As a beginner with watercolor, it's easy to become intimidated or frustrated, but this book helped me on my artistic journey. The recommended supplies were not overwhelming, and the "getting started" exercises were fun and playful. The author covered both block and script lettering, and it felt more like drawing the letters rather than writing them. There is a good sized section on learning how to create the letter form and shapes which was simple enough and felt encouraging. The next section covered several different ways to use the artist's newfound skills with various painting techniques and creative designs. The last third of the book included practice pages with strokes and style guides in watermark opacity on wide-lined pages. I'd recommend this book to artists from beginners to beyond.

Disclosure statement: A complimentary copy of this book was provided from a tour group, publisher, publicist, or author, including NetGalley, OR was borrowed from the library, including OverDrive, OR borrowed from Kindle Unlimited, OR purchased. A review was not required and all views and opinions expressed are unbiased and my own.

With its clear instruction and plentiful photos and illustrations, this beautiful book inspired me to try some new things in watercolor and calligraphy.

Thank you Quarry Books and NetGalley for lending me a digital ARC copy of this book to preview and review.

I have been wanting to improve my lettering and love watercolor, so when I saw this and requested, I was overjoyed that I received a copy! Thank you Netgalley! This was exactly what I was hoping for and more! If you want to learn a new lettering technique, this is your guide!

The Art of Watercolor Lettering; A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide to Painting Modern Calligraphy and Lettered Art by Kelly Klapstein takes you through what supplies you need, and explains the differences in brushes.

It has lots of photos and drawings to try to help explain what you need to do, and is well thought through.  It has tips throughout to try to help you know more, and is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn watercolour lettering.  There are lots of tutorials, and information for you.

 The Art of Watercolor Lettering  was published on 22 October 2019 and is available from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

You can follow Kelly Klapstein on  Twitter ,  Instagram  and her  website .

I was given access to this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Quarto .

I first started brush lettering on Kelly's workbooks, so I was very excited to see this book on watercolor lettering. This book doesn't disappoint. After an initial few pages on the basics, the book gets into warmups and various projects. Color theory isn't forgotten and is integrated with the exercises. A well thought out book, great for anyone who wants to improve their brush lettering skills.

The Art of Watercolor Lettering combines two of my great loves: watercolors and lettering. This book is perfect for anybody who has wanted to try something new. Or for somebody who’s been anxious to try their hand at this combined medium.
The Art of Watercolor Lettering is a comprehensive and brightly illustrated guide, and not one you’re going to want to miss out on. This book covers a little bit of everything, including the basics, watercolor painting (the paints, warm-ups, etc), letterforms, and different creative techniques. And of course, there are projects and examples to be found towards the back, making it a perfect book for learning and experimenting.
The instructional side of The Art of Watercolor Lettering was perfect, as I just mentioned. But what really took my breath away was the artwork inside. If you’re hoping to get inspired for watercolor lettering, then I’ve got good news for you. The bright and beautiful artwork within will surely get you excited to try your own hand at the process, and that’s about the best one can ever hope for from an art guide.

This book seems a very good guide for newbies. Starts describing the tools and colour theory, then gets to the point and ilustrates the several basic brush techniques with very easy instructions to follow. Very nice having a practise sheet in the end. The book is gorgeous, well organized and inspiring!

Being more creative is one of my constant goals, but it can be intimidating for a beginner to get started. Calligraphy, for example, has a huge appeal to me, to the point where I've bought pens and inks and started practicing - and always been too disappointed to go on. And don't get me started on watercolour - looks gorgeous, but not the easiest!

Combining the two forms intrigued me - surely it would just make for 'difficult squared'?

This book starts off, as with most art books, with a list of equipment and some discussion about the various options - of brushes, papers, paints, and sundries. There's a brief explanation of colour mixing theory, and then some simple warm up exercises to get you used to holding the brush and working with the paint.

As you can see, this is all very non-threatening, and perfect for total beginners as well as those who need a bit of a confidence boost!

The third chapter introduces the lettering, talking about the basic and some more complex styles. This is the 'calligraphy' part, if you like. Then we move on to the 'watercolour' part (yes, the whole book is that, but most intensely here!) and - oooh! The techniques (rainbows!) and hints (wet on wet effects) and use of colour is just making me want to go grab a paintbrush and start right now! Particular shout out to the galaxy letter - just, gorgeous!!

The author also briefly covers other things like watercolour pencils and water-based brush markers, before suggesting how to use what you've learned to make 'dreamy designs'.

Overall, I really like this book. It combines two art forms I hadn't really thought to try together, and is presented in clear, easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions that will get just about anyone started and on their way to a fun, pretty hobby with all sorts of uses.

With so many books on lettering and calligraphy, it's a very difficult choice. Anyway, you'd need fancy pens and ink, and if you want coloured lettering you'd need of course more colours. But wait! What if, instead of ink, we could just do it with watercolor that maybe we already own, creating so beautiful colorful letters? Also, instead of the pen, we could use our brushes?
The book, after the description of the tools and some very elementary colour theory note and brushstoke technique, illustrates the various styles with practical advices. There are also some mixed media lessons too. The last section consist of practice sheets.

I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to leave a positive review.

First off, I am a beginner to both water-coloring and hand-lettering... both being a skill I want to work on. I was immediately drawn to this book because of the cover design. I love blended watercolors.

This book begins with an introduction to how the author came to watercolor lettering. It combines her love of writing, calligraphy, and painting.

There is a very through overview of supplies (including some handy tips) for paint, brushes, paper and other assorted supplies. This will be very useful for a beginner.

The following section of the book discusses color theory and includes several warm up exercises. Then we are on to a variety of lettering styles. Some are basic and then on to more advanced styles. You learn how to play with colors. How to layer paint, blending colors, and how to achieve dramatic results by adding metallic or white lettering. The author also describes how to letter with water-based markers, watercolor pencils, brush pens, inks, and making fluid.

I love the helpful tips scattered throughout the book. My favorite example was the Galaxy letters.

The end of the book discusses lettering layouts and the tools you use to design quotes. The author also includes a few embellishing examples (ie: wreath around your quote).

As a big plus, this book includes practice sheets (and you can copy them to use multiple times). These practice sheets include not only letters, but a few quote projects from the book.

I really look forward to practicing some of these styles soon.

I have just started learning different types of hand lettering, including brush lettering but I have yet to get good at it. While this book is good for beginners I would say that it will be much easier if you have a background in lettering already. It is a gorgeous book though that is easy to follow and full of great ideas and ways to practice. Overall I really enjoyed reading through this book and trying out some of the techniques. As my lettering improves I will certainly be back to reference it!

A beautiful, inspiring book! All the usual basics are included about materials and colour theory to give a foundation before getting stuck into basic brush techniques and lettering. I love the choices of colours and fonts, and found myself wanting to get started. Very happy with this book.
I received a free digital copy via NetGalley, but the opinions expressed are my own.

Good tips and techniques to look at. Space to practice and trace and learn sections. Good starting book for beginners and intermediate lettering workers.

I think I remember reviewing her first book and found it pretty but somewhat uninspiring. This one has slightly more heart in that there is a variety in her styles. it isn’t just simple calligraphy with paints but she shows you how to edge and adapt and mix the colours to make a beautiful array of effects. I also liked the section at the end for practising your strokes in different forms so you could have a couple of stylistic choices for your lettering.

The first 30 pages, however, cover what materials you will need and a rather odd paragraph about what watercolour paints actually are. If you have bought a book about how to watercolour letters, surely you already know what watercolour paints are? A little basic and frustrating but a cute book.

This book is really wonderful. I don't know anything about watercoloring, but I do have some skills in lettering. This book explains water coloring like brushes, paper type, and so much more. I am really excited to try some of the tips I learned in this book. I love it when a book can explain something in a way that is easy for me to understand and apply. Great book and thank you!

★★★★,5 | A comprehensive guide for the newbies

🎨 an introduction to watercolours
🎨 warm-up exercises
🎨 variety of topography & lettering styles
🎨 tracing templates

I wanted to get into watercolours for a while now and when I saw it on the NetGalley I decided that it is A Sign.

This book has taught me watercolours from the ground up. I admit that I used youtube guides for some things as well but that’s because I like to be thorough — you can learn the basics without other resources or prior knowledge.

It starts with basic information about the supplies, colour theory, swatches, mixing paints, etc.

We also get warm-up techniques, leaf shapes to ornament our lettering and various fonts.

Everything is pretty standard and beginner’s level.

It is also worth noting that Klapstein covers fonts which can be created with a round brush only so you don’t have to be able to distinguish different types of brushes yet.

Klapstein also shows us how to paint on black paper, create 3-dimensional text, plan your work and make different levels of composition, what possible watercolour-like supplies are out there and how to use them.

All in all, if you want to start with watercolours and/or watercolour lettering this is a useful guide and you’ll have all the information you need in one place.

I had an e-copy so I used it to create a physical guide while practising the methods the book thought me — parts of which I included in the review on my blog.

Having already bought Kelly Klapstein's first book (The Art of Brushtroke Lettering), I was excited to see her second book and I was not disappointed. This is another fabulous book which breaks down the process of Watercolor Lettering for anyone and everyone to do themselves. It covers brushes, paints, storage, cleaning, surfaces, techniques, projects, methods and designs. Another fabulously creative and inspiring book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I recently started learning the art of brush lettering and have always been interested in watercolour techniques. When I started brush lettering, I actually picked up a beginners guide and practice book from the Kelly Creates line.

This watercolour guide is just as good. She shares many techniques and it is easy to follow. I recommend this to anyone looking to start out with watercolour or even using water based markers that you can use to blend and mimic the watercolour look.

I learned so much from this book! There are many tips and tricks and the exercises are amazing, I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of watercolor paint, though I need to practice my letters a lot lol! The instructions were very clear and the resources are top notch. Besides actually learning a lot, I also liked how she kept everything simple and clear. Very good book for beginners but I think everyone, even more advanced painters, will learn something and be challenged to experiment more.

The Art of Watercolor Lettering by Kelly Klapstein is a beautiful and informative manual that simplifies the practice for even the most novice beginners. Every aspect from materials to technique are explained thoroughly in the book, and there are vivid photos that go along with it to inspire and show some of the projects the reader can hope to make with what they've learned.

I've had some basic experience with both hand lettering and watercolor painting, but only just started combining the two arts. Watercolor lettering is supposed to be the most advanced form of lettering and this guide has given me a great foundation for the techniques and styles to practice. There are also plenty of practice pages that show stroke technique, which is essential for mastering the art of watercolor lettering.

Many thanks to Quarry Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.