Keen to paint but your drawing skills let you down? This book provides pull-out tracings for five beautiful paintings along with full step-by-step instructions for how to bring them to life with watercolour paint. A clear guide on how to transfer the tracings to your watercolour paper is included along with a helpful section on what materials to use. ...

Ann Blockley is a very successful artist known for the innovative way in which she uses texture as a key element in her work. This book in Collins Artists Studio series looks at how she achieves her stunning effects & provides essential guidelines for the intermediate painter wishing to develop this aspect of their own painting. Creating texture in watercolour can be quite a challenge but this book provides a fresh approach to the subject. It focuses on a wide range of unusual techniques some of which depart from the more conventional methods revealing how to portray texture by a variety of means. Ann explains how to manipulate the paint by lifting out colour scraping & scratching the paint & by using additional materials such as wax clingfilm salt & metallic pigments. She also explains how the surface itself can play an important role in the effects that can be achieved & experiments with acrylics inks gouache & collage as well as watercolour. In later chapters Ann looks at the creative process & provides insights into how to develop ideas then concentrates on how to portray texture in specific subjects such as flowers & foliage animals still life buildings & landscapes. Practical exercises projects step-by-step demonstrations & studio tips are included as well as the work of several guest artists
- John Blockley Moira Huntly & Shirley Trevena.
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The Collins Gem series is being relaunched in Spring 2004 & this new title features a new internal design & a strong new cover design. Packed full of tips for the aspiring watercolourist its handy format makes it absolutely ideal for quick reference either in the studio or out in the field. Contents include: * essential tips on all the basic watercolour techniques plus helpful advice on sketching & drawing * guidelines on painting skies backgrounds foregrounds the main subject trees details & shadows * clear & straightforward step-by-step instructions for painting a complete landscape in 7 easy stages * tips on painting water in various forms & adding people to a painting ...

This title teaches the 70 favourite painting techniques of one of the most revered watercolour teachers of all time the late Zoltan Szabo. It uses basic supplies to achieve a variety of special effects in landscape painting such as wispy clouds falling snow jagged rocks trees & surf. Readers will also learn the characteristics of different kinds of watercolour pigments & how they behave on paper. It features 43 mini demonstrations to show how to achieve the techniques & 13 full step demonstrations to show how to apply them. ...

Readers who want to learn to paint trees & woodlands but can not rely on their drawing skills have everything they need in this book. No drawing skills are required. The outlines of five paintings (plus one bonus picture) are provided to pull out from the centre of the book. Clear instructions & step-by-step photographs show how to transfer the outlines on to watercolour paper & then how to capture the beauty of trees in striking watercolour paintings. Geoff shows how to paint a bluebell wood a snow scene an Autumn woodland a pair of ancient oaks & a willow leaning over a boat. Learn how to capture the beauty of trees in watercolour. This title

Features: five easy to follow demonstrations; step-by-step photographs & clear instructions; & six reusable tracings to pull out.

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' Perfectly controlled superbly written. Waterland is original compelling & narration of the highest order' Guardian In the years since its first publication in 1983 Waterland has established itself as one of the classics of twentieth-century British literature: a visionary tale of England's Fen country; a sinuous meditation on the workings of history; & a family story startling in its detail & universal in its reach. This edition

Includes:: an introduction by the author written to celebrate the book's 25th anniversary. ' Graham Swift has mapped his Waterland like a new Wessex. He appropriates the Fens as Moby Dick did whaling or Wuthering Heights the moors. This is a beautiful serious & intelligent novel admirably ambitious & original' Observer 'A 300-page tour de force.. .A burst of exuberant fictive energy' Evening Standard ' Waterland is a formidably intelligent book animated by an impressive angry pity at what human creatures are capable of doing to one another in the name of love & need. The most powerful novel I have read for some time' New York Review of Books

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Roger Deakin set out in 1996 to swim through the British Isles. The result a uniquely personal view of an island race & a people with a deep affinity for water. From the sea from rock pools from rivers & streams tarns lakes lochs ponds lidos swimming pools & spas from fens dykes moats aqueducts waterfalls flooded quarries even canals Deakin gains a fascinating perspective on modern Britain. Detained by water bailiffs in Winchester intercepted in the Fowey estuary by coastguards mistaken for a suicude on Camber sands confronting the Corryvreckan whirlpool in the Hebrides he discovers just how much of an outsider the native swimmer is to his landlocked fully-dressed fellow citizens. Encompassing cultural history autobiography travel writing & natural history Waterlog is a personal journey a bold assertion of the native swimmer's right to roam & an unforgettable celebration of the magic of water. ...

WATERLOO ARCHIVE VOLUME IV contains letters & journals written largely in the immediate aftermath of the whirlwind campaign of 1815 both from the frontline troops & the support services including medical reports & those of civilians. This volume
Includes::rnrn Letters by Sir Hussey Vivian & a much fuller version of the famous description by Frederick Ponsonby of his wounding & his subsequent adventures whilst lying on the battlefield during & after the battle. rnrn The correspondence of officers in the infantry such as John Gardiner & George Barlow of the 69th Foot & Daniel Mackinnon famous for the defence of Hougoumont.rnrn Representing the cavalry we have Captain John Whale Lifeguards who appears to have written the opening circumstantial narrative of A Near Observer for Miss Eaton & George Packe of the 13th Light Dragoons & those who were not on the field during the battle such as Arthur Kennedy of the 18th Hussars & Dixon Denham of the 54th Foot. rnrn A series of letters to Sir Charles Bell from various surgeons attending to the wounded in Brussels give both a fascinating & appalling view of the consequences of war.rnrn A fascinating description from a witness of Napoleon onboard HMS Bellerophon at Plymouth including an original drawing of him before he sailed into exile on St Helena & a journal of a marine officer during the subsequent passage.
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Volume III of the remarkable Waterloo Archive series is brimming with personal letters & private journals written by participants in the campaign. By reading them we can share the innermost thoughts of those involved in the fighting experience the agonies of those who lost someone & see the pain & suffering inflicted on the thousands of wounded. The horrors of war are laid bare but so also is the relief & happiness of survival. This fascinating collection

Includes:: the poignant final letters from men who lost their lives that day; an account by a civilian visitor to the area six weeks after the battle end; & a very interesting letter by Second Lieutenant Richard Cocks Eyre of the 2nd Battalion 95th Rifles which makes a mockery of the myth that British troops did not openly plunder the local farmhouses before the battle for food & fuel to burn. Each letter has something new to say; in fact they prove beyond doubt that our accepted history of the battle & campaign is wrong in many aspects & a complete rewrite of certain episodes will eventually be required. This is an extremely important new book expertly researched & edited & essential reading for anyone interested in the Waterloo campaign.

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Much of the material available to readers in the English language interested in the exploits of the troops of Hanover Brunswick & Nassau is in the form of dry official reports which stick to the basic facts & avoid all sentimentality & emotion. However unbeknown to virtually anyone in the English speaking world interested in the more human aspects of these 'foreign' troops fighting alongside the British at Waterloo there are a number of memoirs & sets of letters which have been published in Germany over the last two centuries. Until now these had never been translated into English & so have been inaccessible to the vast majority. This volume seeks to put this right & to bring to life the human story of these German troops
- their trials & tribulations their sufferings & their emotions
- & to finally reveal their views on the battle which many entered with mixed emotions. Highlights include an account of the confusion in the final 'great advance' at Waterloo; eyewitness recollections of the defence of La Haye Sainte; rare battle reports by the Duke of Wellington; & a fascinating series of letters explaining the whereabouts of a number of 'missing' Hanoverian regimental & staff surgeons & subsequent court martials.

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