Fruit Bowl Still Life

Painting Supplies

Pets - Real or Imagined

Kitchen Collection

Dresser Details

Easy Interior:  Letting in the Light

Colorful Interior

Painting in a Series:  The Weather Outside Your Window

Illustrate a Treasured Recipe

Vegetable Garden Plans

Garden Tools:  Collage

Fauna Outside Your Window

Flora Outside Your Window

Flower Jar Craft

Festive Seasonal Décor

About the Artist

Tools & Materials

Finding Inspiration

The color wheel wreath exercise.

Pets - Real or Imagined

Everyday Still Life 

One of the best places to start painting is with easy forms and vibrant colors. The fruit bowl on my kitchen counter sparked the idea, and then I thought about our local fruits and flowers and developed the idea from there. I encourage you to think about what produce and flowers are native to your area and build your fruit bowl around those.

 

Photo I took of my copy. The wreath painting exercise. Practice color mixing and brush stokes.

Watercolor Painting at Home is available worldwide at The Quarto Group. They have generously offered to giveaway a copy! One winner will be selected at random. Open until September 25, 2022. Canadian and USA addresses only. Good luck!

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