Wonderful book with clear instructions and beautiful designs to learn to watercolor. I am fairly new to the process, about 2 years studying. The book is perfect for me. Some paintings were easy and some will be challenging. A perfect balance to my needs and future journey in this hobby.

Thank you to Zeitgeist and NetGalley for giving me the pleasure of reading the advance reader copy, with no obligation to write a review. My review is written freely as a hobby, and is totally my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.

Very informative and beautiful illustrations. The steps are clear and concise. Easy to understand and follow. The projects go from beginner to advanced and build your skills gradually. This book would make a great gift or a good pick for anyone looking for a new hobby.

What a great book! The projects are interesting, the division by weeks and skills is fabulous. I love how the skills build upon each other. Great references for beginners and experts alike.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is set up so well as a watercolor for beginners book.

I rather enjoyed it and I like that it has a small narrative within it. I even pulled some new techniques from this.

Recommend for a great starting point if you want to get into watercolor. For intermediate, not so much.

Wild Watercolour is an incredibly helpful, step-by-step guide to creating art inspired by nature, for the very green artist to the seasoned painter. In 36 weeks and projects, you can move from never having picked up a brush to having created something worth framing. As someone who enjoys painting, I appreciated the introduction to the tools and techniques with precise detail, as well as practical tutorials that actually explained how to use these techniques in a way that a beginner can use and enjoy. Overall, painters of all skill can glean from this book, especially those looking to try a new medium.

I was quite excited to read this book! I enjoy watercolors and was curious to see how the exercises are depicted in this book. The text and information shared is similar to many art books and it is always helpful to read processes and explanations by various authors to find out what methods work and don't work for you.

I specifically liked how the assignments are spread out and distributed on the different skills/experience levels. The exercises chosen are different to what you'd typically find online, which I really like! I like the variety of subjects included - florals, skies, insects, water, birds, landscape and more.

This would make for a perfect gift to anyone who is into painting and specifically wanting to or improving their watercolor skills! Loved it! I look forward to purchasing a copy of my own once it's published.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve recently started dabbling in watercolor, so I was really excited to get my hands on Wild Watercolor—and it did not disappoint!

I love how the book is thoughtfully organized, starting with the basics and gradually moving toward more advanced techniques. It feels approachable, not overwhelming, which is exactly what I was hoping for as someone still new to the craft.

I’ve mostly skimmed through the book so far (school has my full attention at the moment), but I can’t wait to dive in fully and start putting all the lessons into practice. The step-by-step guidance, beautiful examples, and clear explanations make this one of the most inspiring watercolor books I’ve come across.

As a watercolour artist who is always looking to improve my skills and branch out from my standard landscapes, I was excited to pick up this book. Wild Watercolour is a 36-week course that covers a project a week, with step by step instructions.

The book is broken down into three main sections - Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, with projects from skyscapes to botanicals, feathers to foxes and everything in between. The book focuses on using CMYK colours as the base, encouraging the reader to mix their own shades when different colours are needed, allowing for a good hands-on introduction into colour theory.

Each of the projects are clearly set out and easy to follow. I can't wait to try these and expand my skills!

~This is a NetGalley ARC. All opinions are my own~

I used to do watercolor years ago and have wanted to get back into it for a while, but the task has seemed daunting. I'm really glad I stumbled upon this book because this has really inspired me to get into the hobby again! The book is full of beautiful step by step pictures and really great ideas to get started. There's vibrant scenery, flowers, birds, a night sky, etc. It starts out from easiest and works its way up to advanced pieces, which you'll also need drawing skill to be able to do (but you could easily use these techniques to color in a watercoloring book that already has the sketch there for you). I'm very pleased with this book and can see myself going back to it again and again for both inspiration and tips.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for providing me with a copy.

Excellent book for those who want to learn how to create art with watercolors. I liked the structure this book offers, introducing minimal list of resources needed and basic techniques,. Inviting research to practice and learn every week. The weekly chapters provide discipline and regularity. The chapters/lessons allow reader to create a piece of art every time, as they are learning and building on their skill set. My own suggestion would be to have more variety in the themes but this will be a perfect book for those who are passionate about painting nature.
The wording in this book was very clear and well structured. Illustrations are beautiful and compliment the text.

The books has a lot of information. And very detailed written steps following the steps for painting nature inspired pieces. I think it would be good for an advanced beginner or someone who isnt a visual learner. There isn't a lot of steps on how to "draw" the shapes they just kinda get described in writing and there are very few picture steps. I would have loved to see a few more pictures showing the process. However I'm just starting watercolor so maybe it's hard to get super detailed step by step images.

This was a very thorough and detailed book for anyone beginning in watercolor, while also including helpful information for those already interested and familiar with the basics. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Wild Watercolor is a tutorial and style guide for watercolor by Karen Elaine. Due out 16th Sept 2025 from Penguin Random House on their Zeitgeist imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback format.

The author has an inviting, calm, and encouraging style of writing. She explains a bit of her own background with a short artist's statement. The brief introduction includes illustrated lists of tools and supplies and some basic techniques for getting paint onto paper, for sketching, for selecting subjects and other useful information for beginning painters. Especially salient tips and info are written into highlighted text boxes which are easy to find and remember. The book itself is set up as a weekly tutorial course with guided techniques grouped by level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Each of the tutorials includes specific step by step color photos and process illustrations with instructions for color choice, brushes, and special techniques used. Most of the tutorials cover several pages and are simple enough to give beginning watercolorists confidence by rendering them as illustrated.

This is a very pretty book with a lot of useful information and tips for rendering natural subjects with watercolor. It would make an excellent choice for self-study or for public or school library acquisition.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.