Capture the Rich Textures of Nature, Step by Step Capture nature's beauty as you never have before. Beloved artist and teacher Claudia Nice leads you on an inspired journey through the great outdoors. With paints in hand, she shares with you her best techniques for creating landscapes that come alive with richness, depth and textured detail. Open this guide and start painting right away. As you follow engaging, step-by-step demonstrations and exercises, you'll learn to recreate the textural elements of a range of terrains and landscapes. Chapters include: • Creative clouds and skies • Majestic mountains, hills and mesas • Texturing trees, trunks and foliage • Rugged rocks and gritty gravel • Transparent textures for rivers, falls and lakes • Flowers of the field In a special section, Claudia covers basic texturing techniques with mini demos using lines, dots, bruising, scribbling, spattering, blotting, printing, stamping and more. From paints and pens to sponges, leaves and facial tissue, you'll explore all kinds of fun and inventive ways to create amazing textures. And to help you put it all together, Claudia includes her masterful advice for creating compositions using reference photos, field sketches and your own creative license. Each demonstration features a large image of the completed landscape, so you can see exactly how Claudia's methods work - from start to finish.

Featuring step-by-step instructions, this guide teaches artists how to create stunning nature illustrations. After mastering the realistic rendition of individual elements, you'll learn how to combine them into panoramic paintings.

Claudia Nice shows you how to turn ink and watercolors into the coarse-barked trunk of an oak, or the burnished smoothness of brass, or the verdant velvet of moss. Or any of many other things. She shows you how to use dots, fine lines, brushstrokes, black and white, color—a mixture of mediums and techniques—to suggest: • glass • cast iron • adobe and brick • sunrise and sunset • driftwood • leaf textures • basketry • surf and ocean waves • enamelware • rainbows • wood grain • distant trees • eggs and onions • animal hair • and dozens of other textures! You'll learn how to use materials, from technical pens to paint brushes, colored inks to liquid acrylics. You'll discover ways to blot, spatter, stamp and otherwise alter and combine ink and watercolor for exciting texturing effects.

Got a yearning to pick up a pen and see what you can do? Go for it! But don't sketch alone—let popular artist and teacher Claudia Nice be your guide. She'll make your first steps fun and successful! In her trademark style—friendly and encouraging—Claudia will show you how to do a sketch of a subject that actually ends up looking like the subject. And she shares her secrets for turning simple lines and dots into all kinds of lifelike textures, including leaves, glass, hair, fruit, water, clouds, wood grain, grass, fur and feathers. Easy (and fun!) exercises get you started. Step-by-step projects teach techniques as you draw trees, flowers, barns, animals and other subjects—even people! And demonstrations show you how to put all that you've learned together to create a finished picture. So go ahead—grab that pen and have fun! Just follow along with Claudia to get the hang of it, and before you know it you'll be making your own, original pen-and-ink drawings!

Expand your artistic horizons with watercolor! Watercolor is a fun, challenging medium that captures the magic of light and color. Now world-renowned artist and instructor Claudia Nice helps you get started in watercolor today. In Watercolor Made Simple with Claudia Nice, you'll start with the very basics, learning new techniques as you paint. Detailed instructions and step-by-step artwork show you how to: • Explore the amazing variety of effects you can get by painting watercolors on dry, damp or wet paper • Mix paint and water to create a variety of soft, beautiful washes • Use fun and easy techniques such as spatter, sponging and stamping to bring a lively new look to your work • Blend colors on your palette to capture the precise shade you're seeking • Use your brushes, papers and paints to produce wonderful textural effects Throughout, you'll find helpful troubleshooting tips, practical exercises, and Claudia's encouraging advice - all so you, too, can become a watercolor pro.

Showing how to paint a variety of leaves, vines, weathered wood arbors, birdbaths, and other outdoor details, bestselling author Claudia Nice provides all the information artists need to create gorgeous country garden art. 150 color illustrations.

Capture the details of life in pen and ink! Using the classic method of drawing with a crow quill pen and India ink, artist George Olson introduces you to the art of pen-and-ink drawings accented with watercolor. The appeal of these exquisite gems lies in their very simplicity. You'll learn how to create one-of-a-kind works of art using minimal tools, straightforward inking techniques and the easiest of watercolor washes. Hands-on exercises start you on your way to mastering the pen by drawing various line qualities and textures. Next, learn how to add soft glazes of color to build depth and evoke that loose, lyrical feeling ... the kind of sparkle that cannot be achieved using ink alone. Nine step-by-step demonstrations teach you everything you need to know to create enchanting landscapes, flowers, portraits, animals, buildings and interior scenes. Based on Olson's four decades of experience with this charming art form, Pen and Ink with Watercolor will help you achieve happy results quickly, easily and joyously.