Book Review :: Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger

Today I am sharing something that merges my love of books and my love of crafting...a book called Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger. With watercolor being so trendy today in papercrafting, I had to jump at the chance to review this book. 

I must say, I was interested in this book more for the intriguing pictures on each page than the content of the text...but there is a lot of great content here. If you are looking for a step-by-step process on how to replicate a few specific images - this book is not for you. If you are looking to be inspired, learn about the basic techniques of watercolor, learn about watercolors themselves along with a good dose of color theory and design techniques - this book is for you. 

Now - have I played with a box of Crayola watercolors? Yes. Did I know that "real" watercolor sets use "pans" or can be modified for one's personal color preferences? No. I have dabbled with watercolors for fun, but really hadn't taken any more time with them than to spread some across a page when I am feeling the need to create something (or to create along with my kids). This book opened my eyes to the options that watercolor provides and let me see how watercolor can be combined with sketching to create many beautiful pieces. 

Each two-page spread in this book is dedicated to a single subject and has text accompanied by watercolor sketches to get the idea across. There really is so much more than I was expecting. I did not expect to learn about what watercolors are made of (currently or historically). I did not expect for the author to cover ways to convey mood with color - but he did. After reading this book (which didn't take long because it kept my interest so well), I wanted to immediately get out and sketch and paint. And this is not just a book that you will want to read once and be done with. It would be wonderful to sit down with it and paint, practicing the techniques that the author describes. (Maybe it should have come with waterproof pages!) Although I didn't feel that this book really covered much about sketching, it certainly did inspire me to pick up a pen and draw. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but it truly was inspiring and is a book that I will reference over and over. 

Looking for the press release? You can view it here. 

FTC Declaration: The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy through the Blogging for Books program. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.