The Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook: A treasury of watercolor secrets discovered through decades of painting and expe rimentation

This was a gift for my Mother for Mother’s Day, she is a very talented artist and Watercolor painting is her preferred medium Or way of painting. Anyway as I said she is very talented and has been painting for a few years now almost every day even though she works full time as a NICU Nurse. She’s told that she’s found the book very interesting and helpful with new methods and techniques that she hasn’t used before and can’t wait to try them out. I feared she would not find much information that she didn’t already know (since she has other books and plenty of experience) but thankfully that hasn’t been the case. I can say that I did plenty of research and review reading before choosing this book, and that it was full of bright glossy pages brimming with detailed pictures and information, a must have for anyone who is interested in learning more about Watercolor Painting or just getting started on their journey of learning about Watercolor Painting, and also a great gift for anyone who is interested in painting with Watercolors!!P.S. - I wanted to add that the seller I bought this book from -Super Books- took forever(6 days) to ship it out and they packaged it only in a thin plastic bag which provided NO protection during shipping and there for my copy arrived dented and damaged. But the book and it’s contents are what this review is for, not the way it was shipped out, packaged or handled, that review and its poor rating was left on the seller’s page site. To many times I have seen great books get bad reviews because of packaging or shipping issues which shouldn’t reflect on the book or any other product, they should be rated based off their on merits not anything else. Thank you for taking the time to read my review and listen to my thoughts on this subject!

Highly Recommended!!! You all in the ratings aren't kidding when you say this book has the best instruction for watercolor!The layout of the pictures and written knowledge is separated for easy flow for reading and understanding. Author includes the why and why not.I like the muted color choice of the illustrations. The coloring isn't distracting and allows the eye of the reader to see what the author is conveying.This book will save you time and frustration on your journey to becoming an artist.THANK YOU!

I am enjoying this workbook. It is giving the confidence (just started watercolor painting) and techniques to paint. It is nice to have this to actually practice with instructions.

Got this for my mom, a painter since junior high school and advanced watercolorist for over 10 years. She is now 80 yrs old. Very visual and well designed. Very intimate (more personal exploration than just techy) as well as very practical and educational. My mom just loves art books. She enjoys just reading through this book, as you would a novel. While I am a felting/fiber artist, I was so inspired by the book, I am going to get one for myself and start learning watercolor. While I have done oil painting and drawing, watercolor felt intimidating. I feel relaxed and inspired to tackle this medium with the guidance from this book. So whether a seasoned artist or beginner, this book is one of those that will be treasured in your collection.

Some reviewers complained that this book is "dry" or "uninspiring". What they really meant is "packed full of useful content".As a beginner to watercolor without an arts background of any kind, I've picked up more than a few watercolor books lately. Most of them are about 10% how-to-paint, and about 90% mooning on about how wonderful painting is or reassuring the reader that they can try to paint, the world won't end if they make a mistake, etc. In other words, a total waste of any functional adult's time. I already decided to paint, or I wouldn't have bought a watercolor book in the first place. In contrast, The Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook is 100% about how to paint.This is the first book on watercolor that I've been really happy I bought. It taught me several techniques that I'd never heard of, clarified some I was struggling with, and most importantly explained a number of processes and concepts that every book and online tutorial I've found before take as self-evident, such as:- Deciding the order in which to paint parts of a composition- When should I let something dry before continuing to paint the next part of the composition, and when should I power ahead before it dries?- How can I undo a mistake?- How can I work out more of my composition before painting (without also being a master at drawing) rather than wasting time and supplies on many false starts?- How do I decide which colors to keep in my palette?- Why does the paint in my palette seem to get dirty so fast?The author clearly understands a lot about how to teach, which is a subject unto itself separate from knowing how to paint. That said, this isn't a tutorial book. It contains several helpful mini-tutorials, but I think of this more as a little library of knowledge. I try to pull something out of it to try and learn with each painting I do, but I'm definitely not going through all the parts sequentially.