Watercolor Workbook: Flowers, Feathers, and Animal Friends: 25 Beginner-Friendly Projects on Premium Watercolor Paper

I sketch and watercolor almost everyday and wanted something where I didn't have to come up with daily prompts or drawings on days where I have less time or creative energy. * I love that this has watercolor paper so you can work directly in the book. *The color recipes are wonderfully helpful. I mix intuitively and generally create the shade I want but having these recipes opens up a lot more colors I never considered and makes consistent mixing/remixing much easier. I found it absorbing and relaxing to mix the colors while learning a lot. The recipes will be excellent resources even after I've finished painting the book. * Clear step by step instructions to help you learn the techniques. *The illustrations are pretty. Tracing them as part of the workbook is good for creating drawing related muscle memory. So even on days when I want to do "mindless" painting this book tricks me into learning and painting mindfully without any pressure or stress. I purchased her other workbook as well.

This is a great book! I am so happy I bought it, the explanation is very clear and extensive, the illustrations are beautiful, I have started the preliminary tests and am ready for the first project! Very exciting! Also you don’t need to buy many colors, you can also use the ones you already have and she printed swatches of each of her color so you can test your colors next to it. I already have some basics in watercolor but still am leaning a lot! And practicing in a specific context with examples etc is really helping… learning by doing, just love it! Thank you for this book Sarah Simon, also your dedication note filled my heart with joy 🤩❣️💖

I got this watercolor book for a 10 year old, and honestly I want one for myself as well. This has gorgeous art pieces in it and gives helpful guides for how to paint, and the paper quality is really good as well. Very happy with this online purchase!

I used this book for extra watercolor practice while taking a 10 week in person watercolor course. I liked the extra theory explanations and that I can paint in the book. However the author has a specific palette they want you to use and setting this up takes time. The in person course was more about training your eye to color as you go, which suits me better. The practice areas are extremely small in places and so it feels like drawing with a small brush rather than painting. The final observation is they must use tube paints; my hard pan set didn't achieve the same results. Overall a good practice book however I think it could frustrate a beginner.

This workbook is my second in Sarah's series of watercolor workbooks. Like the first, I find it easy to jump right in and begin my watercolor painting. Sarah provides comprehensive instructions which allows the beginner to gain confidence from the very first brush stroke. What really sets this workbook apart is her emphasis on teaching beginners the art of color mixing. The step-by-step guidance on blending hues and achieving a spectrum of shades is invaluable to anyone painting with watercolors. Sarah's warmth and openness in sharing her ideas and suggestions make the learning process feel like a personal and encouraging experience. She provides insight into her own creative process which makes this workbook more of a one on one experience. I highly recommend this watercolor workbook to anyone looking to delve into the captivating world of watercolor painting. Its combination of engaging sketches, expert instruction and a supportive author make it an indispensable resource for beginners and a delightful companion for those seeking to refine their skills.

What sets Sarah's books apart from other watercolor workbooks or watercolor tutorials is her instructions. They are in-depth but easily understandable; nothing is ambiguous. With an understanding of very basic watercolor skills, the paintings that the reader produces are going to look very, very similar to the example. The one "gripe" I have is that I want to trace the drawings from the workbook so I can paint them multiple times and potentially give them out as gifts. As the book paper is thick (close to 140# if not at 140#) and the directions for the next painting are on the back of each "painting page", tracing the designs is almost impossible and the designs can be very detailed, making it even more difficult to accurately trace and transfer to a piece of watercolor paper. Regardless, I love all of Sarah's books, her style, the clarity of her instructions, and the skills I learn and develop under her instructions. I will continue waiting for her next publication!

Fun way to venture into watercoloring without having to worry about drawing something first. I appreciate the step by step guide on how to create certain watercolor effects on the paper. I wish more workbooks like this existed for those who don't have time to draw something before coloring it in

I wish I could give a better review, as this is one of the few watercolor workbooks on the market and the author seems like a very nice and encouraging person. I'm not new to art, but I only recently decided to do watercolor. I wanted a beginner's workbook that covered the all you need to knows and basic techniques, and based on the description, I thought it would. Unfortunately, it's more of a detailed watercolor coloring book, not a book that encourages you to learn the foundational techniques and branch out on your own. I would not recommend this to a novice artist. Pros: -The paper- okay I know it's not great, but it does the job for a workbook in it's price range. -Images in the book already drawn out- I can draw or copy my own, but I wanted to focus on just the techniques -Places at the beginning to swatch and try out skills beforehand- who wants to discover how their colors behave or try a skill for the first time on a main project? -covers paint consistency and discusses basic techniques Sounds good enough right? Here's why I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner: Cons: -She teaches you to mix HER colors- she's says she's going to teach you to mix colors but then fails to go into basic color theory. She just tells you how to mix the ones she uses. I know color theory, but how would a beginner know how to start branching out on their own after completing this book if they don't know how to mix a simple palette on their own? Not to mention she uses a lot of black to darken colors and white to lighten some of them. Artist have their preferences, but their are better ways to get darker tones (some artists never use black), and for the most part a watercolor artist's white is the paper. The white mixes never looked right with the other colors. I figured out how to thin it down to the right consistency on my own and left the white out. -The highlights are in the wrong places- most if not all of the highlights are in places where there should be shadow. I realize that it's a style preference, and that's fine for the artist, but let's just say your textbook "students" are going to walk away without much understanding of light and shadow if they don't already have prior experience. -The drawings are just okay- I'm primarily an ink artist, and found myself frustrated with the ink outlines. They're pretty average. -It's all wet in wet- not literally, but so much of the book can be summed up as "wash in water and add dabs of color." The other skills covered in the front matter receive very little attention in the projects. She doesn't even cover glazing. Again, fine for the artist, but most beginners need to master the basic techniques, not just one technique with a smattering of others. -the people are weird- again, it's fine for the artist. If she wants to include people in her pictures, that's great. But in a book for a beginner, if you can't draw faces and hands correctly, leave them out. Her solution is to cover the face and hands in all but the gnome picture. Since the face and hands tell you a lot about a person, it gives it a very artificial feel. Especially when you've reached the third and fourth pictures like that. I can't recommend this to a beginner for the above reasons, and I couldn't recommend this to someone more skilled either since they would meet with similar frustrations. I suppose the only people I could recommend it to are people who want to paint exactly like she does.