Book Review: Watercolour for the Absolute Beginner

Watercolour for the Absolute Beginner is actually a collection of 3 books that were published earlier, namely You Can Paint Watercolors by Alwyn Crawshaw, You Can Paint People in Watercolour by Sharon Finmark and You Can Paint Animals in Watercolour by Trevor Waugh.

It's now sold together as a 224-page paperback at a wonderful bundle price.

This is probably the least intimidating watercolour book I've seen. The exercises are short and easy to follow. It shouldn't take more than 15-30 minutes to complete each one.

The examples are simple, usually of a single subject, like a banana or some grapes. Even for the landscape paintings, there are also very few elements included. The simple examples are great in a way because they build confidence.

What's lacking is perhaps the section on colour theory. It teaches basic colour mixing, with simple recipes provided in all the exercises. But it doesn't talk about colour harmony, like how some colours work well with others. Anyway, you can get another book for that called Watercolor Artist's Guide to Exceptional Color by Jan Hart.

This book is highly recommended to watercolour beginners who want something less intimidating. Or if you want something more challenging, but still suitable for beginners, check out The Complete Watercolour Course by John Raynes.

Watercolour for the Absolute Beginner is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | JP | CN)

Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy from the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn