Stephen Coates

The ultimate no-nonsense guide to painting realistic, captivating water, from still lakes and crashing waves to water droplets. Whether calm and reflective or sparkling with light and movement, water can bring atmosphere, drama and life to your watercolour paintings. In this invaluable, practical guide, popular artist, author and teacher Stephen Coates leads you through a multitude of highly effective techniques that will transform good paintings into great ones. Begin with an exploration of reflections and their pivotal role in capturing water on paper. Create 8 beautiful, beginner-friendly step-by-step projects, including stormy seas, cascading waterfalls, still lakes and lapping waves. Build up a range of versatile skills and techniques as you progress through the book. Be inspired by Stephen’s handy tips and a vibrant selection of his stunning artworks. Perfect for beginners, this is this latest addition to the Easy Guide to Painting series, and brings the excitement of Stephen’s live teaching into a no-fuss book that will help you create your own captivating watercolour masterpieces.

Stories of the secret underground Cold War-era Soviet music subculture that distributed forbidden music on used hospital x-rays. During the Cold War era, the songs that Soviet citizens could listen to were ruthlessly controlled by the state. But a secret underground subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the censors, building recording machines and making their own records of forbidden jazz, rock 'n' roll, and Russian music, cut onto used hospital x-ray film. Bone Music is the follow up the acclaimed X-Ray Audio: The Strange History of Soviet Music on the Bone, delving deeper into a forgotten era when being a music fan could mean a lengthy prison sentence, or worse. Who made these records? Why did they do it and how was it even possible? Foregrounding interviews and oral testimonies gathered over five years, Bone Music presents the stories of the original bone bootleggers, their customers, musicians, record collectors, and commentators, evoking a spirited resistance to a repressive culture of prohibition and punishment. It reveals that although Western jazz and rock'n'roll were important to the Stilyagi youth culture, the true rebel music was that of forbidden Russian emigres, gypsy romances, and criminal tunes: the soul songs of a society brutally cut off from its culture. Richly illustrated with dozens of new images of Soviet x-ray discs and sound letters, Bone Music details how the bootleggers worked, outlining the technical precedents of their techniques, situating their discs in a revised history of recorded media, and bringing a wealth of compelling new detail.

There are some areas of watercolour painting that beginners often have trouble with, and one of these is skies. A sky can make or break a landscape painting. In this invaluable guide, Stephen Coates leads you through some highly effective techniques that will demystify sky painting and turn a good watercolour landscape into a brilliant one. Stephen takes a unique, no-fuss approach to watercolour, emphasizing the importance of planning, preparation and practise and explaining clearly which tools and materials you need, and how to prepare your palette before embarking on a painting. He then guides you through seven awe-inspiring skies, from blue summer skies to dramatic sunsets and storm clouds, introducing new skills and techniques as you progress through the book. With numerous handy tips and many examples of Stephen’s stunning landscapes throughout, this book will both instruct and inspire you to create beautiful, realistic skies with confidence.

Learn to paint colourful watercolours using only three colours in this collection of projects, tips and techniques from the innovative Take Three Colours series. Each of the 25 projects explores a variety of watercolour techniques and walks the reader through a sequence of clear steps using a selection of three pure colours and their many mixes, and only three brushes to complete the work. Project themes include landscapes, seascapes, flowers, mountains, lakes and rivers and snow scenes. There is also a comprehensive glossary at the end of the book, exploring some of the most commonly used terms and techniques featured in the book.

Even if you have never picked up a paintbrush before, professional watercolour teacher and artist Stephen Coates will show you how to paint lakes and rivers in watercolour using just three brushes, three colours, a plastic palette and a watercolour pad. Using just red, blue and yellow paint Stephen shows you how to paint nine realistic watercolour scenes. There is no off-putting colour theory or long-winded mixing information, just a practical absolute beginner’s course that shows the three colours in action. Build your skills through each of the nine easy paintings, starting from the simplest of scenes and ending with a more challenging, stunning picture you’ll be proud to have painted. There are step-by-step photographs for each project, clear instruction and advice throughout, and handy tips and jargon busters. Each of Stephen’s finished paintings is shown at full size for easy reference, which you can even use to trace from for a stress-free painting experience. This is a straightforward, economical, practical progressive course to painting lakes and river scenes in watercolour. Stephen uses the following paints and brushes in this book: Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolours - Raw Sienna, Light Red and Ultramarine. Brushes - Proarte Series 101 round size 2, Series 101 round size 8, Proarte 3/4inch Mini hake flat goat hair brush.