Table of Contents
Creative Watercolor: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners-Create with Paints, Inks, Markers, Glitter, and More! (Art for Modern Makers)
by Ana Victoria Calderon
I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of ” Creative Watercolor”.
Creative Watercolor Description by the publisher:
Creative Watercolor offers beginners a fun, modern, and practical approach to a timeless medium with instructions on how to paint simple motifs and lettering and embellish projects beautifully.
In Creative Watercolor, popular watercolor artist and workshop instructor Ana Victoria Calderon shares her step-by-step techniques for painting modern motifs in this classic medium. Through a series of easy tutorials and projects, you will:
Get an overview of basic materials and tools,
plus options for embellishing your paintings. Master essential techniques, starting with easy warm-up activities, learning to layer, and getting into the flow with watercolor, plus an introduction to scanning and digital editing for making multiples. Learn to paint a variety of simple, beautiful motifs: flowers and leaves, butterflies and critters, fruits and vegetables, and delightful lettering. Use what you’ve learned to create unique, stylish stationery, including beautiful invitations, place cards, menus, monograms, recipe gift cards, thank you notes—any project you can imagine, for any kind of event you can think of!There’s never been a better time to dive into the world of watercolor, so why wait? Grab a brush and get painting!
Perfect for creative beginners, the books in the Art for Modern Makers series take a fun, practical approach to learning about and working with paints and other art mediums to create beautiful DIY projects and crafts.
My thoughts about Creative Watercolor:
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.
If you wish to support my work and help me keep the free content coming, considering leaving a tip on Ko-Fi : http://ko-fi.com/mary_craftytuts/commissions