Colorways: Acrylic Animals

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not regurgitate the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it.


Colourways: Acrylic Animals teaches artists of all skill levels how to paint vibrant, colourful renditions of animals from around the globe.

Grab your paints, canvas, and imagination because it's time to paint pointillistic pandas, tetradic llamas, vibrant flamingos, and complementary cows...and that's just the beginning! Each step-by-step project in Colorways: Acrylic Animals shows you not only how to capture an animal’s likeness, but also how to use colour to create magical, other-worldly, and whimsical paintings. You'll also learn how to use acrylic paint to add texture and fanciful flourishes, like florals and collage, to your glorious animal subjects.

Colourways is a brand-new series from Walter Foster teaching artists of all skill levels how to create innovative, inspired artwork that's full of colour and imagination. Focusing on creating expressive pieces over realistic scenes, Colorways shows artists how to break the "rules" of colour and let their imaginations and artwork soar to new heights. In the Colorways series, flamingos are green, giraffes boast multicoloured spots, and racoons feature blue undertones.

I am a dedicated artist (as well as a MAJOR book reader) and I always have problems with animals so this book was awesome!!!!  I learned so much and I think that anyone who wants to paint an animal could use this book - its lessons could even be applied to other painting "objects" as its lessons re: shading and colour can be applied to people, flowers, trees, etc.

As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I love emojis (outside of Instagram and Twitter) so let's give it 🎨 🖌️ 🎨🖌️🎨

This was a creative painting book.  I enjoyed the artist's style of painting colorful animals, not just the colors you see in the photo. 

This book is a great exercise in color theory.  I found it unique that each step by step painting is a different example of the color theory.  This technique makes it easier for a beginner to understand cool color, warm colors, complements, split complements, triadic, and value.  When you are just reading about color theory it is more difficult to fully grasp the concepts and apply them on your own.  By painting Megan’s examples you progress much more quickly.

Megan also provides tips on how to sketch the animals prior to painting.  Some paintings use multimedia as well as acrylic paint. 

I received this galley from NetGalley.

This book is so inspirational! Beautifully styled and very helpful. Usually I use watercolours to paint, but I like to venture out of my comfort zone once in a while. The introduction and basics are clear and useful. I love the step by step tutorials to begin with. When you practise with them and get the techniques down, you can move on to other animals or things. There's also a really interesting technique using paint swatches and other mixed media tutorials that I can't wait to try. The book looks so colourful, it makes you happy by just reading through it.

This book is for intermediate painters. There are some great idea in playing with color but the most basic techniques are not instructed. As a beginner, I wasn't sure how to do details and the best stroke and such to do them. Plus, mixing colors confused me as their was only a little instruction.
But I learned a lot and can see colors in a whole new light. I saw techniques  that i would have never thought off.
As a how to book this is a pretty good book. As a piece of literature isn't not great. If I rad "expressive" one more time, I might hurl the book across the room lol. (also, i'm not even sure what that means for painting.)

Lovely painting book with easy step-by-step instructions. I liked the choice of motives, there's definitely something for everyone. Even people, who do not have much experience with painting can achieve good results with the help of this book!

Grab your paints, canvas, and imagination because it's time to paint pointillistic pandas, tetradic llamas, vibrant flamingos, and complementary cows...and that's just the beginning! Each step-by-step project in Colorways: Acrylic Animals shows you not only how to capture an animal’s likeness, but also how to use color to create magical, other-worldly, and whimsical paintings. You'll also learn how to use acrylic paint to add texture and fanciful flourishes, like florals and collage, to your glorious animal subjects.

Colorways is a brand-new series from Walter Foster teaching artists of all skill levels how to create innovative, inspired artwork that's full of color and imagination. Focusing on creating expressive pieces over realistic scenes, Colorways shows artists how to break the "rules" of color and let their imaginations and artwork soar to new heights. In the Colorways series, flamingos are green, giraffes boast multicolored spots, and raccoons feature blue undertones.

I absolutely loved this book! I took a painting course in college and wish I would have had this book back then. It has clear and easy instructions and tips on how to start out painting with acrylics. It also has pictures that you can follow step by step in the book. My favorite one was the dolphin. I loved the colors and the animals that were used in this book. This is a perfect book for anyone who likes art and animals!

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC of #ColorwaysAcrylicAnimals
Pub Date: 08 Jan 2019

Colorways: Acrylic Animals is a really cute and inspiring guide. I loved the art style included, and personally found both the style and the guide to be soothing. I felt like the way Megan Wells explained everything made a lot of sense, and made the idea of getting started a lot less intimidating than it can sometimes be.
	This book covers a little bit of everything, which is always a plus in my book. There are the basics, of course. The tools of the trade, how to create certain effects in paint, and so on. I particularly enjoyed the paint effects sections, but that’s just my personal preference.
	The book then went on to covering color theory, which is an important, but difficult to explain basic of the art world. From there it moved on to actual projects; taking us step by step through a variety of different projects. It was brilliant seeing a piece slowly come together on the pages. It was educational as well, as intended.
	I have to confess that while I adore all animal portraits, I did find myself particularly drawn to this style. I really enjoyed the lighter and freer style. It made everything feel so alive and genuine. I felt like it would apply especially well to pets – as there’s nothing better than seeing their endearing personality shining through.

Great inspirational reference with projects starting with grid work to capture your animal look, and moving on to color choices, flourishes, and techniques to complete original, magical, stylized pieces of art. Great book!

I've reviewed several books about art and painting over the last few months. I don't consider myself an artist by any means, but I have dabbled, and it is a topic which fascinates me and in which there is always something to learn - especially if you're a writer and want to imbue your stories with a little realism. It doesn't hurt to absorb some advice from established artists in books like this to sort of sprinkle yourself with a bit of authenticity to use in your writing projects. Plus the books are interesting in themselves. I'm always happy to learn how artists do what they do and get such appealing works out of the seemingly paltry source materials of some colored pigments and some brushes. It's really quite magical when you think about it. The paintbrush as a magic wand! Paint as fairy dust!

This book is firmly in the acrylic camp, and it takes a loose and playful approach to painting animals. This artist definitely has fun, and the art here isn't about absolute photographic realism, but about conveying a sense and feeling for the animal subject and making it stand out, in both how the basic image looks and also in the colors it employs including some collage techniques in one image.

The subject titles are amusing. We have complementary cows, pointillistic pandas, tetradic llamas, and vibrant flamingos. The titles are a hint to the technique the author/artist is going to use and the shades and hues of paint that are going to be employed in it, because each exercise follows a slightly different strategy to reaching the end goal, although there are certain rules about building-up the painting which are common to all. The level is beginners, so if you're just starting out, have a little experience, or have never picked up a brush before, this should still work for you. I don't think anyone is so advanced that they can't learn from a new talent!

There was one section on painting a giraffe that I found interesting for several reasons. The author shows her work - like anyone taking a math test should do! - so you can see the steps to the result, and sometimes looking at those early images, I wondered if I were painting this, would I have stopped there and not gone on to 'finish' the work. Is a work of art ever finished? I guess it is if the artist thinks so, but there are different places any individual can stop and say it's done, so it was interesting to think about that. Another reason this was interesting is that the giraffe image was laterally reversed in the final picture. I think someone got an image the wrong way round, but it didn't detract from the effect of seeing the resulting finished-image after following all the steps to get there.

The book is replete with hints, tips, suggestions, and most importantly, encouragement, and the whole works well together to give anyone a solid grounding in expanding their range and ability if they're looking for a leg up. I commend it as a worthy read. Each time I read something like this it makes me want to go pick up some supplies at the art store and get to it! Fortunately for my kids' clothing and dietary needs I restrain many of these impulses! But setting yourself up with some basic brushes and colors doesn't cost that much these days, and you can paint on pretty much anything you want! Grant Wood's American Gothic was painted on "beaverboard" which is more like cardboard than it is like canvas! So grab this book and get to it!

This book is an inspiration to go back to the basics of painting I learned years ago, with a twist on using color in a new way.  Definitely want to try this new concept of painting and see what I can create. Great instructions!

Colorways: Acrylic Animals by Megan Wells is a book I from from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. This book gives the reader a list of tools needed then goes into the step-by-step projects of several animals with many accompanying images. They are carefree and fun pictures that remind me of the fun color designs like the pitbull or dog pictures on t-shirts! They are not realistic in color but lovely to look at! I really want this book!

This is a great book if you are looking to paint colorful animals. Learn how to capture an animals likeness and put paint to paper or canvas and create each animal step-by-step!

Loved this book of acrylic painted animals that I actually painted my dog with the tips.  This book can teach beginners how to paint their pets and other animals.  It’s a step by step book using pops of colours and how to about textures. Breaking the Rule Of Colours you can let your imagination go wild and you can use paint to show for animals personalities.

What a great way to learn about painting with acrylics.  Colorways:Acrylic Animals is the perfect book for beginners to learn about color and texture.   One can take this book and after reviewing several of the pages they can paint a colorful critter of their own.  I enjoyed this book!

Beautiful animals, inspiring photography and easy to follow step-by-step instructions to create Acrylic animal paintings. My favorite Art is the Mixed media Fox, because I have been creating art in mixed media for two years and I absolutely love this kind of collage process. The downside is that the whole book is focused on mammals - cats, dogs and others - I missed a project featuring a butterfly, bee, ladybug or even a bird - my favorite animals. But okay, all of them are very pretty and lovely!! Thank you Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Very cool stylized approach to the traditional (read: boring) painting subjects we are used to. I’m definitely keen to try the styles taught within. This is good both for beginners and artists already familiar with painting in acrylics.  Step by step instructions with pictures throughout. Highly recommended.

Acrylic is, in my opinion, a great place to start learning and building confidence in painting, because if you make a mistake, you can let it dry and then paint over it (not the case in watercolors and definitely not as easy in oil either).  This book not only gives great techniques on animals specifically, but it also covers a lot of refreshers and beginner instructions on acrylic painting as a whole, which makes it great for any level of experience.  The guides to the specific animals are easy to follow in the step by step format created by the author.

So lovely, lively, and inspiring! Delightful paintings explained clearly enough even for a beginner. A+. Paint your pet and you will smile for days!

Who says that painting subjects should have realistic colours to depict them. This book is a wonderful way of understanding and learning the ways of the colour wheel, all by painting animals in the most glorious and pleasing colours. 
I really love this book, such a wonderful projects with step by step instruction. It isn't a big book but what it lacks in volume certainly gains in content and fun.
Can't wait to start on some animals of my own.

I have always had creative leanings, although my original expressions tend towards writing and knitting, not drawing or painting. However, that's more of a lack of training and skill, not a lack of interest. When my older sister visited me in my first home after college, she decided we'd make a series of paintings for my walls. What followed was an informative couple days as she taught me that white flowers aren't just white, for instance, that upon closer inspection, there are shades of gray, even greens and blues visible.

When I picked up Colorways: Acrylic Animals by Megan Wells and I saw her whimsical paintings, I couldn't help but remember those earlier lessons. Wells offers step-by-step techniques, touches on color theory, and discusses tool and paint selections; her use of color is vibrant and engaging. Everyone will find an animal they want to try their hand at, whether it's the rooster, the raccoon, the elephant, or any of the others included. I look forward to carving out time and using this book to guide my girls and me through some creative exercises.

(I received a digital ARC from Quarto Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

This is a great primer if you have never tried to paint with acrylics.  Even if you have painted with other mediums, you will find something in this book that you didn’t know, or that will make you a better artist. It starts with small lessons and ideas, and then works it way through full step by step projects that you can copy, play, and learn from.

Beautiful animals, inspiring photography and easy to follow step-by-step instructions to create Acrylic animal paintings.  It's an enjoyable instructional book for beginners on how to paint animals in acrylic. The subjects are sympathetic, the colors are psychedelic, the layout of the book is colored and joyful.

I love animals but I always thought that they were a difficult subject to paint, so this book was perfect for me. I haven't tried any of the tutorials yet, but I understood that you don't need to paint an animal with a lot of details or in a "realistic" way. Even more, I never really tried painting animals because I felt I was bad at drawing them in the first place, so the tips here were really helpful(and I love the style). The design of the book is cute as hell, I liked the pastel colors and the pictures <3.

A fantastic book for anyone wanting to get into painting with easy step-by-step instructions. This is a great book to have to hand if you want to create some fantastic pieces.