Paint Watercolors that Dance with Light

The artist had some great tips and lots of information. This is my favorite art book so far. It has changed the way I paint and greatly increased my confidence.

Let me just get this out there first, not a book for raw beginner watercolor painter, not book for folks who like the loose watery "traditional" watercolor paintings and not a book for people looking for "to paint this painting, step 1 do "x" step 2 do "y", step 3 do "z" and use any ole type of watercolor paint you want, not a book for people looking to create an award winning watercolor in 15 minutes.... As someone who grows more fascinated with watercolor painting the more I study and practice I found this book wonderful and highly applicable to where I am at in my skills and artistic understanding. My painting style leans toward semi tight realism and the authors painting examples are inspiring without being too intimidating. The content is well organized and stresses the fundamentals of developing a painting starting with being aware of just how to actually look at your subject the way an artist needs to, developing the drawing sketch for tonal values, choosing the color palette and color theory (which I love) and how masking fluid can be your friend, plus much more helpful information. If your watercolor painting quests don't fall into the "not" situations I listed earlier, buy this book for your library.

I am a complete novice at watercolors. Kincaid 's approach is easy to understand, as she first explains about seeing with a different 'eye'. For example, look at a scene and instead of seeing details, look at it in terms of shapes and lines. She helps the reader to think about space as negative and positive, even turning pictures upside down to get a different perspective.Her explanation of how to achieve the beautiful light seen in her watercolors is well-written. She makes it seem so non-threatening, too. It's the use of the canvas' white and the application of Frisket, a material that blocks the absorption of paint (until removed) that makes the colors and brilliant white 'pop out'.Kincaid also covers layering of colors, the application of water, brush strokes, and other methods. I like that this is not a step-by-step book. Rather, it's the explanation of techniques that, if applied, can help the reader to improve his/her artistry. This is for the beginner and for the intermediate painter, looking to improve skills.

I read this book cover to cover and now use it as a reference book. Kincaid not only describes her method of watercolor in clear detail and with many illustrations, but she covers the basics of painting and composition in any medium. She is a very good teacher, reiterating principles throughout the book but in different examples and contexts. Just when I had a question while reading one chapter, she would address it in the very next chapter. In one of the best chapters in the book, she describes and provides photos of her tools and workspace setup. Another really excellent chapter explains glazing and how it works to provide maximum color transparency.Fair warning: Kincaid's method is very precise, drawing with a lot of detail and using masking fluid and paper. And she depends on analog photographic slides for reference, instead of digital photos. If you are not into a lot of drawing or want to use digital photos or work from life only, you will need to pick and choose from her method and adapt it to your own. But that's always the case when learning from others.

Generously detailed with "how to" information. Recommended to me by a friend with 30 years experience of teaching art, who thought it one of the best water colour books she had encountered. If you like working on flowers at large scale this book will particularly please you - most of the illustrations are of botanical subjects - though some aspects of the author's method are perhaps a little less useful for actual size botanical art because of the finely detailed preparatory work she favours. But this is a very minor complaint and you can adapt the methods to suit the subject and scale you're working at. The book is full of outstandingly useful advice, information and detailed demonstration of methods.

This book is absolutely gorgeous! The author takes you through drawing, designing the composition, masking out white on the paper, how water works with the paint, light and shadow., and more. Her technique involves layering glazes of pure colors to obtain the desired effect. I am a new watercolor painter, who would like to paint flowers. It is going to be a long time before I am able to get results like the author's, but just looking at this book is inspiring, and I am going to devour it all, page by page, chapter by chapter, and technique by technique. I think a more experienced painter would also find this book useful and appealing.

This is one of the prettiest books I own. Elizabeth Kincaid does a wonderful job of making the watercolor concepts very simple and she explains things very well. Her watercolor examples are wonderful and directly relate to the subject matter. Each chapter is very clear and concise and I love the fact she uses artistic titles in each chapter to decribe the content, for example Composition: Choreography for the Eye - a great way to think about composition of a painting. If for anything else her paintings are a delight to look at. She is exceedingly talented and her love of teaching comes out very clearly in the writing and organization of this book! You won't be disappointed.

I would highly recommend this book to a novice, because it contains a ton of basic techniques and skills. It might be all you need to get started. However, there is definitely a lot of useful information in this book for someone who's been painting for awhile. It's important to note the author's style of painting before you buy. She is extremely detail-oriented, definitely a realist, and loves to paint pure, clean colors via glazing. Her techniques can be helpful even if you're not a realist, but it's best to buy this book if you're looking to paint like her.

独学で水彩画を描いていますが、もっと早く出会いたかったと思う本です。何冊もテキストブックを買いましたが、水彩画初心者が指導者なしではなかなか会得できない「職人的コツ」を教えてくれたのはこの本でした。他の本ではたとえば「マスキングフィルムやリキッドでマスキングをする」としか書かれていないところを、この本では"Draw the line about 1/16inch (2mm) inside the pencil outline..." と、鉛筆線の2ミリ内側をなぞってフィルムにマーカーで線を引き、その線で切り取ってマスキングする部分（の2mm内側）に貼った後、フィルムを完全に蓋をするように鉛筆線に沿ってリキッドをつけた細い筆でなぞる…というように詳細に説明してくれています。また、最終章の"Evaluating the Result"では、完成作品がなんだか冴えなかったり気に入らなかったときの問題点の見つけ方と直し方を、実例を挙げて解説してくれていて、とても参考になりました。掲載されてある作者の作風も写実画に近くて、初心者が技法の参考にするのに適していると思います。

General watercolour information with a bias towards painting light. For my taste there is an over use of frisk and masking fluid but the excellent information on paints and colour miixing makes the purchase of this book worthwhile.

I like this book. It is good istructed for students also for artists.

enchanting book - showing just how amazing some artist are and Elizabeth certainly is, could never aspire to emulate her but enjoyed looking at her work and being humbled

Absolutely thrilled great book, delivered earlier than expected!