Find inspiration in the great outdoors and create simple, expressive watercolor paintings of the plants and animals that live there.

In Nature Painting in Watercolor, beginning and aspiring artists can learn to paint their favorite ferns, leaves, trees, florals, as well as animals, in a contemporary style using the popular watercolor medium. Start by learning about the tools and materials needed to paint in watercolor; then dive into a thorough and fun painting techniques section, which covers washes, glazes, how to add detail in watercolor, and much more. If you’d like to spend more time outside (who doesn’t?), check out the section on finding inspiration outside for tips on viewing and gathering natural painting subjects, such as trees, grasses, flowers, and many other plants.

And if you can’t get outside, we’ve got you covered as well, with suggestions for where to find images online and photos to use as references. Also learn to sketch and keep a detailed sketchbook—skills that will help you when you get started on the step-by-step painting projects in the largest section of the book.

The step-by-step projects cover popular natural painting subjects, including the ones already listed here as well as rocks, mushrooms, buds, blooms, big and small trees, and forest animals. All are illustrated and painted in the author/artists’s signature contemporary watercolor style.

Nature Painting in Watercolor offers a fun, refreshing look at painting plants for today’s artist.