5-Minute Watercolor: Super-Quick Techniques for Amazing Watercolor Painting

A comprehensive guide to quick sketching in watercolor and a new addition to a successful series.

Praise for 5-Minute Sketching -- Architecture

The techniques and supplies chapters highlight ways to work minimally and shave time from the process, which can be especially helpful when drawing outdoors. Either on its own or as a companion to its series mate, this guide will be a boon to readers who want to engage creatively with their urban environments.
--Library Journal (starred review)

Like the other titles in the series, 5-Minute Watercolor features 60 exercises for new and aspiring artists. This bite-sized approach will help readers to make watercolor painting a part of their everyday lives. Every spread in the book features five expert tips and ideas, as well as examples of amazing 5-minute watercolor sketches to inspire readers.

There are four sections:

• Tools - Tools (the basics); tools (optional extras); paints; papers; palettes; brushes; other ways of applying paint; board; pencils; supplies to do even more; setting up the palette; mixing colors; caring for your tools.
• Techniques - Introducing techniques; washes; wet on wet; dry brush; splatter, blooming and bleeding; pulling in color; tape; masking fluid; lifting, layering and glazing (parts I and II); paper and gravity; warm and cool colors; brush control; light to dark, scumbling.
• Implementing Techniques - What is plein-air?; sketching; light sources; 5-minute exercises; skies; rocks; trees; water; landscapes; cityscapes; seascapes; floral compositions; people and crowds; stones and hair.
• Take It Further - Next level painting; changing up the scenery; capturing movement; mixing charts; color swatches; creating depth; mixed media; experimenting with new materials; time is on your side; moving forward; key elements.

The interest in quick sketching as a relaxing pastime is still strong. Watercolor as a medium is experiencing a great resurgence in popularity, with over 17.1 million hashtags on Instagram for #watercolor and over 1.68 million for #watercolorpainting. Instructive videos are extremely popular on YouTube. Some of the most popular are How to Use Watercolor (22.1 million views), How to Paint a Simple Landscape in 2 Minutes (13 million views) and 5-Minute Beginners' Watercolor Tips (945k views).

Samantha Nielsen is an artist based in Duluth, Minnesota. Her main medium is watercolor and ink but she also produces her own podcast and creates watercolor tutorial videos. She is an active member of the Urban Sketching community.