Painting School: A Net Galley Review

I've been dabbling in doodling recently. Trying out sketching and watercolor just for fun. I'm never going to sell any of my artwork, not that I wanted to, but I do like improving my limited skills and learning new things. 

I was really excited about this title, Painting School by Tanya Emelyanova, for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's geared towards kids and that's about where I'm at! I also liked the look of the artwork. It has a Japanese Kawaii look to it with cute little eyes and facial features. I also like the variety and layout style of the book. 

Grace and I sat down to have a little art session! I had fun painting a whale shark and she a hammerhead shark. 

While I really liked the setup of this book and how the beginning is explained, it is very clear this artwork was done digitally. Now that isn't a problem exactly unless you are trying to recreate using watercolors or acrylics as is suggested in the beginning. I've never made digital drawings so I started out with water color. The directions for painting these clearly makes it difficult for them to turn out the way you expect them to. For instance, you cannot put light colors over top of dark. I wish it had given clearer directions for painting in an order that would work. 

I do think this would make a great beginners guide to digital painting. 

Grace really enjoyed the painting. She didn't seem bothered by the fact that it wasn't easy to make it like the picture, but then she's a kid and a really easy going one at that! My oldest daughter is a perfectionist and knowing her this would have been quite frustrating. 

Here are our finished art pieces! I ended up using watercolor pencils and then painting with water on top. Grace just used straight water colors and then added a fun background! 

Overall I still liked the book, but I think it could have been a little more practical or specifically address digital painting.

Disclaimer: I was given this title through Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.