Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

JIAUR RAHMAN,
SILENT LOVE,
2002
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
30 × 22 INCHES (76 × 56 CM)

Copyright © 2012 by Tom Hoffmann

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.watsonguptill.com

WATSON-GUPTILL and the WG and Horse designs are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hoffmann, Tom (Thomas Burton)
Watercolor painting: a contemporary approach to mastering the medium / Tom Hoffmann.

                           p. cm.

Includes index.

Watercolor painting—Technique I. Title

ND2420.H63 2012
751.42′2—dc23

eISBN: 978-0-8230-0674-8                                   2011045489

Front cover art: Tom Hoffmann

v3.1

JAMES MICHAEL,
WINTER DUNES,
2008
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
22 × 48 INCHES (56 × 122 CM)

The idea for a book about becoming fluent in watercolor came from my students, as did the inspiration to stick my neck out. I am grateful to all for the risks they so willingly take.

Thanks, also, to my teachers, Douglas Jones and Carl Schmalz, who wound me up forty years ago and set me down on the track that could only have led right here.

Cynthia Hibbard, equal parts fine watercolor painter and insightful reader, gave indispensable guidance, without which there would be much more mud.

Thank you to Gary Faigin and Pamela Belyea, who encouraged this project more than once, and in many ways—most notably by building a community at Gage Academy where watercolor can thrive.

Many thanks to my Gage colleagues, Mitchell Albala and Suzanne Brooker, for help navigating the twists and turns of preparing a manuscript.

Thanks also to Alison Hagge, my patient and perceptive editor.

To all the artists whose work enriches this book, I am in your shadow.

I am especially grateful for the support of my wife, Eileen, who has always been the bridge that connects me to the rest of the world, and to our sons, Gus and Cal, who believe in me and tell me the truth.

“The reason I paint is because it makes me sane.”
—David Yaghjian

TOM HOFFMANN,
NEW YEAR
(detail), 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
22 × 30 INCHES (56 × 76 CM)

INTRODUCTION: UNDERSTANDING WATERCOLOR

INDEX