Hazel Soan – författare

A practical guide to learn painting individual people and crowds, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations.Bestselling artist and writer Hazel Soan has distilled her art teaching into the things that matter most and can be digested in a short period of time. Learning to paint is one of the life-long aspirations of many of us and the techniques of painting lively crowd scenes or portraits of loved ones can be picked up faster than you think.In this concise book, Hazel Soan explains everything you need to know about figurative painting in an accessible way. She advises on how to paint people in a variety of poses and settings, dealing with the theories of colour and light in a way that beginners will understand and more experienced painters will find invaluable. She also guides you through ways to insert people into your pre-existing painting to bring them to life; scenes like urban streets and on the beach are explored. Subjects like how to paint portraits and getting to grips with body proportion and perspective are also covered. Both media of watercolours and oils are covered, making this the perfect book for any type of artist.Filled with easy-to-follow exercises and demonstrations, this is a practical and helpful guide to learning to paint people very quickly.

In Taking the Fear Out of Watercolour, Hazel Soan teaches you to paint with confidence, releasing you from the fear and trepidation that so often accompanies this challenging medium.At first glance watercolour painting appears to be quite easy, meaning that beginners start off with very high hopes that are quickly dashed as they realise that it is much trickier than it looks. With wet pigment moving on paper, watercolour is often unpredictable, and it is easy to feel like you are out of control.In this in-depth guide Hazel Soan takes an alternative approach, teaching you how to work with the watercolour medium and not against it. Special emphasis is placed on the medium’s needs as she demonstrates an importance of understanding the properties of the pigments, the fabric of the paper and the purpose and versatility of each and every brushstroke. Full of thoughtful troubleshooting tips and advice, Hazel explains how and when to have control, when to cajole and coax, and more importantly, when to let go.Packed with finished paintings, step-by-step demonstrations and works in progress, this handy book takes you through all the common problems that arise in watercolour painting, allowing beginners and improvers alike to increase their skill levels and produce beautiful results.

A handy, practical and inspirational little book - perfect for the pocket or art bag - showing watercolour painters of all levels how to loosen up their paintings and maintain spontaneity. Written by popular artist Hazel Soan, the book is arranged in two parts: the first section explains all about watercolour and shows what can be achieved with it in a short time span; the second section suggests specific approaches to painting in particular situations.INCLUDES: covering all the essential techniques, the book focuses on maximising brushstrokes and exploring coloursUseful advice on deciding what to include and what to leave outHelpful chapters on painting a wide range of subjects, including people, landscapes, seascapes, buildings, gardens, flowers and still life subjects

How to work with a limited palette, with step-by-step demonstrations.One of the world's best art teachers shows you how to give spontaneity and lightness to your work with a limited palette. Using only three colours (up to five at the very most), is the most effective way to give your art a fresh feel. With an array of paintings, techniques and step-by-step demonstrations, renowned artist Hazel Soan goes through a range of specific colour combinations that work. Each chapter looks at a different combination, guided by a principal hue or pigment property. For landscapes she discusses cool blue and warm yellow, for gardens transparent reds and complimentary green, and for seascapes warm blue, cool yellow and granulation. The author explores the almost inexhaustible three-colour combinations but also discusses when four- or five-colour combinations would enhance or work more efficiently. This ensures your work is more cohesive, light and brings out the beauty of the watercolour medium. This extensive guide is packed with demonstrations, work in progress and finished paintings – and every single painting will have the colours itemized, making this not only a great technique book but great resource for colour combinations. Ideal for all painters, new or experienced.

Bestselling artist and writer Hazel Soan has distilled her art teaching into the things that matter most and can be digested in a short period of time – in just one afternoon you can start painting. Learning to paint is one of the life-long aspirations of many of us, and these techniques can be picked up faster than you think.Hazel Soan’s concise book, filled with easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step exercises, is written in an accessible way for those completely new to painting. Chapters include: Getting Started (the materials you will need and those you can ignore in the art shop); Choice of Colours; Mixing Colours; What’s the Subject?; What Surfaces to Paint on; Basic Painting Techniques; Brushstrokes and Composition (with details on how to design paintings with horizon, focus and balance, a hint of perspective and the light and shade of a subject).Packed with illustrations for guidance, this is the most comprehensive guide to learning watercolour very quickly.

Capture the wonders of nature in watercolour with this quick guide to wildlife painting, packed with techniques and inspiration. Bestselling author Hazel Soan demonstrates how to paint a variety of wildlife, from garden favourites to exotic wild beasts. With easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step exercises, it has never been easier to capture the likeness of an animal, in your chosen medium, in a few quick strokes.The book covers all the key skills you need, including techniques for speed, capturing pose and proportion, advice on painting fur, feathers, hair, hides and markings, working with colour and light, and adding background and setting, as well as further work that can be completed in the studio.From cats, big and small, birds and foxes to magnificent elephants, lions and zebras, Hazel's simple tips, practical demonstrations and beautiful paintings can be applied to any moving subject and will help you master the art of capturing animals – in watercolour, oils, pencils or pastels – in no time at all.

A guide to landscape painting for complete beginners with simple exercises.Hazel Soan is a hugely successful painter and an outstanding teacher and author of art books, which have introduced the wonders of art to a generation of amateur artists. In this book she teaches you how to get to grips with watercolour landscapes in the space of an afternoon.The book explores the basics of watercolour landscapes with lots of simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations that are perfect for beginners. That life-long ambition of painting somewhere that is important to you can become a possibility with the help of this nifty little book.Topics covered include creating space, composition and focus, light and shadows, colours of the landscape and the mixing of watercolours. Watercolour painting techniques such as painting en plein air, brushwork, creating texture, wet into wet and wet on dry are explained. The book also explores specific landscape themes such as skies, foliage, forests, gardens, seascapes, wilderness, sunsets, urban landscapes, panoramas, sunsets and many more.

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.

This handy, practical and inspirational little book is perfect for the pocket or art bag. It shows watercolour painters of all levels how to loosen up their paintings and maintain spontaneity by painting simple watercolour studies in no more than 10 minutes.Written by popular artist Hazel Soan, the book is arranged in three parts: the first section explains all about the equipment you will need; the second section covers techniques and shows what can be achieved with watercolour in a short time span; the third section looks at various subjects that are ideal for painting quickly.All the essential techniques are covered, focusing particularly on maximizing brushstrokes and exploring colours, and there is useful advice on deciding what to include and what to leave out. With helpful chapters on painting a wide range of subjects – people, landscapes, seascapes, buildings, gardens, flowers and still life – this little guide is ideal for quick reference when working in the studio or out in the field.

An attractive, highly illustrated little sourcebook of ideas and practical exercises, Collins Artist's Little Book of Inspiration is for artists looking for new creativity.Through a combination of practical instruction, illustrated projects and step-by-step demonstrations in watercolour, oil and acrylic, popular artist Hazel Soan explains how to develop your observational skills and unleash your creativity.The book shows you how to find inspiration all around you – 'seeing' like an artist, recognizing potential subjects and considering new approaches. Hazel Soan encourages you to experiment with papers and other surfaces, refresh your palette and understand what different materials can achieve.From concept to composition let this little book be your guide to what to include in your work, how to be creative with colour and utilize tone and texture. Learn to see the world around you and the art materials you use in a new light, with ideas to inspire you around the house, out and about and on your wider travels. This attractive book also contains inspiring gallery pages which reveal how other artists have found new approaches to their chosen subjects.

In this beautifully illustrated book in Collins Artist’s Studio series well-known artist Hazel Soan reveals 9 key secrets of watercolour painting that will enable painters with some experience to develop greater confidence and a more professional attitude to their work.Successful watercolours require something more than simply good technique, important though this is. Often it is the artist’s attitude to their work that can make the difference between a merely competent painting and one that really stands out from the crowd. Confidence is the key, and for the intermediate painter this comes not just by practising techniques but also by developing a deeper understanding of the underlying tenets of watercolour painting.In this book Hazel Soan looks at the key secrets of watercolour painting that are often overlooked in the desire to capture likeness – these concern good materials, working practices, the nature of the medium, focusing on what is really important, choosing the right colours, balancing tones, developing confidence, knowing when your work is finished, and how to exhibit it. Plenty of practical exercises, projects, step-by-step demonstrations and studio tips are included to help you to build up confidence in your skills. In addition to Hazel’s evocative watercolours, the work of several guest artists is also featured, including Mike Chaplin, John Yardley, Shirley Trevena, John Lidzey and Jenny Wheatley.

A practical guide to learn painting in oils, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations.Bestselling artist and writer Hazel Soan has distilled her art teaching into the things that matter most and can be digested in a short period of time. Learning to paint is one of the life-long aspirations of many of us and the techniques of oil painting can be picked up faster than you think. And, as mistakes can be corrected much more easily in oils than any other painting medium, it is the ideal medium for beginners.In this concise book, Hazel Soan explains everything you need to know about oils in an accessible way. She advises on the materials you need (keeping things to a minimum), how to mix colours, basic brush techniques and how to use a palette knife. The subjects covered range from still life, flowers, animals, landscapes, figures and portraits.Filled with easy-to-follow exercises and demonstrations, this is a practical and helpful guide to learning to paint in oils very quickly.

A compilation of practical guidance on everything you need to know about painting people and landscapes in watercolour, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations to develop your masterpiece.Hazel Soan is a hugely successful painter and an outstanding teacher and author of art books, which have introduced the wonders of art to a generation of amateur artists. Here she collates her vast knowledge on painting in watercolour in easily digested steps that can be achieved in short bursts of time. In this extended compilation edition, Hazel Soan explains everything you need to know about painting people and landscapes in watercolour in an accessible and informative way. She advises on how to master brushstrokes and balance composition as well as dealing with the theories of colour and light. She gives you the tools to create urban streets, woodland forests and rocky coastlines and guides you through ways to insert people into your pre-existing paintings to bring them to life.Bursting with easy-to-follow exercises and demonstrations, this comprehensive compendium of watercolour painting is an invaluable companion for beginners as a well as a useful resource for more experienced painters.

Hazel Soan's Watercolour Rainbow is an inspiring yet practical book on colour. She sets out to encourage and inspire all watercolour artists to make really radiant and colourful paintings. Hazel takes each main colour in the palette in turn and shows how to use the pigments to their maximum effect with lots of practical hints and tips throughout, as well as projects to show how the colours work in practice. All artists, whatever their level, seek advice on how to improve their paintings and this exciting book will inspire all watercolourists to use their palette to the maximum effect.The book includes: Colour Rules; The Pigments; Transparency and Opacity; Mixing Colours; The Yellows, The Reds, The Blues, The Greens, The Browns, The Blacks and Greys, The Whites; The End of the Rainbow.

A paperback reissue Hazel Soan's classic practical art book.Hazel Soan is a well-known and popular artist and an enthusiastic and inspirational teacher. In The Essence of Watercolour Hazel shows how wonderfully versatile and beguiling the medium of watercolour is and how to get the most out of it.Hazel stresses how important it is to understand the characteristics of the medium in order to exploit it to the full. She encourages the reader to explore the properties of watercolour and to be unafraid of strength of colour and brushstroke.Hazel shows through demonstration and projects that tone is king in watercolour and illustrates how to paint light with the use of shade. Armed with this understanding she demonstrates that watercolour is not such an unforgiving medium after all: accidents and mistakes can be disguised, overridden and corrected.The Essence of Watercolour is a culmination of many years of Hazel's teaching and demonstrating, in which she offers inspirational insights into the secrets of watercolour painting and encourages artists to take their art to the next level.

Bestselling artist and writer Hazel Soan presents a concise and approachable guide to colour in painting.Whether you are using watercolour, oils or acrylic, Learn Colour In Painting Quickly demonstrates how to make the most of colour in your painting. The book is filled with easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step exercises, and written in an accessible way for all artists to learn about colour.The book begins with the Basics of Colour: what it is, how pigments are made and our emotional responses to colour, it then moves on to The Colours in the Palette: properties of different colours, transparent and opaque colours and granulating and sedimentary colours. Next comes Warm and Cool Colours: how colours are classified and how to use temperature bias. The Interaction of Colours looks at which colours work best together and how to use a colour wheel. In The Mixing of Colours, Hazel explains the differences between mixing on palette and paper and how to blend by eye, as well as primary and secondary colours and layering. The Effect of Light and Shade on Colour looks at how depth and form are created by tone. Finally, Hazel looks at suggested colour palettes and winning colour combinations.Illustrated with Hazel’s magnificent, colourful paintings, and with exercises and expert guidance throughout, this book is the perfect way to master colour in your painting.

Bestselling artist and writer Hazel Soan delivers a concise and approachable guide to portrait painting, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations.Whether you are using watercolour, oils or acrylic, Learn to Paint Portraits Quickly explains the key elements of catching a likeness in portrait painting in a mixture of mediums. The book is filled with easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step exercises that can be digested in a short period of time, and written in an accessible way for all artists to learn about portraiture.The key elements of portraiture covered in this concise book include: ·Finding the likeness ·Creating form – the light and shade ·The facial features ·Painting the hair ·Skin tone and colouring ·The body, clothing and backgroundIllustrated with Hazel’s magnificent, colourful paintings, and with practical advice and demonstrations throughout, this book is the perfect tool to help beginners master portrait painting – quickly.