I'm not an artistic person and I have never painted with watercolor so as a complete novice, I was impressed with this book. It explained the methods and materials in a way that was easy to understand. The photographs were extremely helpful. I was able to follow along, step by step and complete the mini lessons. They gradually build on your skills. I only got as far as chapter 3 but it's clear it would be a good reference for our older students. I would recommend having this in a school library for those students who want to take what they learn in art class a step further.

This is a project-based book with step by step instructions and plenty of images that will guide you through the process. It explains really well the tools you will need and the different options you can choose from. For example, pros vs.cons of tube, pan and liquid watercolors along with recommended brands. The first section is for warm-ups and basic techniques to get you started. Once you are comfortable with with the basics, you can try the projects from the next sections.

Projects consist of simple stylized objects (modern watercolors approach, no realism here) which makes them easy to complete. They are grouped in "flowers and foliage", "butterflies and other critters", "fruits, veggies and nuts" and "lettering". It gives plenty of sample alphabets to choose from.

With all the lessons learned in this book, you should be able to create more elaborate watercolor projects and beautiful illustrations, greeting cards or any other crafty project. A fun way to get you started into this popular media.

- Good for beginners.
- For the weekend hobbyist and as art therapy.
- Projects suitable to enjoy with kids.
- If you want to add modern watercolors to your crafts or designs.

I remember playing with watercolors as a child, I wasn’t good at it (or any other type of painting). So eventually I only played with them for art class, and to do the exercises and projects needed to get a good enough grade to pass my class.

But as an adult I have recently gone back to art and painting. This time with the wisdom that it doesn’t matter if I’m not that good. What matters is if I enjoy it or not.

But I’m only human, and of course I want to be good at what I do. For this I’ve been obsessed with painting books, and I have been reading one after the other.

Believe it or not, one you read one, you HAVEN”T read them all. Each new book has something unique. And this book is no different. I found some pretty awesome projects and tutorials.

I used the wrong kind of paper (sketch paper instead of proper watercolor paper), but I recreated one of the projectors included in this book. And I’m quite happy with the results.
I added more to it and made it my own, as I prefer to use the projects just as a starting point. But this is one of the beauties of this book! You can decide to follow the projects step by step, only a few steps and add your own flare, or not follow them at all, and just get inspired by the beautiful projects inside.



I need to say, that the cover doesn’t do justice to the content!!! When I first saw this book, I though that all projects would be simple and geometrical. Much like the doodles in the cover. But, nope nope nope. It has way more than that!

The book features flowers and leaves, bugs and critters, fruits, and even lettering! By the way, my favorite part about the lettering is that it also includes an alphabet sample.

This book is full of information, projects, techniques, examples. Just everything that you need to start practicing those watercolor skills with confidence. And even how to turn your art into a digital file and work in Photoshop.
Creative Watercolor Content:

Introduction

Essential supplies: Watercolor paints, color and watercolors, papers, brushes, extras.
Basic techniques: Watercolor warm-ups, wet on wet, wet on dry, transparencies, building up color, creating gradients, fine lines & thin strokes, getting precise, spatter, layering, getting into the flow, scanning and editing in Photoshop.
Flowers and foliage: Leaf studies, adding detail: structured daisies, loose and watery roses, painting a bouquet, projects and ideas.
Butterflies and other critters: Drawing trick, butterfly poses, ladybugs, beetles, projects & ideas.
Fruit, veggies, and nuts: Citrus, berries, kiwi, almonds and peas, garlic & red onions, projects & ideas.
Lettering: Brushstroke practice, alphabet activity, creating your own lettering style, decorating & enhancing lettering with mixed media, projects & ideas.
More: More projects ideas, alphabet activity samplers, resources, acknowledgements, about the author, index.

136 pages of amazing content, beautiful watercolor art, and so much inspiration!

As you can see, all the basics are covered, and then some. I think that beginners are the ones that will benefit the most from this book. A seasoned watercolor artist will already be familiar with basic techniques and tools. But those beautiful projects included in this book can make for wonderful inspiration and guidance for artist in about any level.

Easy to understand, with detailed imagery and descriptions, this is an excellent guide for creating illustrations and lettering using watercolor supplies and methods. I will be referring to this book often as I work on developing my watercolor skills/abilities.

A great start for anyone interested in giving watercolours a try. A beautiful and colourful book full of inspiration.

A good book for beginners who are getting into watercolors.
It talks about the basics and the materials and mediums.
Simple and easy to do projects with pictorial references. Enjoyed this book.

Does give a nice introduction to projects, watercolouring and resources at the end. Some projects shown and how to do them. Do get some extra tips in side boxes. Also gives some other information. A nice start to painting.

Great techniques and step by step process for painting. I would recommend this to a beginning watercolorist.

Creative Watercolor takes a modern, illustrative approach to an old medium, and adds crafty projects to explore the beauty of watercolor. I read an electronic version from NetGalley, so I can't comment on the production values, but I did see a review on Amazon indicating that the paper quality is good and that it opens nice and flat, a necessity with a book like this.

After a discussion of supplies and color mixing, Calderon provides some good watercolor warm-ups. This technique chapter also demonstrates how to scan and replicate your paintings using Photoshop. This allows you to turn simple paintings into graphic art.

The next three chapters delve into flowers and foliage, butterflies and critters, and fruits, veggies and nuts. As well as step by step painting instructions and photos, each chapter includes fun projects like place cards and recipe gift cards.

The final chapter is a good introduction to lettering, a perfect way to round out this book. All in all, this book will give the beginner a complete introduction to watercolor, lettering, and the type of illustration projects that combine these elements.

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I'm just getting into watercolor and this book was incredibly helpful. It goes step by step with many subjects. The book overall is just absolutely beautiful.

Wonderful introduction to watercolour painting. Easy to follow instructions and lots of ideas for first projects.

I'd recommend it for beginner and intermediate watercolour painters.

High praise for this book: I want to buy all the art supplies and try everything in it! Watercolor novices and experts alike will find something to try in this step-by-step, approachable guide, with lots of full-color photos and instructions. Includes basic watercolor techniques, supplies, using Photoshop, applying mixed media elements, and more.

I love this book! The cheery cover makes you want to pick it up and the fun projects make you want to dive in and get started! It's not the usual hum drum color wheels and brush techniques, there's just something welcoming and encouraging that made me feel I could really accomplish these projects. I have scads of watercolor paper and paints at home and now I have a book to make me want to use them. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title and thanks to Ana Calderon for taking the 'scare' factor out of getting started with art! #CreativeWatercolor #NetGalley

I love this book. The perfect guide to watercolour painting. I was delighted to find a guide on how to transfer your work into digital format.

I was so looking forward to reading this book, but as it's a pdf, i am unable to download it on to my Kindle unfortunately. It's been quite a few years since i have done any painting and would love to start again. This book would have been ideal and hopefully i shall be able to get hold of a copy at some stage.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers.

I read through this title while I was on vacation and brought a set of watercolors with me. Since I am a complete beginner with watercolor, I thought this book did an excellent job at introducing the paints and beginner techniques. I did all of the practice lessons and had fun learning how the watercolors work and how they can be layered to produce stronger shades and mixed colors. I was able to successfully create a set of postcards for friends. Would absolutely recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about watercolor in a fun and easy way!

As I browsed through this book, I thought the watercolor visuals were pretty. I liked the name cards with different flowers on them, and the one with the cactus stood out to me. Yet, I always think it's tedious when an art book starts with a supply list. It doesn't get me very excited, even though I understand why the book is set up that way. This looks like a good book, but I am not sure that it will inspire me to truly get started with watercolor. The ideas for making watercolor recipe cards for strawberry jam and guacamole also seemed a little frivolous to me because I do not know when I would ever be in the situation of gifting homemade strawberry jam or guacamole. If I put in the effort of making jam, I probably am not going to have time to watercolor a recipe card. That's just me. More power to the person who can make jam and watercolor the recipe card!

I loved this guide for beginners. It has six chapters, two focussing on essential supples and basic techniques. They are straightforward and clear. Chapters three, four and five focus on flowers, mini-beasts and fruit and vegetables. There are plenty of examples and it guides you carefully through the process. The final chapter relates to lettering. this is followed by examples of projects you can use these skills for. A fun and colourful book that makes you want to give it a try! Thank you to Net Galley and the Quarry Books, Quarto Group for this ARC.

This is a beautiful book. I have been looking for a few books to get back into a watercolor practice. It is both creative and relaxing. What this book does really well is short but targeted practice lessons. The end results are worthy of display. It is extremely varied -- I like the lettering section as well as the food and flowers, but then she also includes bugs of all things. Very creative.

Love this book! I’ve wanted to try watercolors for awhile and this book gives great directions and tips. I’ll be heading out to get art supplies this afternoon.