Do you have any hobbies? Do you enjoy crafting? Knitting? Reading?
I used to enjoy doing crafts back in the day. I loved to make my own soap and jewelry, among other craft projects. Sadly, I just haven’t had the time the past few years. Between work, my family, and my blog, there simply hasn’t been much time.
I work with children, and I’m always coming up with craft projects for them. That is pretty much all the crafting that I can do lately.
If you enjoy painting, or if you ever considered getting into painting, I have a couple of books from RockyNook that you might want to check out.
Watercolor Snacks is for food lovers, beginning artists, and anyone who wants to explore the world of watercolors through easy and accessible prompts and exercises. This colorful guide walks you through basic watercolor techniques and how to apply them to create beautiful, delicious-looking paintings.
Noted artist and instructor Volta Voloshin-Smith details everything needed to create mouthwatering images for every meal of the day, from a syrup-drenched stack of golden waffles and steaming cup of coffee at breakfast to a brightly colored sprinkled donut and a rainbow of popsicles for dessert. This first-ever watercolor food guide also includes:
- Easy watercolor tips, tricks, and techniques
- Recommended supplies (the “ingredients”)
- Color theory basics
- Maximizing mindful benefits of watercolor
- How-to lessons for 30 foods from breakfast to dessert
And much, much more! Whether you’re a beginner interested in learning a fun new skill, or an experienced painter ready to explore a fun new subject, this book will give you everything you need to create adorable paintings.
From bright red roses to deep green cacti, this gorgeous, easy-to-follow book will show how anyone can paint luminous watercolor flowers and botanicals. Noted artist and instructor Rachel Eskandari details how anyone can paint a garden of bold, creative watercolor images. Featuring colorful step-by-step images, this book shows how to master the basics of watercolors and then expand your color palette to create boldly unconventional floral artwork. Watercolor Botanical Garden features everything you need to know, including:
- Color theory and mixing for unique shades
- Utilizing the skills of blending, gradients, and shading
- Lesson for creating 25+ different plants and flowers including roses, cacti, peonies, nigella, agave, anemones, queen of the night, leaves, and more
- How to incorporate multiple botanical images for a gorgeous landscape painting.
I received both of these books to review.
I received the book, Watercolor Snacks, before the Watercolor Botanical Garden book. I had taken it to work with me to use with my “work kids.” They range from 1st grade (5 years old) to 6th graders (12 years old).
I have a lot of watercolor pants at work. My “work kids” LOVE to paint with them. Many times they use the watercolor paints instead of markers or crayons when coloring pictures. From time to time I put out plain white paper to encourage them to get more creative, and to see what they come up with. Often I give them a suggestion as to what they should paint. For example, paint a tree with leaves in autumn colors. I also asked them one time to paint a self portrait.
I put the Watercolor Snack book out on the table with the watercolor paints and a stack of white paper. The kids spend more time going through the pages, discussing what they wanted to paint, and talking about their favorite food that was pictured in the book (or not). The first few times I put the book, paint and paper out the kids spent more time going through the book “oo’ing and ah’ing” instead of painting, but that’s OK.
Watercolor Sushi from the book.
Several kids did follow the steps in the book to paint their favorite snack foods. Some painted small images (the same size they are in the book) and other kids painted an entire page to resemble their food of choice.
The steps are fairly easy to follow. The little kids had a little bit of a harder time than the older kids did, but that was to be expected.
I’ve been impressed that some kids snack painting looks almost identical to the image in the book. Others look a bit more abstract, but I think abstract ones look just as nice.
The point is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. That is what I tell the kids all the time. As long as they enjoying themselves and having a great time, that is all that matters.
Some of the kids (most especially one of my 4th graders) have used the techniques taught in the book to paint other things. I like that they have learned something helpful from this book, even though it’s geared towards adults and not necessarily children. They don’t even read the text (the little ones can’t read it anyway). They just follow the step-by-step instruction (images).
As for the Watercolor Botanical Garden book, I am going to hold off bringing that in to work for a while. Seeing as how the weather is getting colder, and I have a lot of holiday and seasonal craft projects I want to do with the kids, I think it would be best to bring this book in when the weather gets warmer again (spring), when kids would be more interested in painting flowers.
Both books are a great resource for those who are interested in learning watercolor painting techniques, as well as a desire to learn how to paint a variety of subjects (food, flowers…). Whether you are a novice, or a professional, there is a lot to learn in these books.
I found the images in the images in the books to be soothing too. There is just something very relaxing (and pretty!) about watercolor images.
I have linked to both books here in this post (non-affiliate) in case you would like more information about either (or both) of the books.
Both books are available printed (physical book) and e-book options (or you can order a bundle set of both).
Do you paint? Do you enjoy learning new hobbies? Feel free to comment and share your thoughts. I always love to hear from readers.
Kimberly
*I received free sample copies to review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
It would be fun to do water coloring.