Employees

Current Books Authored

All books listed are published by F & W Publications / Northlight

All prices are in US Dollars. If you are outside of the US, please make sure that payment is remitted in US Dollars.

Sketching Your Favorite Subjects in Pen and Ink

Here Claudia covers all aspects of pen and ink drawing. You will find complete instruction for crosshatching, stippling (dots), texture, and value contrasts, as well as the use of contour, parallel, and scribble lines. All of these techniques are illustrated throughout by the author's striking works. You will find chapters detailing: houses and buildings, animals, birds, the plant kingdom, waterscapes and faces and figures. Cost is $16.99 (USD) plus S & H.

Creating Textures in Pen & Ink With Watercolor
Claudia 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 & 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 will learn how to use materials, from technical pens to paint brushes, colored inks to liquid acrylics. You will discover ways to blot, spatter, stamp and otherwise alter and combine ink and watercolor for exciting texturing effects. Cost is $22.99 plus S & H

First Steps Series - Drawing in Pen & Ink

Got a yearning to pick up a pen and see what you can do? Go for it! But don't sketch alone -- let Claudia be your guide. She will 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 -- and 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 pan and ink drawings! Cost is $22.99 (USD) plus S & H

How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal

More than a diary of written words, a sketchbook journal allows you to indulge your imagination and exercise your artistic creativity. It is a personal, private place where you have unlimited freedom to express yourself, experiment, discover, dream, and document your world. The possibilities are endless. In How To Keep A Sketchbook Journal, Claudia shows you samples for keeping your own. She reviews types of journals, from theme and garden journals to travel journals and fantasy sketchbooks, as well as the basic techniques for using pencils, pens, brushes, inks, and watercolors to capture your thoughts and impressions. Exactly what goes into your journal is up to you. Sketch quickly to capture a thought or image before it vanishes. Draw or paint with care, to render an idea or vision as realistically as possible. Write about what you see. The choice is yours – and the memories you preserve will last a lifetime. $26.99 (USD) plus S & H

Painting Country Gardens in Watercolor, pen & ink

Best-selling author Claudia Nice provides all the information you need to create gorgeous country garden art. She reviews basic watercolor techniques, along with methods for producing a variety of line textures in pen and ink. Claudia illustrates these easy-to-follow instructions with hundreds of her own beautiful artwork. Start by sketching in pencil. Then add watercolor, pen and ink to illustrate a variety of scenes filled with flowers, leaves, ferns, and more. You'll also find guidelines for adding fun little details, from birdbaths to wagon wheels! Claudia shares her advice and experience to help you paint lovely country scenes in no time at all. She provides basic watercolor techniques for glazing and texturing, methods for rendering a variety of lines with pen and ink, and tips for adding special effects. Easy-to-follow instructions show you how to illustrate all your favorite garden details, including flowers, ferns, weathered wood and garden decor in watercolor, pen and ink. $28.99 (USD) plus S & H

Watercolor Made Simple With Claudia Nice

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. $24.99 (USD), plus S & H

Painting with watercolor, pen & ink

Let best-selling author and artist Claudia Nice show you how to create incredible are in pen, ink, and watercolor. She makes it easy by covering all the drawing and painting basics -- everything from materials and texture techniques to color theory and special effects. It's a one-of-a-kind course in making extraordinary art, from mastering value, contrast and definition to getting your surface techniques just right. You'll never run out of ideas or challenges. Claudia provides guidelines, advice and techniques for rendering hundreds of your favorite places, environments and animals with the kind of detail you've only dreamed about. In fact, this incredible volume -- a compilation collecting some of the finest instruction from Claudia's best selling books -- contains enough instruction, inspiration and gorgeous art to keep you drawing, painting and enjoying the outdoors for years to come. Over 220 pages. $26.99 (USD) plus S & H

Creating Creatures of Fantasy and Imagination by Claudia Nice

Fantasy has its roots in reality. Discover an enchanted world of imaginary beings in your own extraordinary drawings and paintings. Your journey begins, oddly enough, with the ordinary things that surround you every day. With Creating Creatures of Fantasy and Imagination, you'll learn how to use your own photographs and other true-life inspiration to make fanciful artwork that beautifully transcends reality. Best-selling author Claudia Nice shows you how to build upon real-life references to draw and paint countless creatures from your imagination, including:

Faeries and Sprites; Elves, Brownies, Dwarves and Gnomes; Trolls, Ogres, Goblins and Gremlins; Dragons, Sea Monsters and Sea Serpents; Centaurs, Fauns, Satyrs, Mermaids and Mermen; Unicorns, Winged Horses, Phoenixes and Griffins.

Claudia provides complete step-by-step instructions and dozens of captivating examples in pen and ink, watercolor and acrylic, plus the legend behind each mythical creature. Enter the realm of fantasy, where the only limit is your imagination. $24.99 (USD) plus S & H

Painting your favorite animals in pen, ink & watercolor

Capture all the natural charm and personality of your favorite animals. Bestselling author and beloved teacher Claudia Nice makes it fun. With step-by-step guidance, Claudia shows you just how easy it is to paint a menagerie of lively creatures in her trademark pen, ink and watercolor technique.

Follow along and see for yourself. Whether you are a beginner attempting to paint your first animal subject, or a more experienced artist looking to broaden your skills, you’ll find this book to be both entertaining and instructive. It features:

14 complete step-by-step demonstrations
A range of delightful animal subjects, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs, sheep, bunnies, birds, and more
60+ mini demos and quick studies that focus on getting the details right, such as fur, feathers, feet, facial expressions and backgrounds
Techniques for painting from photos, sketches and memories
Key tips for working with ink and watercolors successfully

Claudia starts by simplifying the animal subject into basic shapes and diagrams. She then shows you how to refine these shapes into drawings. From there, you’ll add color in simple washes and finish the details with pen and ink. Discover the versatility and satisfaction of painting with pen, ink and watercolor, and watch your favorite animals spring to life with a charm and detail you’ve never captured before. $26.99 (USD) plus S & H

Creating Textured Landscapes with pen, ink and watercolor

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 textural 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. $28.99 (USD) plus S & H

Down by the Sea with Brush and Pen

Bestselling author Claudia Nice shows you how to draw and paint colorful seascapes, shorelines and beach scenes using watercolor textured with pen and ink, plus acrylics and gouache. With the help of reference photos and filed sketches, create realistic and colorful paintings ranging from dramatic whitewater waves to more intimate vignettes such as sailboat marinas and tropical beaches. Each chapter explores in detail a different component of seascape painting, with the details being combined into 30 full-sized paintings to show how a composition is pulled together. $28.99 (USD), plus S & H

How to See, How to Draw

Master the keys to Realistic Drawing Step-by-Step. Imagine having the ability to draw any subject with precision, detail and expression. With Claudia's help, you can do it! In How to See, How to Draw you will discover how to tap into your powers of observation, strengthen your eye-hand connect6ion, and draw the world around you with new skill and accuracy.

Just take it one step at a time. Claudia is an expert teacher, breaking down complex composition into a series of achievable shapes and values that even beginners will understand. Through dozens of mini demonstrations, fun-to-do exercises and complete step-by-step instructions, you'll learn everything from basic drawing techniques to more challenging methods for rendering wonderfully rich, in-depth compositions.

Her visual instruction details how to:

Use a variety of drawing tools to suit your style and artistic intent
Learn to let go of preconceived ideas so you can observe lines, shapes and spatial relationships as they actually are
Create strong compositions through comparison and proportional control
Find, fix and avoid common mistakes by using simple grids and guide lines
Understand and work with perspective to create the illusion of depth
Reveal form through light and shadow
Explore the potential of texture to create mood and movement

Claudia's drawings illuminate a range of subjects, including portraits, landscapes, animals and still life. You can practice using her reference photos and drawings, or you can apply her exercises to your own subjects. Start today. Claudia's way! Following her masterful guidance, you'll see the world through new eyes and draw better that you ever have before. $29.99 (USD) plus S & H

Drawing & Painting Trees in the Landscape

Bestselling author and naturalist Claudia Nice is back with another studio essential for every landscape artist. Drawing and Painting Trees in the Landscape feature's Claudia's best tips and techniques for painting trees of all kinds in their natural settings -- from the majesty of mountain evergreens to the delicate pink blossoms of cherry trees in the spring.

With her inspiring artistic style and in-depth visual instruction, Claudia starts with the basics, showing you how to break down reference photos and open-air vistas into simple shapes, colors, and textures. Follow along as she skillfully guides you through every step of creating vibrant compositions anchored by glorious trees and foliage, including:

Drawing and sketching techniques for mapping out successful compositions.

Ø A variety of basic tree shapes you can reference and copy, featuring more than 40 conifers, hardwoods and deciduous trees.

Ø Proven color mixes for painting an array of vibrant hues -- from the many different greens of foliage to the soft pastels of spring blossoms -- using watercolor, oil, acrylics or mixed media.

Ø Step-by-step instructions on drawing and painting important details, such as the weathered textures of bark, the sculptural shapes of bare branches in winter, aged mossy trunks and more.

Ø Techniques for working smart in any medium, such as using simple watercolor washes for distant foliage, adding details with pen & ink, and "knife painting" in oils for interesting dimensional effects.

Whether your goal is to make accurate field sketches for your journal, paint what you see on your travels through the countryside, or just capture familiar views of your own back yard, Claudia makes the process fun, easy and satisfying. Like a walk in the woods, with every step you'll relax, enjoy and learn something new. $27.99 (USD) + S & H.