Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes: Landscapes in Watercolour

This guide to painting watercolour landscapes is ideal if you want to learn to paint but are short on time. Broken down into 33 quick and easy paintings that take no more than 30 minutes to complete, this basic course will teach you all the skills you need to paint landscapes and their components, including trees in winter, sparkling water, hedgerows and gates, animals, human figures and buildings in the landscape.

The 30-minute paintings are all worked at postcard size ideal for a 6 x 4in (A6) watercolour pad, and tracings are included for those with limited drawing skills. Each small painting is a work of art in its own right, and can be stored in your portfolio for reference later, or framed and hung on the wall to impress your friends.

The book is broken down into chapters that focus, respectively, on essential watercolour techniques including colour mixing and glazing; laying washes and creating skies and realistic-looking clouds; the rudiments of composition; trees and flowers in a landscape; water still and moving, from stream to open sea; and the living landscape human and animal figures, structures and buildings in the landscape.

The final section of the book contains three complete paintings that demonstrate how to combine all the techniques and elements of painting landscapes, as gleaned from the preceding chapters. These paintings, too, are accompanied by actual-size tracings.

There are 33 tracings in all to help you compose your own landscape paintings.

Praise for the Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes series: 

“This is a genuinely exciting evolution of a popular series. You’ll be guided through some simple exercises and on to complete paintings, gaining valuable insights that will develop and improve your skills.”  Henry Malt, Artbookreview.net

Book Contents

Tracings
Introduction6
Basic painting equipment8

Colour mixing10
Colourful greys12
Mixing greens14
Glazing16
Winter scene18
Figures in a glade20

Washes and skies22
Calm landscape24
Morning sky26
A darker day28
Clouds30
Stormy night32
Pale dawn sky34
A moody sky36

Composition38

By the lake40
Fences42
Fence line in the snow44

Trees and flowers 46

Hedgerows48
Layered foliage50
Spring foliage52
Summer tree54
Autumn tree56
Winter trees58
Poppy field60
Wildflower patch62
Flowerbeds64

Water66
Giving water depth and sparkle68
Boat on open water70
Waterfall72

The living landscape74

The rambler76
Watching the gondolas78
Distant sheep80
Dry-stone bridge82
Farm building84
Distant buildings86
The urban landscape88

Country Cottage90
Boats on a Lake92
Autumn Walk94

Index96