“Watercolour: Tonal Impressionism”

This is a brilliant book on watercolour painting by Amanda Hyatt. A lot is covered in this book which will aid any novice or experienced person who paints with watercolour to get inspired. Amanda demonstrates her painting process with clear steps allowing the reader to gain a good insight into how she starts and finishes a painting. Each section of this book has demonstrations and example paintings of the topic she writes about. I particularly like the section on painting faces. Amanda beautifully demonstrates how to take a simple oval shaped outline of a head and turn it into a realistic looking portrait. She has also included lots of her own works to emphasise her points on each topic. Her paintings in the ‘Light and Atmosphere’ section are amazing. Amanda has a unique skill amongst other watercolour painters to create an immense amount of atmosphere in her paintings, she states ‘A painting which has atmosphere will always excite the viewer and will continue to do so for all existence. It will have pulling power and a sense of intrigue’. Her painting of ‘New Dehli’ in the back section oozes atmosphere and displays the pulling power and intrigue she writes about.

This is a wonderful book to own. I have several books on watercolour painting and this is by far the best one. The inspiration you get from this book will have you constantly referring back to it.