Portfolio Expressive Painting

Learn to paint colorful watercolors full of mood and emotion with Portfolio: Expressive Painting.

Expressive Sketchbooks shares a host of creative ideas and prompts, tools and techniques, methods for working around obstacles and barriers, and tons of visual inspiration to help you grow in your sketchbooking practice. An expressive sketchbook is a place for you to explore, express, and enjoy your own innate creativity on your own terms. It is a safe playground for the imagination—a place to mess about, play, and experiment—and to gain confidence in your abilities as you develop your skills. Expressive Sketchbooks offers techniques and creative exercises that incorporate mark making, watercolor, mixed media, collage, words and text, and more. It unpacks some of the obstacles and barriers that you may face along the way and offers wisdom and encouragement to help you decide why and how to start your sketchbook and how to develop and expand your artistic practice. This book is packed with ideas and exercises, including: Exploratory drawing exercises How to utilize color in your sketchbook How to create dynamic and varied sketchbook pages How to find inspiration in nature and in your everyday life Ways to mix media and art supplies Ways to kickstart your creativity How to find and develop a process that feels personal to you Through this book, you'll find out what lights you up, what makes you curious and fascinated, and what makes you expansive. Discover how to magnify your creativity and enliven your art skills by using an expressive sketchbook as your daily companion.

From the first brushstroke to the finishing touch, let the Portfolio series guide you as you begin your artistic journey in watercolor painting. Beginning Watercolor teaches aspiring artists everything they need to know to get started painting in watercolor. This helpful resource begins with a basic introduction to the essential tools and materials artists need to get started, including choosing the right paintbrushes, watercolor paints, sketchbooks, and canvas. Additionally, artists will learn the fundamentals of watercolor, as well as a variety of painting techniques, including creating washes, mixing colors, creating soft blends, rendering realistic textures, and working wet-into-wet. Beginning Watercolor guides beginners through a series of easy-to-follow, step-by-step projects covering a variety of watercolor methods and techniques, including helpful tips and advice when painting landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and more. With helpful tips and detailed, beautiful artwork to guide and inspire, Beginning Watercolor is the perfect resource for watercolor artists just getting started in this colorful medium.

Learn to create eye-catching, well-composed works of art using acrylic, oil, and watercolor paints. Beginning Composition features quick exercises for getting started in art, primers on the principles of composition and the Rule of Thirds, what to look for when composing artwork, examples of successful (and unsuccessful) compositions from a selection of artists, and customizable painting projects. The Portfolio series covers essential art techniques, core concepts, and media with an approach and format that’s perfect for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate artists. From this concept- and technique-driven series comes Beginning Composition, which details how to compose a work of art so that it draws in—and then holds—the viewer’s attention. Written and illustrated by Kimberly Adams, an experienced author and professional artist with years of experience in creating versatile, stunning works of art, Beginning Composition teaches you how to create successful compositions in acrylic, oil, and watercolor paints. After an introduction to the essentials of composition and some examples of composition in action, you are then invited to create your own artwork on a range of subjects, including landscapes, florals, animals, and more. The painting projects encourage personalization and creativity. Other topics covered include conveying mood and emotion through composition, the Golden Ratio, focal points, and more. With Portfolio: Beginning Composition, artists of all skill levels can learn to create engaging compositions in a range of art media.

Learn how to choose and use colors creatively to achieve rich and radiant effects in watercolor Beginning watercolor artists can find it challenging to keep their artwork vibrant while creating a sense of color unity in their paintings. Often beginners over-mix their paints and/or choose colors strictly based on those they see in life, resulting in lackluster paintings devoid of radiance and life. In this delightful, 64-page guide, accomplished artist Joseph Stoddard shows artists how to improve upon reality to create rich, dynamic, and emotionally charged watercolor paintings. Joseph touches on all aspects of creating expressive watercolor paintings with a focus on color usage, from selecting color schemes and pairing pigments to suggesting a variety of moods. Unlike other how-to-paint books on the market, this guide encourages artists to interpret subjects in their own artistic voice, teaching how to communicate with color through stunning illustrations and clear step-by-step demonstrations.

From the beloved and best-selling Portfolio art series by Walter Foster Publishing comes Portfolio: Beginning Pen & Ink, a book that invites you to explore this classic art medium in fun and refreshing ways. This comprehensive guide is packed with valuable resources for artists of all skill levels, starting with the basics and ending with intricate, original step-by-step projects that are sure to impress—and inspire! Portfolio: Beginning Pen & Ink introduces drawing basics, including stippling, hatching, and crosshatching; how to master the fundamentals of mark-making and line work; and helpful exercises for contour drawing, gesture drawing, perspective, and more. Chapters on value, tone, mood, light and shadow, and texture follow, ensuring that artists gain the drawing knowledge they need before working on the step-by-step projects featured in the book. Artists can even learn to add color to their black-and-white art for a fresh, modern take on an age-old art form. Whether you're a new artist looking to try a celebrated art technique, a pen-and-ink enthusiast, a mixed-media master, or a graphite-pencil fan looking to branch out to new mediums, Portfolio: Beginning Pen & Ink will teach you everything you need to know about the fundamentals of drawing with pen and ink.

Discover and master the fundamentals of drawing with professional tips and expert instruction. Designed especially for aspiring artists, Beginning Drawing, the third title in Walter Foster's new Portfolio series, offers a well-rounded introduction to the art of basic drawing. In this concept-and technique-driven approach, beginning artists will discover the fundamentals of the craft and how to put those skills into practice for creating realistic works of art. From selecting and working with the tools of the trade to learning a range of basic techniques, Beginning Drawing provides a thorough, easily digestible overview of key drawing concepts, including lighting, shading, shadows, perspective, texture, and composition, and then demonstrates how these techniques intersect, both functionally and creatively, in a wider context within a complete piece of art. Step-by-step lessons encourage practice, focusing readers on the methods and techniques designed to enhance their overall skill level, before graduating on to more subject-specific works. Packed with professional tips and expert instruction, Beginning Drawing is the perfect book for anyone desiring to learn, and ultimately master, the art of drawing.

Learn the core concepts and techniques for mixing any color your palette needs with Beginning Color Mixing! Perfect for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate artists, the concept- and technique-driven approach makes this challenging subject approachable for artists of any skill level. Loaded with techniques on how to use and create color for vivid artwork, Beginning Color Mixing explains every key aspect of color mixing. You’ll see basic color theory, hue and saturation, value, temperature, and color relationships and learn to wield color to create mood and atmosphere. Each key concept is clearly explained, allowing you to master the core techniques and put them into practice immediately whether you’re working in oil, acrylic, or watercolor. Featuring plenty of step-by-step exercises and expert instruction,this is a resource no painter’s library should be without.