If you are just starting out with watercolors as a hobby, then I strongly encourage this book. As someone who has not picked up the paint flush in a really long time this was such a breath of fresh air because it really walked me through step-by-step on how to do the water coloring.

I've been a longtime follower of Sarah's tutorials through Let's Mark Art so was very happy to receive an ARC through NetGalley! I appreciated the different sections and how they build on each other. Working through this book will really expand my range. I have already ordered a hard copy for myself.

Sarah Cray's book "Watercolor Your Way" is an excellent guide for those who want to explore the art of watercolour painting. As a novice, I found the advice and direction in this book precious, particularly the emphasis on shape, which I had difficulty with before.
The book's clear subheaders made it easy for me to navigate and find what I needed quickly. I also found many sections to be very helpful and encouraging, as it felt more like having a supportive friend guide me through the learning process than a strict teacher.
The step-by-step projects were presented well, making them easy to follow. I especially appreciated the "What You Will Need" sections, which provided a helpful guide on supplies and colours. One of the sections focusing on light instead of tone was a refreshing perspective that offered me a new way of seeing the watercolour painting.
The section on finessing and enhancing artwork was fascinating to me. It can help me add those final touches to my paintings, even if I'm starting to paint. The tips provided were practical and easy. Additionally, I found the section on finding my style very useful. I think it can encourage everyone to experiment with various techniques to discover unique approaches to watercolour painting.
"Watercolor Your Way" is an enjoyable and informative book with precise guidance and valuable suggestions. Sarah Cray's knowledge and skills are evident throughout the book, making it an invaluable tool for both beginners and experienced artists looking to enhance their watercolour skills. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for inspiration and guidance on their watercolour journey.

A delightful book which will inspire many to try their hand at water colours for the first time and also encourage more experienced artists to try something new.
Watercolor Your Way is full of ideas and instructions to begin watercolor painting and maybe advance to a more complicated piece.
It feels like learning to paint with an encouraging friend.

"Don't fear messing it up - it's just a piece of paper."

TLDR: Sarah Cray has the most supportive, positive voice. If you want to feel cared for while you learn to watercolor, look no further.

If you want to learn watercolor from a book, this is a good option. If you have already learned watercolor from videos, this book still has value, if you want to learn from this media. Personally I think learn watercolor from a book is a bit more challenging than a video. However, this book does provide links to video for certain techniques which is such a nice thing to include. The real advantage here is that you can take it at your own speed and won't ever feel pressured by a video to work faster. I am not new to watercolor but I am a novice who practices inconsistently. So speaking from that perspective, I would recommend this book. That being said as someone who is done watercolor before I feel like Sarah doesn't explain how to mix colors at any point and while that has become one of my favorite things about watercolor (I love mixing colors possibly more than painting), it was intimidating at first. To have her say create a peach without any instruction about how to do it with yellow, blue, and magenta could be a bit daunting for beginner. But that is my only complaint. The structure of the book as beginner, intermediate, advanced, and finding your style is great. You're lead through more and more difficult techniques until you're told to mix it up and try everything. Sarah Cray has such a kind and encouraging way of teaching that you may want to buy this book just to feel good.

This is a lovely short guide on watercolor techniques. Starting with a guide for beginners and moving on to more detailed techniques for experienced users of watercolors, this meets your needs at every skill level.

I’m a huge fan of Sarah Cray and her Let’s Make Art videos and kits. They helped give art back to me when a chronic condition made digital editing for my art painful. I doubt I would have picked up painting without Sarah! I started with a set of paints that were in my garage, a pad of paper and a couple brushes.

I like that all projects in the first chapter can be completed with the three primary colors of a liquid dye based watercolor on cellulose (wood pulp) paper and two basic brushes. By the end of chapter one you’ll know whether you like watercolor or not.

As you progress through the book she suggests different brands of paint and paper to allow you to experiment and explore different grades of materials. Different papers and paints can yield different results, but I wish the book stressed that you can continue with less expensive supplies if the longevity of your art isn’t important.

Unlike many art books Sarah doesn’t bombard you with tons of technical information. She gives you enough information at each stage of development for you to begin your journey. She adds bits of knowledge as you gain experience. Along the way she is supportive and encouraging of each painter.

The projects build in complexity with each chapter and by the end you’ll have a good grasp on understanding the skills needed to watercolor.

This is a lovely book for a beginner and would make a lovely gift with the chapter 1 supplies for a beginning watercolorist or someone looking to explore artistically.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Watercolor is medium that I use most often and most comfortable with because in college, it was the required medium. Although years of practice, I know that I still have more to learn specially when trying to paint in details. This book is great because it teaches you the basics like how to form the proper shape in order to build up the image you are trying to create. It breaks you the step by step instructions which you might have not even thought of before reading from this book. It also explains properly the proper way to use the brush and the amlunt of water to use depending on what you are are trying to aim for.

Beautiful, amazing, detail book. Such a good job explaining everything to help you paint better and understand concepts. She puts great examples of what to do and it is just so beautiful. Definitely recommend.

I am fairly new to watercolor and was thrilled to get an ARC copy of Sarah’s book. Great information for beginners and some great projects to get you started. It is such a pretty book!! Highly recommended for anyone wanting to start their watercolor journey.

Watercolour Your Way by Sarah Cray is absolutely delightful and a different take on watercolour painting. There is good advice for the beginner and what I really liked was the section on shape. Cray has clear sub-headers and this immediately grabbed me as I like to be able to access a book as quick reference after I have read it

The Pep Talk section is a really nice touch. This book is more like learning alongside a friend than with a teacher

The Step by step guidance to create projects is very well presented, but I also like the "What You Will Need" sections, that give a shape guide, colours and supplies. The shape guide and colours is indispensable if you like ot keep things organised

This is more like a guided workbook that is not work? The next section focuses more on light as opposed to tone and I like this different perspective (I had chosen three different watercolour books for this very reason, to be comprehensive and cover a wide vareity of different perspectives)

The finessing and enhancing section was really helpful as this is something I do struggle with and there were a lot of useful tips. The author has also included a section to find your style. She encourages you to eplore and find your own techniques and I really like this gentle approach. Then on to FAQ's and templates

This book had a gorgeous aesthetic and was a joy to read

Thank you to NetGalley for this stunning eARC. This review is left voluntarily

Of all of the watercolor books that I've dabbled with, this is my favorite. The early exercises are appropriate for actual beginners, and the discussion of materials is accessible. Rather than pushing a certain brand or emphasizing the need to buy every watercolor product known to man, this book encourages practical, useful materials to get the best results. I read a book like this recently that included a discussion of materials after the exercises and I was so confused! Was I supposed to purchase them after practicing? Fortunately I already own what I needed, but that just doesn't make sense to me from an organizational perspective.

I also read a different watercolor book that got deep into color theory. I have to say that is much too complex of a topic for an overview of an art topic, and this one is like ... we are not getting into the overwhelming topic of color theory. Sounds good!

And yet the tips and techniques in here are great, I loved the exercises, and the book itself is beautiful. Would highly recommend for true beginners and those trying to learn new things or find guided exercises. I'll go back into a deep dive of color theory at a different juncture.

<I>Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I enjoy watercolor books. I learn something new from each one I read.

The tutorials were detailed and the instructions were easy to follow. The projects looked better than simple beginner projects. When completed, you could have a framable piece of artwork to be proud of.

I would definitely want to add this book to my watercolor art instruction library. I would also recommend it to those artists I know that dabble in watercolors.

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher
for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

As someone who is fairly new to watercoloring, I knew I had to check this book out! This book has some really helpful background information and tips around the basics of watercoloring.

Rather than focusing on specific techniques, this book serves as more of a how-to guide to watercoloring specfic images (rolling hills, carrots, leaves, flowers, etc.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Watercolor Your Way is an excellent introduction to watercolor painting. Sarah Cray explains the basics without overwhelming the reader. Begin painting with just a three colors and two brushes! Basic strokes and easy to learn step by step techniques lead to lovely compositions. By the end, you will feel accomplished and proud of your work.

What a great guide for beginner and advanced painters alike! I've dabbled in watercolor and am entirely self-taught, unless you count 8th grade art class. The tips, tricks, and skills laid out by Cray are incredibly well-thought out and each section guides the reader smoothly through each skill in a very approachable way. This is a book I will reference over and over as I continue to practice and grow!

A beautifully illustrated how-to for beginners and beyond with in-depth step by step instructions that are quite easy to follow. I am actually having a lot of fun learning with this book. I thank Quarto Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is hands-down my favorite watercolor tutorial book I’ve come across thus far. First of all, I’ve been following Sarah Cray since the pandemic and have learned SO much from her and the other artists at Let’s Make Art. She made watercolor one of my very favorite mediums. This book is everything you could want, if you’re ready to start watercolor art. The pages progress from beginning information and projects, all the the way to bigger challenges for even the most seasoned artist. One of the aspects that really pushed this to my favorite tutorial book, was the barcode scan assistance! If a certain part feels tricky, she doesn’t leave you hanging in confusion. Simply scan the barcode and one of her wonderful videos comes up to help explain in detail the task. Her writing style is also easily digestible, personable, and fun. Highly recommend for all artist levels!

Watercolor Your Way : Techniques, Palettes, and Projects To Fit Your Skill Level and Creative Goals. This is a lovely book for beginner artists. It starts with the basics and gets progressively harder. The step by step instructions are easy to follow, and the projects are very pretty and a joy to try. It is more suited to beginner or intermediate artists and would make a lovely gift.

2.5 stars. I was really excited for this, because early in the pandemic my aunt sent me one of the "Let's Make Art" watercolor kits -- she had ordered their art box and loved it, so she sent me one. I enjoyed it (although I did find it challenging, as I'm not skilled in this area, so I've only done one or two of the paintings that came in the multi-painting kit).

The paintings in here are BEAUTIFUL. And the technique explanations and the "why" behind using certain techniques or paint types is great information.

But, this did remind me of those "how to" drawing books from elementary school that I hated because step 1 was to draw a line and then step 2 the entire house was drawn. Step 1 in one of the first paintings in the book is "paint a tulip" and step 2 is "paint 3 more". A visual breakdown would have been a bit more helpful. The hydrangea piece is another one that is beautiful but has this issue -- step one is to draw several circles (easy peasy). Step two all the hydrangea flowers are already painted and complete...not particularly useful to someone who has potentially never used a paintbrush before. As someone who gets frustrated easily when I don't pick up a new task quickly, I think if I tried to follow along with this I would very quickly put things away. I am willing to give it a try, but I don't have high hopes. (If it turns out to be better than I expected, I'll come back and update my review and boost the rating).

The more complex (tiger, etc.) paintings do have outlines that can be used to trace, which is helpful. But, I think for a true beginner, or someone without much art skill, this could still be intimidating. There are QR codes throughotu to get access to templates digitally (and some video tutorials for the color gradient techniques, which is helpful, but I would prefer video tutorials of the painting itself).

Note for publisher: when I went to the QR site, it said to click on the links below to download, but there weren't any links. Perhaps it just hasn't been posted yet because it hasn't been published, but I wanted to alert you that the QR codes don't have any downloadable content.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.