Light and Shade in Watercolour

Bestselling artist and author explains how to use light and shade in watercolour painting to add lifelike detail and create engaging artworks.

Mastering light and shadow is the key to successful watercolour paintings and in this book, you can learn how to paint like an expert. The book is packed with Hazel Soan’s colourful and varied paintings, as well as step-by-step exercises and handy hints.

Beginning with how to see the values of light and shade through the eyes of an artist, the book then shows how watercolour is the perfect medium to represent light and shade. Learn how to balance light and shade through compositional design and how to establish the shadow of individual components within the composition. Hazel demonstrates clever techniques such as conserving white paper to show highlights, how to mix the right tonal values and how to balance detail in your painting. Finally, the book looks at using light and shade to create atmospheric effects, tonal patterns to look out for and how to bring it all together to create fantastic artworks.

About the Author:

Hazel Soan is a popular and successful artist who divides her time between London and Cape Town, exhibiting her work widely. She has her own gallery in Fulham, London. She is author of several bestselling books and a range of successful DVDs. She was one of the art experts in the popular Channel 4 TV series Watercolour Challenge. The very successful Learn Watercolour Quickly, Essence of Watercolour and Watercolour Rainbow are also by Hazel Soan.