Book excerpt: When you become a better designer and colorist, you become a better painter. Painting doesn't have to be complicated to be good. In fact, it shouldn't be. Artist and best-selling author Linda Kemp (Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines) bypasses all the complexities of design and color to focus on a fresh, simplified strategy for success that features negative painting--a method that uses the space around your subject to help define it. Improve your painting step by step with projects and exercises that will help your work stand out from the crowd. With Simplifying Design & Color for Artists, you'll learn: • Strategies for creating simple yet effective compositions, focusing on the relationship between shape, space, and color. • Useful tips on color--how to simplify it, mix your own, and work with value, hue and intensity. • Techniques for designing with shape: size and edge, layering, and building dimension and movement. • 18 step-by-step projects in watercolor and acrylic. The approach may be simple, but your art will be spectacular!