Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

During a Sabbath sermon not long ago, our Rabbi related a visit he had made to the studio of a silver-haired traditional potter in the Jugtown area of North Carolina. Marveling at the effortless way the man pulled a ball of clay into the most elegant shapes, the Rabbi asked him how long it took him to make the half dozen pots drying on his bench. "About 40 years" was the reply. Some of us are fortunate enough to discover during our youth a fascination and a challenge that will end up being a singular focus for the rest of our productive lives.Tom Hoffmann is one such person. His book Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium contains the wisdom derived from close to 40 years of daily struggle and triumph applying pigment to wet paper. I do not paint with watercolors; my medium is wood. I bought this book because the author and I have been friends since school days, when we used to draw and doodle together to ease our boredom in class. His talent was obvious even back then, and led him to pursue art studies at Amherst College, where he plunged deeply into watercolor--a dip he has never toweled off from. I bought the book out of friendship and curiosity, but I ended up reading it from cover to cover because of what it contains. This is not your typical "How to Paint Good" book. While it discusses specific techniques, what it is really about is awareness: what is going through the mind of the watercolorist as he or she goes through the various stages of planning and executing a painting. This is a fascinating question regardless of what medium one works in, but especially in watercolor, where it's important to be poised to get things right the first time (since errors can rarely be fixed) and where a certain element of unpredictability and risk is always present. How does one prepare mentally to carry out actions with brush & pigment that will have the desired effect? And what effect are you trying to get? And how do you know when you've gotten it? This book provides guidelines along these lines that are specific, logical and straightforward. Students of watercolor painting will no doubt find this advice extremely useful. Non-painters like myself who love watercolor art will derive an inside understanding of how this difficult but magical medium can so elegantly capture the beauty of light and color of our natural world. The production of this book is first rate in every respect, starting with the writing. Simply put, Tom writes as he paints: there are no words, sentences or paragraphs that do not need to be there, and everything is clear & transparent. You will start reading and find yourself pulled along. The use of graphics to explain points in the text is highly effective, particularly when digitally-modified images of paintings are used to indicate alternative possibilities. The book contains over 100 thoughtfully selected examples of watercolors by the author and others, with attention directed to how features of these paintings illustrate the points in the text. The paintings are magnificent--my 90 year old Mother-in-Law picked up the book off our coffee table and spent the whole evening going through all the pictures. How cool is that? Get this book--you'll be glad you did.

I bought this book somewhat reluctantly because while the description and other reviews sounded good, the preview of the feature paintings didn't thrill me that much. To be honest, I'm not all that keen on the author's artistic style. And being an artist, I am nothing if not particular when it comes to visual things. However, I went ahead and bought it. And don't you know--once I dug in, I was compelled to read it cover to cover. Hoffman distills the craft of making good watercolor paintings to its fine essence, with concepts that are easy to wrap your brain around and easy to imagine applying in your own work. Every page offers some important little insight or key pointer that is presented in a way that I've not seen in other books--often delivered with some gently acerbic humor which I enjoyed. As I progressed through the book, Hoffman's paintings grew on me a bit because they were so illustrative of the concepts he covers. Of course, there is work by artists other than Hoffman, and I appreciated that because it helps to see works in different styles which all demonstrate a particular concept effectively but in different ways. It is a thinking book though...if you are looking for simple formulas for how to paint a good picture, you won't find them here. This book asks questions, explores possible answers, and expects you to consider its questions yourself to find your own answers. It doesn't lead you by the hand but it does provide an excellent framework for an approach to producing well planned and well thought out watercolors. The language and examples are simple, supported by narrative that cuts right to the chase with a minimum of fuss. I think this is a must-have book for every serious watercolorist who wants to improve their work through careful consideration of what they are doing with each brushstroke. It has earned a place as a top ten favorite in my extensive library of watercolor instruction books and has already informed my painting process.

i like his work so it’s nice to flip through... he gives some interesting advice on the medium. i’m new to watercolors and i don’t know how helpful this book is for a novice. i saw his work at a gallery on queen anne many years ago and his stuff is spectacular... not to mention he’s a down to earth kind of guy. he is inspiring... and i am blown away by his technique and eye for shapes and shadows. if you like his style- it would be nice to have this in your library.

This would have been a six-star review by page 80 -- but now that I've read it all, I maintain that it's a 10-star essential guide -- like an artist's retreat in the form of a book. Hoffman's advice is clear, direct, good-natured (I chuckled a couple of times), perceptive, and above all, helpful. He is clearly a highly talented teacher. Even artists not focussing on watercolour could benefit from it (my areas of interest have been watercolour pencil and pastels, primarily, but I am drawn to watercolour paint per se and want to explore it). Hoffman refers to his work as a form of 'realism', though I think most readers will find his works just this side of abstract: they often suggest reality rather than describe it. Paintings by other artists in the book vary in style. Hoffman's own paintings tend to be rather spongy or smooth in texture: colour must do everything; he has surprisingly little interest in tactile surfaces as against mass and form. But that is not the point. Whether you want to achieve a more precise realism or not, Hoffman will be your fearless guide up the Everest of confident watercolour painting. A great and rewarding book, with many questions that encourage thought and discourage a paint-by-numbers approach. If you want to be a better painter, buy it.

Jedes Einsteigerbuch zum Thema Aquarell beginnt mit Kaufempfehlungen für Papier, Pinsel und Farbe. Daran schließen sich je nach Geschmack des Autors kürzere oder längere Ausführungen zu den beiden Grundtechniken Lavieren und Lasieren an. Bei guten Lehrern findet man noch ein paar hilfreiche Passagen zu Spezialtechniken mit Maskierflüssigleit, Salz oder Küchenfolie sowie ein paar "inspirierende" Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitungen, in denen man als Anfänger nur sehr vorsichtig auf die Idee kommt, das Konzept hinter der Reihenfolge der Pinselstriche zu hinterfragen. Das war es dann aber auch eigentlich immer. Nicht bei Tom Hoffmann. Denn er setzt genau da an, wo alle anderen aufhören und erklärt schlüssig und präzise, wie eine Szene ins Aquarell übersetzt wird. Das mag manchem Leser zu trocken sein, für mich ist das nach fast zehn Büchern zum Thema Aquarell das erste, das mich wirklich begeistert, inspiriert und meine Fragen beantwortet. Denn nur die Techniken zu kennen, macht keinen Künstler. Denn, überspitzt gesagt, die einzige Entscheidungsfreiheit beim Aquarellieren ist doch, ob man das Papier vorher nass macht oder trocken lässt. Übrigens scheint mir die Verfügbarkeit an guten Aquarellbüchern in deutscher Sprache etwas dürftig. Wer sich der englischen Sprache einigermaßen mächtig fühlt, dem empfehle ich dringend die Kindle-Ausgabe (Wörterbuchfunktion) eines englischsprachigen Titels. Und den Tom Hoffmann sollte man sich bei der Recherche unbedingt mal genauer anschauen.

An outstanding book full of valuable advice for the beginning water colorist and beyond. The book contains a very good balance of instructional text, working examples and pictures of finished work. This is also an excellent publisher of art books that are well produced and deep, and not just cut and pastes of earlier material. I admire the author's work and is highly recommended.

I love Tom Hoffman's work, he really shows how watercolour can be adapted and abstracted to take it away from more chocolate box images traditionally associated with watercolour. He includes the work of other artists to show you different ideas and approaches. This is not really a beginner's book - though anyone starting out should certainly get it - it makes you take a step back to examine why you do things and why you make the choices you make. There are too many books that tell you how to do a wash or work wet in wet, but leave you clueless about how to get stuck in rather than copy something. This is a great book for watercolourists who want to learn to do their own thinking. I have a few books on watercolour, this is my favourite so far.

Eccellente.Raramente si trova una cosi efficace capacita' di insegnare la tecnica.Chiaro,ampio,,sistematico.Lo consiglio vivamente particolarmente per chi gia' dipinge,ma vuole fare un salto di qualita'.

Good one