This is a wonderful resource for beginners who are trying out watercolors. It covers the basics, including supplies, painting techniques, exploring color, and brushstrokes. The exercises create a strong foundation, and are easy to follow along with. Various tips and assignments are included in sidebars to enhance each lesson. This book definitely helps remove trepidation and eases the reader into creativity with the medium of watercolor. Starting with realistic goals and introductory lessons gives the reader success at the beginning of their watercolor journey. I appreciated the encouragement and advice from the author as I worked on each lesson.

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.

As indicated, this is a great watercolor doodle book for beginners who want to paint specific items and learn brush techniques and color blending. Highly recommended for artists who understand how watercolor paints work and want to learn how to shape the color into objects.

Easy Watercolor is a fantastic resource for beginning artists. It provides step-by-step instructions and engaging subjects, allowing you to dive into watercolor painting without feeling overwhelmed by technical details. The book covers a wide range of projects, from brushstrokes and shapes to animal portraits and landscapes. It also offers helpful tips and guidance to enhance your art skills. With its accessible approach, Easy Watercolor is an excellent choice for anyone looking to explore watercolor painting and develop a basic understanding of art concepts.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. An easy-to-understand guide to beginning watercolor.

Very simple and informative! A really great companion to beginners at watercolour art. I enjoyed practicing from it.

This is an odd form but fairly decent basic painting book
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc

After trying my hand at following some online watercolor tutorials lately, I was interested in reviewing Easy Watercolor to see what it could teach an aspiring beginner.

I was not disappointed. It offers helpful guidance on the range of supplies, a reminder of the benefits of making a color mixing chart, and useful, step-by-step tutorials. I also appreciated the assignments, such as guided suggestions to play with color palettes.

There are countless books on watercolor, but this book is a nice balance of technique and skill, without being overwhelming in its length or ability. It offers encouragement and readers will feel confident to begin watercolor.

(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

Great guide with ideas for watercolour.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for my review.

I thought this book was brilliant, it really helped me to understand watercolours more, as this is something I have recently tried. Would definitely recommend for anyone starting out.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Easy Watercolor is a fantastic guide for beginners to start painting using watercolour paints. The book starts with all the usual information about equipment, colour palettesetc then goes on to the 25 little projects. Each of these were so cute and I loved the step-by-step pictures and breakdown so you can actually see and get a feel for the techniques the artist us using as she creates them. These were easy to digest and follow steps too and not overwhelming. These projects are simple and achievable to do and I loved every single one shown in the book.

A great instructional book for watercolor! This book gives a straightforward, but detailed overview from needed materials, methods, and a variety of beautiful projects. Stunning, colorful, step-by-step pictures accompany all of the projects. Projects include: basic techniques, nature, and everyday objects, etc. A perfect guide for beginner watercolor artists!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

I run a lot of art programs at our library so I am always looking for good instructional books for inspirational and I really liked this series. There were lots of pictures and easy to follow directions.

Easy Watercolour is a brilliant book for anyone wanting to begin painting in watercolour. It is visually appealing and includes all the basics from materials to techniques in an easy to follow format. There are plenty of easy to follow tutorials to paint flowers, animals, people, landscapes and lots more. It is a lovely book suitable for adults and children.

This is a fabulous watercolor book that delivers exactly what it promises. It starts with basic information about materials, blending, wet on wet versus wet on dry and related techniques, color blending, and so on. From there we get basic tutorials that start small and easy and move through flowers, leaves, animals, faces, landscapes and more. I love this sort of book and read a lot of them, and this is one of my favorites in a long time. Well recommended for kids and adults alike.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Easy Watercolor does what it says -- it's watercolor instruction in very easy-to-follow terms, with all of the foundational building blocks leading up to more advanced techniques. The book is well illustrated, so there's no confusion over what one should be doing, and each assignment is clearly laid out. While this is likely not the same as getting in-person instruction, it's about as close as one can get from a book! As a result, I'm excited to try some techniques and feel I'm accomplishing something creative.

After reading Easy Drawing, I was worried that Easy Watercolor would also start at an intermediate level. I didn’t need to worry. This book is truly a beginner’s guide.

Not only does the book include instructions for creating watercolor paintings of objects, animals, portraits, and landscapes, it begins at the most rudimentary level—choosing your supplies. It also has a great overview of color theory and mixing including how to use those tubes of paint that your daughter got you for Mother’s Day when you just wanted one of those kiddy sets with the brush included with the paint circles. [That just might be my story.] I really enjoyed that even the initial lessons included assignments (like creating your own color wheel). Of course, if some of these lessons feel too easy, you may skip on to the more advanced lessons like portraits and landscapes. What I liked was that no pencil or pen is required, the watercolor lessons jump straight into watercolor with no long preliminary steps to do first like I’ve seen in other books.

Overall, Easy Watercolor is a great guide for all levels of watercolor artists from beginner to intermediate. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to Walter Foster Publishing and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

This book has one of my favorite tables of contents.

It’s so well written, and helped with good images, that the message easily passes through. Teaches how to paint simple elements like lines or squares and more elaborate ones such as plants, objects, animals, and people.

It made me instantly want to pick up my brushes and paints!

Great book for those who want to start painting with watercolors or to learn more about it.

I'd really love to get into watercolor and this book provides such an easy and accessible way to jump into it. With clear directions and ACTUALLY easy projects / ideas to apply, this book is the perfect launching off point for watercolor!

Easy Watercolor by Kristin Van Leuven is an amazing book for beginners of all ages! The how-tos are incredibly easy to follow and this book will have you feeling like an a watercolor artist in no time!

Easy Watercolor
4.5 Stars


Nailed it! This book delivers what the description says. The artist, Kristin Van Leuvendid, does a fabulous job covering the basics of water coloring, while not making a beginner artist completely overwhelmed. There's a wide range of instructions between these pages. I loved the many instructional photos and step-by-step picture tutorials; thus, not making it a mystery what techniques the artist is using. I deducted 0. 5 Stars for limited section covering calligraphy.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to beginner artists. Water is a difficult medium to control, and very challenging to execute. Many techniques shown in this book I still use to warm up. It's so satisfying to fill out a sketchbook. Thank you, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group, for an advance review copy for free, and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.