The Essence of Watercolour Paperback – September 5, 2017

I had never heard of Hazel Soan before, but when i saw the front cover of this book and flipped through a few of the pictures, ive come to see her as one of my favourite watercolourists!The style is loose and suggestive, and it's very effective. You get the sense of so much *light* in her paintings-something of which i have struggled to achieve in my own paintings. But seeing how Hazel works and with her tips and hints, it has helped tremendously.I saw that another reviewer put that it the kind of watercolouring that takes a lot of practice, and that "beginners" need more structure. I disagree. I find that every painter has a style. Some are more structured, and others are loose. To say or imply that because her work is not "structured" enough for one, that it means its not good for any other beginner, is very limiting.I'm not a beginner watercolourist, yet i found this book to be very inspiring and her work is beautiful.My style happens to be on the loose side, and before reading through this book, i had always seen the more structured books and struggled somewhat with those. So...each to their own.But take a flip through this book and you will see it's beautiful.It's not very instructional, so if you're looking for a step by step guide through, id go with something else (a fave of mine are the Geoff Kersey books. They even have the designs already drawn for us to trace around and get right into the painting side, great for practicing). But if you're looking to get some tips on another style or to "brighten" your watercolours, this is a great book. Even for just flipping through and admiring. :)

Fantastic book. Not only can it be a beautiful "cocktail table" book (do they call it that anymore?) because the hard cover under the beautiful paper cover also has the beautiful scene. The paintings are very inspirational, a good artist makes it look easy. There are color paintings on every page and the instruction is like little tips, important tips from an accomplished artist wanting to share with others learning, verses some writers who say so many words and it's still hard to understand. The book is the right size too, not too big and heavy, not too thin to make one feel it was lacking.Also, the variety of subjects she paints is so fantastic and helpful as well.I'm so glad I purchased this book! Thank you Hazel!

Whenever I've visited a gallery or art museum, I've been especially drawn to the watercolor paintings. I've played with colored pencils, charcoal, and graphite, and I've painted in oils, acrylics, and oil pastels, but I've avoided watercolor for fear its very simplicity made it too hard! Then, as a writer-poet, I realized I once aimed to add layers to stories and complex patterns to poems, but for the last couple of years, I've loved writing haiku. The few lines needed to paint a picture in poetry made me think that maybe, just maybe, I could figure out how to do watercolors too. Hazel Sloan's exquisite art and delightful instructions now encourage me to try and keep on trying, but mostly, to enjoy, express, and have fun!

This is an art book. It's a used library copy so I only gave it 4 stars because of the outside. The inside is unmarked. Received this book 3/13, Monday. It was delayed but well worth the wait.

After taking a closer look at this book I’m revising my original review, from 3 star to 5. At first I thought the book was light on information but it is not. Hazel Soan is an author who gets to a concise point with an economy of words, and is becoming one of my favorite watercolor authors. She doesn’t fill her books with a lot of unnecessary verbiage and fluff, she tells the reader what they need to know. I now have five of her books and they are all valuable with information.

I have read and reviewed numerous painting and art books. This is one of the best I have seen. Really hits the important topics in a concise and simple way. Plenty of examples for each area of focus. A great beginner book, as well as, a great refresher for someone who has more experience.

I chose this book because I am always looking for more technique in water color painting. I find the very loose and watery style exemplified in this book is very challenging. I think that there are many tid-bits of information between the lines in this book and I love her method of painting animals. Wild animals such as lion cubs and even wild dogs in Africa are painted with a look of life and action. This type of painting is enjoyed by artists and unfortunately not appreciated by non-artists who want to see clear cut lines and exactness. It is not an easy method of painting and requires hours of practice. Therefore, I would enjoy more explanation of technique.

Excellent book! Her work is remarkable. She explains a concept and then has exercises that you do around those concepts. What I like about these exercises is that I must think! This is not a cookie cutter book in which she tells you this color step one / this brush step two. One must think! And one must experiment! I reconstruct and deconstruct the exercises and apply the theory. For me personally this is what art is all about. Especially Watercolour. I find other art-how-to-books that actually have a receipt to be boring and uninspiring so this one is a REAL breath of fresh air. I highly recommend this book for inspiration and technique.

Super schnelle Lieferung (1 Woche früher), exzellenter Zustand, guter Preis, tolles Buch!Fast shipping (1 week earlier), exzellent good shape, great preis, wonderful book!Danke/Txs

I expected a lot more from this book. The author has a very nice, loose painting style and the sample paintings cover a lot of different subjects, which is nice. The problem is that there is not much information or instruction on how to achieve similar effects. The descriptions under the paintings are more on the vague/poetic side, not particularily useful. Compared to such gems as Skip Lawrence's "Painting Light and Shadow in Watercolor" this books is just "meh".

Immagini molto belle e utili da copiare

Esperava mais.Pouca informação em técnica.Bonito livro.

I have always loved Hazel Soan's style, she paints in very loose style & her colors look very fresh & vibrant. Its a good book for any level, has amazing paintings on almost all the pages. But I wish, I would have researched more & should have bought Hazel Soan's other book called "Learn watercolor quickly". There are lots of Books of Hazel Soan's & one should research well to suit their own need if you like her style & want to stick to it. I wasn't aware at the time of buying that she has other books too. I am a software engineer & heavy online purchaser too, Hence I would like to suggest a new feature to Amazon which would display a small section of all other books from the same author. I know now, we could follow the author here & could see all the books listed on author's page, but its not enough.