Materials and tools -- Watercolor paints -- Daniel Smith -- Da Vinci -- Grumbacher -- Holbein -- Rowney -- Schmincke -- Sennelier -- Winsor & Newton -- Yarka -- Related watercolor mediums -- gouache -- Liquid watercolors -- Watercolor sticks -- Brushes -- Paper -- Paper stretching -- Mediums, masking fluids, and glues -- Painting equipment.

Basic skills -- The sketchbook -- Drawing: a visual language -- Light and dark -- Design -- Demonstration: Spatial division -- Open and closed composition -- Demonstration: Creating balance with shape and value -- Perspective -- Composing in practice -- Seeing abstract structure.

Watercolor painting techniques -- Traditional wash drawings -- Basic wash methods -- Preserving white -- Painting geometric forms -- Demonstration: Cubes -- Demonstration: Spheres -- Demonstration: Cylinders -- Variegated washes -- Glazing -- Graphic brushstrokes -- Textural effects -- Granulation -- Spattering -- Puddling -- Brushwork and paper surface -- Lifting methods -- Resist techniques.

Color -- Color in watercolor -- The spectrum and the rainbow -- Atmospheric and ambient color -- Color pigments -- Color theory -- The color wheel -- Color language -- Color temperature -- Color harmonies and chords -- Primary triads -- Complements -- Split complements -- Tetrads -- Analogous colors -- The color of gray -- Color mixing -- On the palette -- Optical color mixing -- Physical color mixtures -- Color perception and illusion -- Simultaneous contrast -- Extended contrast -- Irradiation -- Color progression in composition -- Two-color paintings -- Triad paintings -- Interpreting the colors you see.

Painting subjects -- Still life -- Demonstration: Transparent and reflective objects -- Demonstration: Organic objects -- Demonstration: Organic objects in space -- Demonstration: A botanical still life -- Demonstration: A more complex still life -- The figure -- Demonstration: The model -- Demonstration: The portrait -- Demonstration: Color, composition, and the figure -- Landscape -- Skies -- Demonstration: Capturing rhythms -- Foliage -- Color structure -- Greens -- Water -- Demonstration: Linear water rhythms -- Demonstration: Concentric ripples -- Demonstration: A more complex water composition -- Architectural subjects -- Demonstration: The power of white -- Demonstration: Painting the light -- Demonstration: Integrating structures in a landscape -- Working on a large scale.

Watercolor and mixed media -- Gouache and watercolor -- Colored pencil and watercolor -- Pastel and watercolor -- Collage and watercolor.