Easy Guide to Painting Water in Watercolour

Stephen Coates was born in Sheffield in 1960. The son of a draughtsman, he was introduced to drawing at a very young age. He excelled in art at school but chose a career in retail, working first in the music industry for 16 years followed by another 16 years running his own catering business.Over a period of 20 years, Stephen learned and specialized in watercolours in his spare time, and gradually developed his own style and unique brand of teaching. In 2011 he became a full-time professional freelance artist, and set up his own studio in Sheffield with the purpose of teaching others watercolour painting. From here he runs courses, workshops and hosts his own amateur art groups. Stephen also demonstrates his skills and shares his expertise at art societies all over England, and exhibits at a variety of national art shows.Stephen has authored three how-to books on painting with watercolours – The Watercolour Enigma (2018), Take Three Colours: Watercolour Lakes & Rivers (2019) and The Easy Guide to Painting Skies in Watercolour (2022).Visit his website www.coatesart.co.uk

Water is a tricky subject. Slippery, gets away from you, runs happily downhill but never up and defines horizons by determinedly finding its own level. It is also formless yet also form-defining and, while full of colour, has no hue of its own.Any landscape painter is, at some point, going to have to confront all these problems, frequently all at once, while at the same time dealing with skies, clouds, hills, mountains and vegetation. All of those can be fudged, at least a bit, but water will have none of it. Get it right or get out. Like I said, slippery.For this reason, there have been many books that attempt to simplify things for you and most of them are more or less successful. The trick is not to pretend to turn the novice into a Monet. This is about basics, not fine art although, if you get the former right, the latter should follow.The companion to Stephen’s previous book on skies, this consists of a series of fully detailed demonstrations that cover flat calm, sparkling highlights, wind and waves, waterfalls and even boats and their tricky perspectives.This is not a masterclass, but there are plenty of those available. By sticking resolutely to the absolute basics, Stephen really does make and keep things simple.

• Introduction 6Planning 8Water and reflections 9Understanding paint 14Brushes and brushing techniques 18Other techniques 23Watercolour paper 24Tools and materials 26Working from photographs 28WATER 30Lakes and calm water 32Project: Reeds in the Shallows 34Project: Misty Lake 41Boats on water 50Project: Serene Moorings 52Project: Boats at Low Tide 60Sea and breaking waves 72Project: Beach at Sunset 77Sparkling water 84Project: Stormy Island Beach 88Waterfalls and cascading water 96Project: Moorland Falls 101Water droplets 108Project: Oak Leaves 109Index 112