Felix Scheinberger's watercolors (in Urban Watercolor Sketching: A Guide to Drawing, Painting, and Storytelling in Color) are vibrant. Like, super rich with life, color, whatever. Everything. They are what made me decide that Split City Blues, the novel I'm working on, needs to be in watercolor. If I could get my novel to look like the images in this book, I'd probably get a MacArthur prize. Maybe. Probably not, since you also have to do something brilliant like change the way the world thinks about women in film.

The purpose of this blog, therefore, is to 1) share the lessons I glean from learning how to watercolor, 2) motivate myself to work consistently on my novel, and 3) gain readership for the final product :).

Here's a list of the other books I've been reading to put myself to sleep at night, right after I pop an Ambien and put in my earplugs, which block out my boyfriends' breathing (what an annoying habit):

Watercolor: Paintings of Contemporary Artists, by Leslie Dutcher and Sujean Rim. Perfect book to use as a master class - So many styles and end products to stare at while I try to dissect the artist's techniques. I like to imitate the images in this book.

The Essence of Watercolour, by Hazel Soan. Smart, smart lady. I like trying to figure out what her life is like based on the WIDE range of images in her book.

One Watercolor a Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity Using Watercolor, Pattern, and Design , by Veronica Lawlor. More like one watercolor a week, right now. But I'm working through this one exercise by exercise!

How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself: Experimental Techniques for Achieving Realistic Effects, by Nita Engle. These are the most realistic watercolors I've seen yet. She has incredible control over her images, which is something the other books tell you to let go of.

And one other that I can't remember the name of. I'll come back to it.