Complete Guide to Watercolor Painting

by Edgar A. Whitney

The author of this superb guide was not only a renowned watercolor painter but also a brilliant teacher with an unmatched talent for conveying to his students the techniques and aesthetic philosophy underlying great paintings. Years after becoming award-winning painters themselves, his students still quote his "Whitneyisms" to remind themselves of all that is most important in creating art. This fine guide, the distillation of Edgar Whitney's teaching, is one of the most useful, comprehensive, and popular watercolor painting books every published — almost a cult classic. Starting with the nuts-and-bolts basics — including choice of paper, colors, palette, and brushes — and with exercises to give the beginner experience in using washes on both dry and wet paper, the book presents a full course of watercolor painting. The author gives specific, detailed instructions for creating landscapes and for painting portraits and figures — instructions that come vividly to life in two 16-page full-color sections showing the steps involved in creatiang seven of his own watercolors. Other chapters focus on drawing; the principles and elements of design; and matting, framing, and selling completed works of art. Beautifully designed and illustrated, this invaluable book will be treasured by all watercolorists — from complete beginners to experienced painters looking for ways to improve their own paintings.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Classics

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading this book over several years. One of my favorite artists who instilled great inspiration and knowledge into the world of watercolor painting. They are quite a few well known artists who studied under Edgar Whitney that alone tells me that his approach works.

[Cariadne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want to thank the generous folks who organized the Goodreads giveaway. I was looking forward to getting inspired by this book and using my watercolor supplies (I've got the right paper, I've got watercolor pencils, I have tubes with watercolor paint, I've got the standard kid watercolor paints, etc.).

Now, I do believe there is inspiration and learning that can come from old texts, but this is not one of them. I found the content and images to be so outdated and am left uninspired by the art inside.

All the art examples had a sameness, there was no variety. The book features mostly DARK black and white images, not enough contrast comes through. When there was color, the images were washed out and lacked any sort of vibrancy. (Now, I am an admirer of many watercolors that are more muted in tone and even wet-on-wet art, but this stuff's just so-so.) At the very least for this reprint from the original 1974 edition, they could've put more care and reset this instead of the publishing appearing to be a photocopy of the original book.

Booo. I am so bummed. Was really looking forward to a great reference.

[David Braly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this superb guide was not only a renowned watercolor painter but also a brilliant teacher with an unmatched talent for conveying to his students the techniques and aesthetic philosophy underlying great paintings. Years after becoming award-winning painters themselves, his students still quote his "Whitneyisms" to remind themselves of all that is most important in creating art. This fine guide, the distillation of Edgar Whitney's teaching, is one of the most useful, comprehensive, and popular watercolor painting books every published — almost a cult classic. Starting with the nuts-and-bolts basics — including choice of paper, colors, palette, and brushes — and with exercises to give the beginner experience in using washes on both dry and wet paper, the book presents a full course of watercolor painting. The author gives specific, detailed instructions for creating landscapes and for painting portraits and figures — instructions that come vividly to life in two 16-page full-color sections showing the steps involved in creatiang seven of his own watercolors. Other chapters focus on drawing; the principles and elements of design; and matting, framing, and selling completed works of art. Beautifully designed and illustrated, this invaluable book will be treasured by all watercolorists — from complete beginners to experienced painters looking for ways to improve their own paintings.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the author’s style and can imagine he was quite the character in the classroom. It is an older book and the illustrations/photos of paintings are quite dark so a lot is lost in the description of techniques but especially color. Still a classic and I am glad to have it as a reference.

[Gr_reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

Fantastic book. Helps us understand composition, color theory, values, edges and many more. Gives illustrations and compositional hints which are easily understandable.

[Levide Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic!

[Terry E Christens · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mostly text

Very small thumbnail illustrations. Not what I would call a complete guide especially for a beginner. If you are learning to paint look elsewhere.

[thuys]

Ive always loved to learn in traditional ways, this book offers that kind of leaning and I did jot down somethings along some first chapters but at some point things goes astray because 1) it is hard for a book to tell you how to draw because it's visual thing and your words must be very descriptive, I should say close to poetic 2) though this is watercolor book, the author seems to give you the whole picture from philosophy to design and drawing and stuffs in which each one passes by real quick, there are good points but just not what being expected.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of good information, but I would like to see it with color photos throughout. There are two sections with color, but the rest is black and white. It seems like color would be important for a book on watercolor.