Wake Up and Go Places with Your Art!
There is a lifetime of artistic adventure waiting for you behind this cover! With Mark Mehaffey as your guide, and 25 painting challenges urging you on, you'll travel far beyond self-imposed boundaries, explore uncharted corners of your creativity, discover new ways of seeing and painting...all while having fun making the kind of art that you love to paint.

Mark will lead you on experiments with color, composition, painting surfaces, methods of applying paint and more. In addition to painting exercises (which I prefer to think of as 'adventure-trips'), you'll find demonstrations, painting critiques, weak/strong comparisons and examples by a variety of accomplished artists.

A warm and willing teacher with forty years of painting experience, Mark takes art very seriously, but never himself. ('Let's just say I'm over fifty, but I still love to watch clouds. I have fun imagining all sorts of creatures, faces and objects in them as they go by.') This balance makes him the perfect teacher for this workshop, which is one part 'tried and true,' and one part open and experimental. Ideal for every skill- and comfort-level, Creative Watercolor Workshop is a reminder to wake up and 'go places' in your art.

Create Great Paintings by Design
In the first chapter, you'll learn the basics of designing a strong painting with dynamic divisions of space, organic vs. geometric shapes, powerful value plans and evocative color. Once you've mastered these keys to any successful painting, you will have the confidence to be more creative.

Apply Watercolor in New Ways
Transparent watercolor is versatile. It can be used in very thin washes or glazes, it can be runny and juicy, or it can be used thick right from the tube. For a new challenge and a creative spark, try rolling, spraying, pouring, texturing and many more ways of applying paint. Learn how to combine watercolor with other mediums or on unusual surfaces.

Tap Your Creativity
Looking for a fresh approach to your favorite subjects' This chapter challenges you to make your paintings communicate emotions and ideas that are meaningful.

Break Through Artist's Block
Artist's block can take many forms, but you can survive it--and come away stronger--with the fun and inspiring painting strategies you'll learn in this chapter. Try painting on supersaturated paper so that the paint spreads aggressively. (The perfect technique for forcing yourself out of an overly cautious mode.) Find inspiration in past paintings. Go minimal with sumi-e. Burst out of that pesky old block and never look back!

Be a Creative Problem Solver!
Every artist knows what it's like to feel less than satisfied with a painting. This chapter will give you techniques to strengthen an existing painting, or even the courage to redo it. Mark critiques paintings by a wide range of artists to show what works, what could be improved, and why.

Try Something Different
Creative Watercolor Workshop takes a very holistic approach to painting, covering everything from how you look at your subject to how you paint the edges of shapes, from technique to content. It's sprinkled throughout with tips like how to mix lively shadows, and how to make a brush 'thirsty.' Artists of any style or ability level will find something useful in this book'something to make you see your subject differently, think from a different perspective, and make your next painting your best yet.

See inside this Book