Celestial Watercolor: Learn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal Night Skies

by Ms. Elise Mahan and D.R. McElroy

The zodiac has been used for a millennia to bring humans closer to the cosmos. With this creative masterpiece, it’s your turn to travel nearer the heavens following simple directions for painting each of the constellations, accompanied by information about each sign of the zodiac. A basic introduction to watercolor techniques and its tools will get you started.

Learn how to paint the beautiful night sky throughout the seasons while learning about sun signs and their place in astrology with Celestial Watercolor—complete with an overview of the tools and techniques of watercolor.

This guide to painting the stars also features:

• How to achieve the look of the night sky unique to each season, from the light blue summer night to the deep blue of the winter
• Watercolor wash techniques: wet-into-wet and wet-on-dry painting
• How to paint moons throughout the year, including the 12 moons from the Native American and spiritual traditions
• Adding environmental elements, including trees, mountains, and lakes
• Ideas for night sky painting gifts for baby showers, weddings, birthdays, and other occasions

Express your passion for the night sky in paint with ​Celestial Watercolor, whether you’re a weekend artist or a more experienced artist looking to expand your repertoire.

• ISBN13: 9781631065880
• Publish Date: 4 April 2019 (first published 2 April 2019)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 May 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Rock Point
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Celestial Watercolor through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The moment I saw the cover of Celestial Watercolor, I knew I had to read it. How cool is it to see something like this on the shelves? There are plenty of art guides out in the world – but nothing I’ve seen has ever come close to this.
The core concept behind this art book is actually fairly simple, though brilliant. The goal is to help teach readers how to paint the night sky. And frankly, the cover alone indicates how much authority the authors/artists have here (read: a lot).
Elise Mahan and D.L. McElroy walk readers through the art of creating beautiful and stunning night skies. Everything you needed to know in order to get started is included here. Everything from the basics to the more nuanced parts of the art style are covered.
The night sky seems like such a simple concept, but this art guide proves that there’s more to it than one would initially think. And because of that, it was shockingly thorough. As for the artwork included within these pages, I simply couldn’t get enough of it.

For more reviews check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Celestial Watercolor is a tutorial technique guide for watercolor and gouache using a constellation theme. Released 2nd April 2019 by Quarto on their Rock Point imprint, it's 128 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats. The ebook version includes a handy interactive table of contents and hyperlinks throughout.

The book's introductory section includes a short artist's statement and background from the author followed by a chapter on techniques and tools (circa 27% of the page content). The rest of the book is broken into chapters with earth/air/fire/water signs and a short astrological description of each. The constellation drawings for each (see cover) are provided in a skyscape painting. There is -very- little step by step tutorial or technique advice in these sections beyond what's provided in the first chapter. The art is inspiring and undeniably beautiful, but unless the reader has a good grasp of technique previous to using this book, it'll be a challenge to produce any painting similar to the provided artwork.

The final chapters are seasonal paintings of skies with constellations along with moons and some landscapes.

The author is generous with advice about which specific tools and supplies she uses to achieve her paintings, which is nice. Definitely inspiring to look at, and it would make a superlative gift, I just don't really think that 'learn to paint' is part of the remit for this particular book.

The text is sparse, but encouraging and accessible.

Three stars.

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

[Eve1972]

The main selling point of this book will be it visual appeal. It is gorgeous to flip through and would make an excellent coffee-table book.



There are chapters dedicated watercolour technique, and tools. Very detailed information about the astronomical signs and the moon. And a handful of step-by-step projects.

All in all I think this would make a lovely gift for any artistic inclined individual.