Take Three Colours: Watercolour Landscapes

Book excerpt: Geoff Kersey shows people who have never picked up a paintbrush how to paint convincing watercolour landscapes using just 3 colours, 3 brushes, a plastic palette and a watercolour pad. Only 3 affordable Students range watercolour paints are used: light red, cadmium yellow pale and ultramarine blue; yet from these, Geoff shows how 9 realistic watercolour scenes can be painted. There is no colour theory or long-winded mixing information to put off the first-time painter, but a practical absolute beginner's course that shows the three colours in action. Only 3 affordable brushes are needed: no. 10, no. 4 and no. 2 rounds in a synthetic range, to achieve all of the paintings shown. Starting from the simplest of scenes, Geoff Kersey builds skills through 9 easy exercises, resulting in landscapes to be proud of. Start with a simple sky and progress through a basic scene with a reflected sunset, to landscapes that include simple buildings and even a figure. Clear advice and step-by-step photographs show how to add a simple figure to a scene and how to trace and transfer the basic drawings from the finished paintings, which are shown full size in the book for this purpose. Readers have everything they need to get painting.