Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium
Watercolor Painting – click on the image below for more information.
Watercolor Painting
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 tr
Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium
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Not Just for Watercolor Painters,
I, too, have had the good fortune to study with Tom Hoffmann. Although I primarily work in oils and pastels, Tom’s approach to painting, summarized in this excellent book, has proven very useful for me in terms of the types of questions one must ask before applying any paint to the surface. The processes outlined in the book have helped me to stay fresh in my paintings. The title of this book could easy have been “Confident Strokes” – for that is the essence of Tom’s teaching. Something that I and many others that I know strive for in our work.
Hoffmann’s wry humor and personal tone, never preachy, make this book very approachable. He writes from his own learning and in no way implies that he is better than anyone else – only that he has a lot of experience in both painting and teaching. For example, he includes examples of his own unsuccessful watercolors (one is even titled “Flop”) in order to point out how he can succumb to the same problems as anyone else. He guides the reader along in a journey of learning, never assuming that it is easy and always assuming that the one holding the brush is ultimately making the decisions about their painting. This is no “how to” book with all the answers. It is more like a book of questions: what are the important decisions that painters might make to help them through the painting process?
The emphasis is that one should know the answers to some of these questions BEFORE the brush touches the paper. Hoffmann walks the reader through the process of making preliminary sketches and repeated testing. These exercises allow the artist to work through the issues in a meaningful way. In making deliberate choices, there is less risk of overworking and more probability of success and reward in making confident strokes that give way for the medium to assert itself naturally and beautifully.
The final chapter is an appropriate summary to the whole book on becoming your own teacher, offering a suggested list of questions one can use to remember key points through all stages of painting. Deserving as this is as a final chapter, it is written through the entire book that we are the experts on our own success, not he nor any other teacher.
Oh – and the images chosen are an excellent selection of Hoffmann’s work and that of other watercolor artists from all over the world.
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|This book is a treasure!,
Tom Hoffmann has written a book that guides the interested watercolorist through a series of important topics or aspects of watercolor that form the core of mastering the medium. It’s provocative, thoughtful and inspirational in turn. The book is filled with beautiful paintings by the author and other wonderful watercolor artists that illustrate each topic clearly. The author’s narrative voice is informal enough that it’s like sitting down with him over a cup of coffee, but rigorous in how he frames the questions artists must ask of themselves in order to get better. This is a book to read again and again as each time will reveal another layer in how to look at your art with clear eyes and determine where to go next. It is not so much a how-to book as a “what, when and why” guide for the intermediate and advanced painter. Do yourself a favor and take time to savor it! It’s worth your time.
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|In the flow of watercolor painting,
If you are an artist stepping into the flow of watercolor painting for the first time, or are already in mid-stream, “Watercolor Painting” by Tom Hoffmann is your best survival guide. It should have been written 15 years ago when my brush first touched those colorful waters. What Mr. Hoffmann writes about; the big picture, the fundamentals of painting, the handling of the water and pigments, understanding yourself, and more, are all written so that they can be understood. Another important point, Mr. Hoffmann does not write about painting like Mr. Hoffmann like so many other artist’s books. He just tells you what he has learned on his own by making mistakes (and he shows you some), by studying other artists works (and he shows you some again along with footnotes concerning the point being made), or from discussions about painting issues with his artist friends. These were, for me, keys to improving my painting.
I commend Watson-Guptill Publishing for taking on this publication, and I thank Mr. Hoffmann for sharing his knowledge. My gut feeling is this book will become a classic. So it should be on your bookshelf, used until it is worn out, and purchased again.
Ron Paulick
Past President Montana Watercolor Society
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