About the Author

David Webb has been an artist and illustrator for over 35 years. During this time, painting in watercolour has become a great passion and is the medium in which he specialises. He writes for leading art magazines and is the author of two watercolour books, including one on still life and another on painting animals. David also tutors painting courses and demonstrates to art societies. He is based in Devon in the UK.

David's blog can be found at www.davidwebbart.blogspot.co.uk and his website is www.davidwebbart.co.uk

Reviews

From beginners up this book, one of an excellent series, provides all the techniques and essential skills you need to begin to understand watercolour and paint your first paintings. There is no doubt that watercolour takes skill and understanding and that how it works is key to being able to use it. Understand the medium, learn how to mix, apply and more. This great watercolour primer will help you achieve success. Washes, resists, colour charts, design and perspective, texture, step-by-step demonstrations and fabulous finished art.

This really rather attractive book is arranged more or less in an encyclopaedia format, but without quite falling into the tabulated effect that implies. It's a difficult thing to define, but the result is both a rattle bag and the basis of a nicely-structured course at the same time.

Subtitling itself "all the essential skills and techniques you need" is a pointer to this: it's not so much a manual as a connected series of lessons that you can work with in almost any order. And there lies its attraction: each section is easily separated out and you can read up about what you need or what interests you at the moment. It would be possible to work through from cover to cover and, indeed, you'll probably want to at some point. For the rest, it's something to keep by you and dip into serendipitously. It has many treasures to reveal and these are best discovered by chance.

There are hints, tips, lessons, exercises and demonstrations and the book finishes rather pleasingly with a section titled "Approaches to Watercolour", introducing a range of other contributors who present their own ways of working.

January 2018

Previously published in hardback, this new softbacked edition of David Webb's Complete Guide to Watercolour tells you everything you will ever need to know about the medium. David is an experienced artist and teacher, and his lively explainations and demonstrations will help both experienced artistsm and those new to the medium find inspiration. Opening with chapters on materials and techniques, the book moves on to making pictures, covering composition, perspective, colour and mood. A selection titled Expressing Form & Surface, includes specific elements of subject matter such as landscapes, textures, and figures and portraits. The final chapter concentrates on different artists' approaches to watercolour which provies a fascinating insight into the possibilities and variety of this beautiful medium.