Your Year in Art: Watercolor is an excellent book to encourage beginners to learn basic watercolor techniques. the book is highly recommended for gift giving and for personal use.

Very fun and easy to follow. This give me so many great ideas to try! I love that genuine creativity is really the goal with this collection of challenges throughout the year. Great for those who already use watercolor and those who are just starting out!

"Your Year in Art: Watercolor" by Kristin Van Leuven falls short of its promise. The projects lack depth and creativity, often feeling uninspired and formulaic. The weekly format may rush learners, preventing them from truly honing their skills. Additionally, the book's instructional clarity leaves much to be desired, leaving readers frustrated and wanting more guidance. Overall, it's a disappointing attempt at fostering artistic growth in watercolor painting. There are better resources available for those seeking to develop their skills in this medium.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Colorful and fun, Your Year in Art: Watercolor is a great way to get into this medium. A little light on the basics, but it just some much fun to look at you can't help but be inspired.

This is a fun watercolor book! Beautiful illustrations, and instructions that are great, even for a beginner!

A great book for folks looking to start or get back into watercolor painting! The weekly activities start with basic skills to get the reader comfortable with the medium and then build from there. I liked that each activity allowed for flexibility and creative freedom. This is definitely a book I could see readers (and myself!) wanting to buy for their home libraries.

I will not be able to leave a review on this book.

Unfortunately, due to technical errors with downloading this book, I could not read it and therefore I am not in a position to provide feedback on this book at this time.
I look forward to reading or listening to a copy in the near future in order to provide a proper review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review as it is a book that I believe I would have enjoyed, I appreciate the opportunity to have received a copy.

This is an absolutely perfect book for those wanting to start out in watercolor.

Van Leuven has divided the weeks of the year into five chapters: 1) Basics, 2) Jump-Starting creativity, 3) Getting Outside, 4) Making it Personal, and 5) Keeping it Going. Each week contains some basic teaching about watercoloring with examples, some assignments, and often some challenges under the title "Try This!". The individuals weeks are building on one another and present a wide range of sample drawings, some of them based on plants and others on photographs.

I loved this book and it's methodical, yet fun approach to learning watercolor techniques and principles.

Covers the basics and gives a guided path to creating something new every week. Would be easy to work through the book faster than a year if you wanted to.

I loved the concept of this book! It starts off slow, and then continues to provide interesting ideas and themes. I really enjoyed doing some of these so far (over a few weeks). I would recommend this book to anyone interested in starting to paint in watercolour, especially for older children and teens who are future artists! I think this book would be so much fun!

I really love to be creative and do stuff.But I am earnestly not very good at it.
I wanted to learn to paint and I always loved watercolours because of the way you could blend the colours and create something unique.
But I always lack the ideas. Do this book was a tremendous help to create some very nice pictures that are worth the space on the wall.
And a bug bonus, my children saw me having fun and wanted to participate.

So a win win situation.

Thanks for letting me read this inspiring book that sparked my creativity.

I really enjoyed several of the projects in this book. I liked it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a gorgeous little book which would make a great inspirational gift that keeps on giving, encouraging the reader to take on creative challenges each week while improving techniques and developing their own artistic style. Watercolour is an excellent, easily accessible medium - inexpensive, relatively 'clean', portable and appealing. There are step by step illustrated instructions for those who are unsure, and for those of us who like to take off on our own imaginations, it is easy enough to adapt the suggested activities and everyone will make artwork that is all your own. Of course, if you have time and will, you don't have to do a challenge every week - you could do them daily or whenever inspiration strikes.
An excellent Christmas gift to inspire a creative new year's resolution, but you can start at any time! I loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a fun daily watercolor activity book. The illustrations are cute and informative. This is a full color activity book that has a watercolor assignment for each day for a year, It explains tools, brushes and techniques starting with the color wheel and gradually getting more complex. I liked the Year In Art - Watercolor so much I bought a copy for my classroom. This book is very inspiring.

I was excited to read this book as I have always been looking for a watercolor instructional book that would inspire me to finally pick up a brush and try watercoloring. The book is a collection 52 tasks, one for each week that build on your prior experience. In week one you learn a task, then the task for week two builds on that lesson.

A book that keeps you inspired
Author and watercolor artist Kristin Van Leuven presents "Your Year in Art: Watercolor. A project for every week of the year to inspire creative exploration in watercolor painting", published by Quarto Publishing Group - Walter Forster Publishing. After a brief introduction with information about basic tools & materials and the selection of water color paper Van Leuven has divided the weeks of the year into five chapters: 1) Basics, 2) Jump-Starting creativity, 3) Getting Outside, 4) Making it Personal, and 5) Keeping it Going. Each week contains some basic teaching about watercoloring and the needed examples, some assignments, and often some challenges under the title "Try This!". The individuals weeks are building on one another and present a wide range of sample drawings, some of them based on plants and others on photographs.
The artist has to not that the introduction is very brief. Beginners who need more information about tools & materials need to look elsewhere to find that information. Nevertheless I highly recommend this book because it presents itself with great graphics and designs and examples. It is a great book for beginners and intermediate artists. I appreciated the tips that are included along the way and am convinced that this book makes also a great present for them.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#YourYearinArtWatercolor #NetGalley

I enjoyed this book as I have just begun to paint with watercolors.I enjoyed the manner by which the author has laid out the projects and made the instructions easy to follow for a beginner or intermediate painter. I enjoyed the lessons and will probably buy this book in print for my personal art collection.

This is such a very helpful guide for those who are a beginner in this specific art medium as well as those who have never dabbled with water color at all. This guide goes week by week with so much information to help you progress as an artist. The different between what you'd likely product at week one versus 52 is astronomical. I think this is a good book for anyone who wants to experiment with water colors.

What a wonderful book as soon as I opened the download I loved the vibrancy of the colours and immediately flipped through it all, just mesmerised. Since then I've gone through it slowly twice and I just love it more each time. The author is an artist who loves what she does and has a wonderful way of teaching. Her approach is accessible, really easy to follow (and no that isn't always the same as accessible), the tone is encouraging and supportive. The exercises are easy to follow and the presentation just makes you want to get started straight away. Obviously the idea is do undertake this over a year and for reviewing purposes I've only just started but I can't wait to see what I've produced a year from now.

If during lockdown you've been wanting to get more creative or you just want to explore a new medium, I really recommend this book, suitable for 5 years upwards, its both simple and inspirational. I would also recommend getting hold of the print version as the digital issue was a bit glitchy but that may get sorted out for proper digital release, but its such a beautiful book you're gonna want it in print!

With thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

A simplistic look at getting started with watercolors. I think this would be great for the beginner.