Creative Watercolor: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners--Create with Paints, Inks, Markers, Glitter, and More! (Volume 1) (Art for Modern Makers, 1) Paperback – December 11, 2018

This book is fantastic and not just for beginners!! If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at watercolor, been intimidated, or you’re a seasoned artist, this is THE book! Ana’s approach is not only creative but incredibly approachable making watercolor fun and easy to learn using her techniques. The book begins with a supply list that breaks down paints, paper and brushes in a simple, easy to understand way that allows even the novice to begin painting without spending a small fortune, but she also talks about higher end supplies as well and includes a section on craft items to embellish your projects with, which I loved! The book moves into warm-ups and exercises designed to familiarize the reader with watercolors and how to best work with them, from creating transparencies, layering, painting backgrounds and fine line work. Her step by step approach, which includes how she moves her brush to paint/water ratio, along with the accompanying photos, makes it a breeze to follow along. There’s also a section on digitizing your artwork in Photoshop which is amazing and gives the work that you’ve created many different uses!After the nuts and bolts of painting with watercolor, the book is broken into sections from flowers, veggies, and insects and there’s even a section on lettering! Each section has projects that you can create based on what you’ve learned so you’re never left with the feeling of what to paint next. I think one of my favorite things about this book is the tips scattered throughout the pages to help you along on your watercolor journey, things that only a seasoned artist could provide.With all of that being said, you can tell that this book was lovingly created for all aspiring artists. This book is overflowing with information that I wish I had had when I was starting out in watercolor, it’s not only informative but it’s fun!! First and foremost, creating should be fun and joyful, and this book inspires just that. So buy the book, you will love it!!

Ana does such a great job of breaking down the basics in simple excercises. Her writing style is very approachable, and her painting style is fun and bursting with color. I love that the book is so chock full of images.For anyone who may be a little intimidated to try watercolor, I highly recommend this book. If you’re already on your way to learning (like me), I think you will find this to be a helpful reference. I can see myself coming back to this book often for both inspiration and practicing the basics.I really love that Ana includes project ideas you can create for yourself and even use as gifts. I plan to do both!Ana dedicated this book to her students, which is pretty special. She is a great teacher, and I think you will enjoy being her student!

All steps to learning and then creating original work in watercolor are presented in this organized and comprehensive book. The language is simple and clear, therefore easy to understand and apply. Ms. Calderon starts with materials and techniques, and gradually increases the level of difficulty, but never beyond the reach of a beginner. The pictures are clear and precise, and the examples breathtaking, but not intimidating. What you see is what you could do. This is one of the best books of this type, and I 'd recommend it to anyone.

I enjoyed reading this book. It teaches you how to do a bunch of cute things. Easy to understand.Lots of pictures.

I LOVE this book. The author inspired me to begin watercolor long ago, so I was anxious to get my hands on this book. It covers ALL of the basics-- tools, color mixing, technique practice. It's super easy to follow but still very detailed. There are beautiful and modern project ideas and designs to practice with including chapters for flowers and foliage, butterflies and critters, fruits, veggies and nuts, and lettering. Will get so much use from this-- just looking at the work inside is breathtaking.

I've been watercoloring a long time, so I already knew most of the techniques in this book, but it's worth it for being eye candy alone. The artwork included in this book is vibrant, playful, saturated, and goes between being representational and abstract, so there is so much inspiration in these pages. Even if you know all the information in this book, the images are worth the price.

So thrilled to have a book full of Ana Victoria Calderon's techniques and tips! Everything I know about painting I've learned from Ana in her Skill share classes and retreats. Now I have the perfect reference manual with this beautiful book she created. I leave it on my desk and when I need a little help or inspiration while painting, I reach for her book. Her explanations are so user friendly... I think you will find yourself painting better than you imagined you could if you follow her instruction. You will have new skills to explore your own style!!

Beautifully illustrated (of course) and very easy to follow along. Inspiring lessons for me and my 12 year old daughter. This book brought us together for an evening of watercolor. My son (7) struggled with the concept of how watercolors work (they aren’t markers! Haha) but I think he actually learned a lot from watching his sister and I take the time (and patience) to handle the watercolors to get the results we wanted. Such a beautiful book made by a beautiful artist!

Perfeito para quem está começando agora. Tem inúmeras sugestões de exercícios para aprendizado de técnicas, bem como de pinturas simples. Super recomendo! Pena que a tradução pro português está esgotada em todo lugar.

Very nice book for beginners, filled with fun tutorials which are easy to follow and will definitely inspire you to create your own fun pieces of art.

This book in an example of something done with love and what is well done, takes you step by step explaining everything, if you are a beginner it is for you and if not then it refreshes you with creative ideas, do not think about it and buy it, you will have many new activities to create and awaken your creativity.This book has very important information, apart from watercolor techniques and tips, it takes you through the world of scanning your works and I would have loved to have this information at the beginning of my trip as an artist because it would have saved me many months of effort trying to perfect many of these areas that Ana Victoria explains in a very fluid way.I love it!!!The quality of paper, images and printing is excellent.

This is a beautifully illustrated and printed watercolor book divided into 6 chapters: Essential Supplies; Basic Techniques; Flowers & Foliage; Butterflies & Other Critters; Fruit, Veggies & Nuts; and Lettering. The book is printed on heavier-coated paper which gives it a nice, rich feel - the pages fold flat easily for reference. The photographs are large and clear and the watercolor illustrations and printed color is of excellent quality.This is Ana Victoria's first book and it is very true to her teaching style and artistry. Highly recommend purchase.

A book with many colorful images to illustrate step by step a range of watercolor techniques, great book to start. Ana Victoria Calderon also teaches online watercolor courses, and she's really great.