In this inspiring companion to the acclaimed Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes, one of the most brilliant watercolorists of the 20th century shows how to paint nature close-ups in 40 full-color step-by-step demonstrations. Szabo begins by explaining how to select and record your subject in on-the-spot sketches and photos-and how to redesign, simplify, dramatize, and transform this raw material into a vivid personal statement. He also demonstrates how to paint seven different categories of close-ups-preceded by a fascinating collection of painting tips about each subject. Szabo begins by showing you how to paint the magical effects of light and shadow on snow, rocks, and other natural forms. Searching the forest for inspiration, he demonstrates how to paint a variety of subjects, including sunlit leaves and cobwebs on a tree trunk. Exploring the patterns of water, Szabo even discovers hidden beauty in a puddle on a muddy road. Szabo, famous for his winter paintings, reveals how he paints footprints in a snowy field, icicles, and frosty trees. When focusing on the beauty of wildflowers, Szabo uses subjects ranging from a single thistle in the wind to a cluster of blossoms in a meadow. The artist shows how to discover what he calls nature's abstractions, like the shape of a dead leaf caught among the branches or a spiderweb against the sky. He leads you around the house to find unexpected beauty in a wasp nest or a fallen feather on a pebbly path. And he shows you how to extract multiple paintings from a single subject by painting a series of variations on one handsome theme. "Painting close-ups will not only give you a whole new range of subjects," Szabo claims, "but will add a new dimension to your work as you explore the hidden treasure of nature." Painting Nature's Hidden Treasures can bolster the technique of every watercolorist. Zoltan Szabo was born in Hungary in 1928 and studied at the National Academy of Industrial Art in Budapest. He emigrated to Canada in 1949, and made a name for himself as one of Canada's foremost landscape painters. In addition to teaching workshops and seminars on watercolor painting, Szabo has exhibited his work in London, Canada, and the United States. Zoltan Szabo's paintings are found in public and private collections worldwide, including those of the prime ministers of Canada and Jamaica and in the National Gallery of Hungary. Other books by Zoltan Szabo include Landscape Painting in Watercolor, Painting Little Landscapes, and Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes. Readers interested in related titles from Zoltan Szabo will also want to see: Creative Watercolor Techniques (ISBN: 9781626541368), Landscape Painting in Watercolor (ISBN: 9781626549012), Painting Little Landscapes (ISBN: 9781626549173), Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes: Advanced Techniques in Watercolor (ISBN: 9781626549005).

Shows how to paint watercolors of small landscape details and provides forty demonstrations of watercolor technique and composition

The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.

Internationally acclaimed watercolorist and art instructor Zoltan Szabo demonstrates how to create charming little watercolor landscapes in this instructive volume. Taking readers step-by-step through his finished works, Szabo shows how to take advantage of the benefits offered by a small format (not exceeding 10" x 11"), which include spontaneity resulting from rapid drying and the textural effects granular pigments yield on a small surface. Szabo walks the reader through the creation of each painting, beginning with a reference photo and a pencil sketch and moves on to palette choices, pigment interactions, and brush techniques. Painting Little Landscapes includes assignments, in addition to 180 full-color plates, to help watercolorists create their own miniature landscapes. Each of the seven chapters covers one aspect of nature in its various forms: water, mountains, trees, snow, rocks, skies and clouds, along with flowers and close-ups. Szabo invites artists to see nature in its finest detail and ingratiate themselves in the pleasure of small-scale painting. Learn from the best in this beautifully illustrated comprehensive guide to the magic of watercolor. Zoltan Szabo was born in Hungary in 1928 and studied at the National Academy of Industrial Art in Budapest. He emigrated to Canada in 1949, and made a name for himself as one of Canada's foremost landscape painters. In addition to teaching workshops and seminars on watercolor painting, Szabo has exhibited his work in London, Canada, and the United States. Zoltan Szabo's paintings are found in public and private collections worldwide, including those of the prime ministers of Canada and Jamaica and in the National Gallery of Hungary. Other books by Zoltan Szabo include Landscape Painting in Watercolor, Painting Nature's Hidden Treasures, and Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes. Readers interested in related titles from Zoltan Szabo will also want to see: Creative Watercolor Techniques (ISBN: 9781626541368), Landscape Painting in Watercolor (ISBN: 9781626549012), Painting Nature's Hidden Treasures (ISBN: 9781626549180), Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes: Advanced Techniques in Watercolor (ISBN: 9781626549005).

Zoltan Szabo's Landscape Painting in Watercolor offers a wealth of information for both aspiring artists and seasoned painters. This comprehensive text, enriched by over 300 illustrations, 24 of which are full-page color plates, includes instructions and advice for creating fantastic watercolor paintings. Thirty-six step-by-step demonstrations and over 200 monochrome illustrations vividly guide the reader through every phase of painting the landscape. Zoltan Szabo discusses color, texture, and other characteristics of watercolor, as well as the materials and equipment needed to complete a watercolor master-piece. He describes various techniques-the basic washes, direct painting, dry brush, painting on wet paper, handling the painting knife-and suggests ways of achieving texture, pattern, and special effects by using masking techniques, razor blades, and many other objects and approaches. The reader learns what to looks for in the environment, how to choose a subject, and how to handle both simple and complex subjects. Szabo also introduces the basics of composition-relationships of shapes, center of interest, three-dimensionality and perspective, value and form, white space, the sequence of painting, and sketching. Step-by-step demonstrations and auxiliary illustrations demonstrate how to paint the seasons, trees, forests, undergrowth, rocks, sand and soil, water (still and moving), reflections, fog, mist, rain, snow, sky and clouds, sunsets, fences, buildings, and people and animals in landscape. This book is sure to appeal to novice and professional painter alike and will provide, with its handsome gallery of illustrations, inspiration as well as instruction for every watercolor enthusiast. Zoltan Szabo was born in Hungary in 1928 and studied at the National Academy of Industrial Art in Budapest. He emigrated to Canada in 1949, and made a name for himself as one of Canada's foremost landscape painters. In addition to teaching workshops and seminars on watercolor painting, Szabo has exhibited his work in London, Canada, and the United States. Zoltan Szabo's paintings are found in public and private collections worldwide, including those of the prime ministers of Canada and Jamaica and in the National Gallery of Hungary. Other books by Zoltan Szabo include Painting Nature's Hidden Treasures, Painting Little Landscapes, and Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes. Readers interested in related titles from Zoltan Szabo will also want to see: Creative Watercolor Techniques (ISBN: 9781626541368), Painting Little Landscapes (ISBN: 9781626549173), Painting Nature's Hidden Treasures (ISBN: 9781626549180), Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes: Advanced Techniques in Watercolor (ISBN: 9781626549005).

In this full-color sequel to his Landscape Painting in Watercolor, Zoltan Szabo shows that there is an abundance of ways to paint a landscape. This internationally acclaimed watercolorist demonstrates how to paint virtually every component of a landscape in a number of ways. He paints a rock, for example, with a split dry brush, with the palette knife, wet-in-wet, with a series of glazes, by scratching and scraping, by texturing with sponges-and by combining several of these techniques. The book contains three helpful sections. The first section, "Notes on Landscape Painting," describes how the artist selects and mixes colors, analyzes the many techniques for which Szabo is famous, and then demonstrates how to paint the seven most common landscape subjects. In these seven segments, Szabo makes valuable suggestions for painting trees; weeds, grass, and flowers; forms of the land ranging from rocks and soil to mountains and hills; still and moving water; snow, ice, and frost; skies and weather, including clouds, storms, rain, fog and mist; and finally, man-made structures. The second section, "Painting Techniques in Color," features 173 full-color studies of all these subjects. Here the reader sees fascinating close-ups that show how this famous watercolorist paints every detail of the landscape: the texture of tree bark and the intricate detail of leaves; the wispy shapes of weeds and grass, and the delicate colors of wildflowers; the bold shapes and rough textures of rocks crowned with moss; the sparkling transparent colors of water, broken by reflections of land and sky colors; the luminous lights and shadows of snow; skies ranging from clear blue to fiery sunsets. The third and final section, "Finished Paintings in Color," highlights 24 of Zoltan Szabo's finest landscapes, full-page size, and in full color. On each adjacent page, two significant sections of that painting are reproduced close to life-size so that the reader can study the painter's techniques. Zoltan Szabo Paints Landscapes is a treasury of techniques and inspiration for the advanced watercolorist. Zoltan Szabo was born in Hungary in 1928 and studied at the National Academy of Industrial Art in Budapest. He emigrated to Canada in 1949, and made a name for himself as one of Canada's foremost landscape painters. In addition to teaching workshops and seminars on watercolor painting, Szabo has exhibited his work in London, Canada, and the United States. Zoltan Szabo's paintings are found in public and private collections worldwide, including those of the prime ministers of Canada and Jamaica and in the National Gallery of Hungary. Other books by Zoltan Szabo include Landscape Painting in Watercolor, Painting Little Landscapes, and Painting Nature's Hidden Treasures. Readers interested in related titles from Zoltan Szabo will also want to see: Creative Watercolor Techniques (ISBN: 9781626541368), Landscape Painting in Watercolor (ISBN: 9781626549012), Painting Little Landscapes (ISBN: 9781626549173), Painting Nature's Hidden Treasures (ISBN: 9781626549180 ).