In a previous post, I gave tips for evaluating a watercolor tutorial book. This post focuses on a different genre of book: the all-purpose watercolor book. This is a style of book that is designed to give a general introduction to the art of watercolor.
Red Flags
Audience confusion (Who is this book for?)
To my mind, the biggest risk factor with general-purpose watercolor books is a lack of clarity of purpose. These books are often confused as to who their target audience is, providing neither the level of hand-holding needed for a beginner nor the level of depth needed for an intermediate.
A common expression of this is the “missing middle,” the problem where the author is super clear about the first few steps – picking supplies, setting up your studio, doing a flat wash – and then jumps unceremoniously to completed, complex paintings with nothing in between.
Overpromising
A number of books of this genre have titles like “The Only Watercolor Book You Will Ever Need” or “The Ultimate Complete Watercolor Course” or “Mastering Watercolor.” This level of promise is always baloney, because watercolor is a huge genre that encompasses a ton of styles and techniques and cannot be completely taught in a single book or class. Claiming you can teach everything about the medium in a single book is biting off way more than any one author can chew, and typically indicates that the author will be unfocused and have no clear agenda.
Claims to be general, actually specific
Many authors seem to set out to write a general watercolor manual, and end up writing a pretty specific exploration of their own preferred style or technique. This can especially apply to artists whose preferred style has cultural prestige (e.g. realism, landscapes), so that they don’t even realize how narrowly they’ve defined “watercolor technique.”
I definitely think there is a place on the shelf for books about specific styles and techniques – it’s what I recommended above for intermediate learners – but such books benefit greatly from knowing their topic and audience. A book that knows it’s about a specific technique will offer specific, deep information on that technique. A book that thinks it’s a general watercolor guide will waste your time repeating a lot of information that’s in every other book; will alienate intermediate audiences by talking down to them; and will confuse and mislead beginners into thinking that Style X is the only style and is synonymous with watercolor itself.
Author’s personal gallery
Some artists seem to use their book deal as an opportunity to showcase their own work. In this type of book:
- Every example piece is by the author
- The author provides musings on the piece that don’t relate to the lessons being taught, like the weather the day they were painting
- Paintings are offered as positive examples of good technique, with less attention paid to instructing how to achieve it
The emphasis of this type of book seems to be less engaging the audience to find their own inspiration, and more encouraging the audience to admire their work.
Authors who wish to write a retrospective or coffee table book of their own work are free to do so; often these books are interesting if you’re a fan of the artist. But it’s disingenuous to disguise it as a beginner teaching guide.
Claims to be specific, actually general
I think “audience confusion” can arise from authors who intend to write generally but end up writing specifically, and from the opposite motivation: authors who intend to write a specific, intermediate book on the topic of their expertise, but who find themselves bogged down in prerequisites, unable to get to the point without going back to square one and including sections on “how to do a flat wash.” Books of this type will be marketed as having a specific topic, such a botanicals or portraits, but will actually spend most of their page count on generic cookie-cutter advice that is indistinguishable from the generic watercolor book.
Hopelessly dated
Watercolor technique has not significantly changed in the last century, so datedness is usually apparent in the materials list. It can be difficult to thread the needle between a materials list that’s so general it’s useless (a small number of versatile colors in a good brand), vs. so specific that it quickly becomes dated. I’ve read many watercolor books from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s which list brands, models, and colors that are no longer possible to buy.
Gimmicky
This may be personal preference, but I’m not a fan of books that spend a lot of time on techniques that I find novelty or gimmicky. This includes the promotion of novelty paints (sparkly, iridescent, duochrome, etc.); applying paint with household objects or things you find outside like twigs; and textural effects from salt and plastic-wrap. I get that this is a form of play that is fun to experiment with (and fun for the author to write about), and they pad out of a list of techniques, but to me they feel like side quests that distract from good basics.
Discouraging
Certain ways of framing art instruction are very discouraging to me, and I don’t think I’m alone. I don’t respond well to instruction that is rigid and rules-based; that appeals to antiquity and Great Men; or that diminishes certain styles and artistic choices wholesale. If I get a whiff of the author being snobby, patronizing, or disdainful, I’m out.
A moment to reflect that my own dislike for salt might have come across this way.
Green Flags
Beginner-level clarity
General watercolor books almost always contain sections on choosing materials, flat wash, graded wash, and so on, mirroring the syllabus of a beginner class. For this reason, I think the ideal audience is beginners. Therefore, I tend to judge them on how accessible they are to beginners. Books for beginners should:
- Define terminology
- Show multiple stages of a technique or painting, step-by-step
- Provide a series of ordered lessons that build on each other and slowly increase in complexity, starting from no prior knowledge assumed
Explaining the “why”
A good teacher says what to do. A great teacher says why.
Supplies are a great opportunity. A specific list of what materials you use is good for a class or a blog post, something ephemeral, but in a book which may be in print or kicking around used bookstores for decades to come, it more useful (and more timeless) to give the audience the reasoning and basis for making supply decisions.
- What to look for in paper (material, weight, size)
- Types of paintbrush bristle (e.g. squirrel, kolinsky, synthetic) and the pros and cons of each
- Types of paintbrush shape (e.g. round, square, liner) and the purpose of each
- What distinguishes student and professional grade paint
- Pigment codes
- How to make decisions about what colors go in your palette
In a tutorial book, there is more of a case for insisting on specific colors, since you will be supplying a specific “recipe” for a specific painting. In a general book, I think it’s an opportunity to give more of a basis on why & how to choose.
Friendly layout
I think it’s a positive when a book has a friendly, magazine-style layout with lots of pictures. First of all, in an art book, a picture’s worth a thousand words. Also, a friendly book encourages more engagement from a beginner. An approachable book with mediocre writing quality may be more used than a dense, wall-of-text book that’s incredibly accurate.
Example: Watercolor Lessons by Emma Lefebvre is colorful and friendly.
Breadth over depth
Rather than attempting to teach the beginner “mastery,” I think the best use for a general watercolor guide is to provide a sort of menu of options. Often when beginners get into a new art medium, they may have one or two inspirations, but they’re not aware of everything that can be done with it. They are also likely not to know the terminology. I like it when books give lots of examples of different styles, techniques, subject matter, subgenres, etc., so that the beginner can begin to decide what they like and what to explore more.
Example: Watercolor 365 by Leslie Redhead is laid out in a series of two-page spreads on a wide variety of styles and topics.
Exercises & Projects
I like when the book is broken into manageable chunks, each teaching a specific learning goal, and there is an exercise or project to help cement that learning goal. This helps me to go through the book as if it’s a class, instead of passively reading (and often not retaining anything).
I find exercises so useful that if I’m reading a book with interesting insights and no lessons, I will tend to create my own, carefully analyzing the learning goal, creating a lesson that covers that learning goal, and then doing it. But this is a lot of work that quite frankly the teacher should be doing.
Encouraging
It’s a super green flag if the book actually makes you want to paint. After reading a few paragraphs or pages, you are inspired. You feel the need to close the book and try certain techniques for yourself, or seek out more information. This can be for many reasons and often varies from person to person, but it could be because:
- The author’s writing style speaks to you
- The book covers topics that are genuinely useful to you personally
- The author is directly encouraging and uplifting
- The lessons are clear, approachable, and make the techniques seem simple and easy
- Care is taken to help readers uncover their own personal inspiration
Examples
I have borrowed, bought, read, and sampled many watercolor books. I’ve enjoyed many tutorials books, and books on specific topics. But, to be frank, I have never found a general all-purpose watercolor book that I found particularly or consistently useful.
Here’s a quick sampling. This is just ones I’ve read recently enough to have a specific opinion, but there are dozens more that I did not find memorable enough to even remember if I’ve read them. (I tried to include a spread across time but there are a lot in the 2010s because library books as a rule are about 10 years out of date.)
The Watercolor Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artists by David Dewey (1986)
For a generic title, you wouldn’t expect this to be entirely about photorealist painting. Plus, it’s a wall of text and very intimidating.
See also Artist Palette Profiles: David Dewey.
Watercolor School by Hazel Harrison (1993)
One thing I think this does right is the layout, which provides easy-to-thumb-through two-page spreads on each of a variety of techniques and subjects. It’s good as a sort of “here’s what you can do with watercolor” overview, which I do think is needed, but not really “watercolor school” since it doesn’t really teach you to do it yourself.
See also Arist Palette Profiles: Hazel Harrison.
The Complete Watercolorist’s Essential Notebook by Gordon MacKenzie (2010)
A beginner-focused book with some one-pagers that would be great as class handouts, like the diagrams showing different suspensions of paint in water. But it has the “personal showcase of the author” problem, the “missing middle” problem, and the “gimmicks” problem. (This is the book that tells you to try painting with a stick you found outside.)
See also Artist Palette Profiles: Gordon MacKenzie.
Artful Watercolor: Learning to Use the Secrets of Light by Lou Bonamarte and Carolyn Janik (2012)
Cute cover, and a good materials section which explains “why” rather than “what” for brushes and paper. But mostly seems to be a showcase for Bonamarte’s work, using it as a positive example without meaningfully explaining how to achieve similar results. Tone of writing feels like being talked at by someone very self-important.
Tate Watercolour Manual: Lessons from the Great Masters by Tony Smibert and Joyce H. Townsend (2014)
In-depth sections on materials, and surprisingly beginner-friendly guides to basic techniques, like flat and gradated wash, that actually have enough steps to follow along! But most of the book is about examining the techniques of “the masters,” and the appeal to “Great Men” is not my bag at all.
Painting Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes by Joyce Hicks (2014)
This book is quite upfront that it’s about painting like Joyce Hicks, since all the art is hers and the tutorials are copies of her paintings. I don’t mind that since it’s clear, and it’s not trying to be something else. But I do find a serious cause of “audience confusion” in the juxtaposition of copy-Joyce-Hicks tutorials with text that stresses finding your own style.
Painting in Watercolor: The Indispensable Guide by David Webb (2016)
Similar to Hazel Harrison’s book, but updated for the modern era. I actually quite like this as an overview to different techniques, and it contains paintings from a wide variety of artists and styles. The tutorials are weak, though, plagued with “missing middle” problems.
See also Artist Palette Profile: David Webb.
Thinking in Watercolor: A Daily Practice to Unlock Your Creativity and Discover Your Inner Artist by Jessie Kanelos Weiner (2025)
Although it gets off to a promising start with an approachable, fun layout and inspiring introduction, and a “project a day” format that prioritizes practice, the difficulty of all the lessons and lack of a learning curve means it is practically not doable by a beginner. I found the promise of this compared to the reality of it to be quite discouraging, and if I were a true beginner it would be more so.
General Questions to Ask Yourself Before Buying A Watercolor Book (Or Writing One)
- Who is this book for? What level of prior expertise is assumed? Does this align with my skill level?
- What is the purpose of the book? Does it have a plan/focus? Is it realistic? Is it aligned with what I’m looking to learn?
- Does the writing speak to me? Do I find it annoying/preachy/discouraging, or approachable/thought-provoking/inspiring?
- Does the book says “what” to do, or does it also explain “why”?
- Is there a clear progression in difficulty? Are the early chapters very basic, and does it build slowly? Or is there a sudden jump in difficulty (missing middle)?
- Are there exercises and projects that I can do at home?
- What year is the book from, and how specific is it about materials? Will the material section be usable?
Conclusion
I think that “general watercolor guide” is a popular type of book to write, but tricky to get right. Even for those who learn well out of books (which is not everyone), I think that beginners are better off with a good beginner-level tutorial book, which takes you step-by-step from blank page to a finished painting. Intermediates are generally better off with a more advanced book on a specific subtopic.
You may find a general watercolor book that you love! In general I think this comes down to your aesthetic preferences (I have a soft spot for Joyce Hicks’ book even though it is no better than the others, because I like the art in it). And it comes down to timing. There is truth in the proverb “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Most of these book contain the same information, so whichever one you pick up, you may find wonderful if the timing is right.