Watercolour for the Absolute Beginner

10^th Anniversary edition

‘If you want to learn to paint, but don’t know where to start, start here.’ Artbookreview.net

The ultimate guide to watercolour painting for the complete beginner, from expert teacher, Matthew Palmer. This is a revised and updated edition of his beloved bestseller, which has now sold more than 100,000 copies.

Best-selling artist and tutor Matthew Palmer is renowned for his beautiful, detailed paintings and his ability to teach effective painting using simple, friendly, step-by-step techniques. This revised and updated anniversary edition celebrates ten years since this best-selling book was first published.

In addition to the time-proven instruction of the original it includes three brand-new projects, over a dozen new or updated exercises and techniques, over 30 brand-new finished paintings plus fresh tips that Matthew has learned over the past decade. The book contains:

• Key advice for every beginner, including a guide to paint and paper and a handy brushstroke comparison guide.
• Essential techniques including drawing (from life and from photographs), composition, easy perspective, using light and shade and mixing colour.
• Watercolour techniques including washes, layering, wet-into-wet, lifting out and using masking fluid, plus in-depth step-by-step projects for painting a variety of skies, trees, reflections and figures.
• Six simple step-by-step painting exercises, and six further step-by-step projects, including a seascape, snow scene and a mountain landscape.
• Pull-out outline drawings for all the step-by-step exercises and paintings (Matthew shows step by step how to transfer these onto watercolour paper)

The original edition of this book has already taught 100,000 complete beginners all the skills necessary to enjoy watercolour painting, and this revised edition includes plenty of new techniques, tips, and exercises to inspire many more.

Palmer (Watercolour Animals for the Absolute Beginner) presents an updated edition of his best-selling book, offering readers fresh artwork and numerous tips gleaned from years of teaching watercolor painting.

Starting with a detailed look at needed materials, Palmer discusses the qualities of various paper weights and textures and helpfully includes photos of different brush types to aid readers in identifying them. Appreciating that new watercolor artists may struggle with underlying drawings, Palmer illustrates simple but effective tricks for rendering buildings, animals, people, and objects, and also gives readers exercises for practicing single and two-point perspective.

Palmer covers topics including composition, light and shadow, and the importance of tonal contrast in creating realistic depth, as well as techniques like using masking fluid to preserve highlights. Recommending two alternative sets of primary colors, Palmer shows which additional colors can be made by mixing them and also advises readers on creating shadow tones.

VERDICT: Palmer’s detailed landscapes are likely to intimidate beginner artists, but the wealth of practical advice he offers should aid those who feel confident enough to try to replicate his paintings.

When the cover of the latest reprint proclaims “10 year anniversary edition”, you can be pretty sure the publisher is trumpeting a success, and that of this excellent book is richly deserved.

Best-selling artist and tutor Matthew Palmer is renowned for his beautiful, detailed paintings and his ability to teach effective painting using simple, friendly, step-by-step techniques.

This revised and updated anniversary edition celebrates 10 years since this best-selling book was first published. In addition to the time-proven instruction of the original it includes three brand-new projects, over a dozen new or updated exercises and techniques, over 30 brand-new finished paintings plus fresh tips that Matthew has learned over the past decade.

We say: There’s key advice for every beginner, including a handy brushstroke comparison guide.

Matthew Palmer is a renowned demonstrator of watercolour painting, and his classes are particularly popular with beginners. He has been painting professionally for over 20 years and specializes in landscapes, still life and animals. He has his own studio at his home in Derbyshire, UK and teaches hundreds of people each week, as well as running watercolour workshops and holidays. He participates in several art shows and appears regularly on television as well as on his own internet-based art show at

Matthew has written a number of books with Search Press, with total sales of over 125,000 copies worldwide.

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