This is a cute and fun doodling, coloring, and fact-filled book that any feline fan would enjoy. I asked my family what their favorite parts were, and I’ve hardly seen the book since! Our favorite parts include: The many cute cats everywhere, the “20 Signs You’re a Cat Person” listing, How to doodle different cat breeds, the section on copying and drawing cat’s facial expressions, design your own, whimsical Kitty Kingdom play structure, a section of drawing different hats on cats, and the Fashionable Furballs section, where I can add costumes to partially drawn cats. I liked the cat toy section, and Cats on Vacation was fun, too.

When my kids were little, we would often enjoy making little crafts. It was a fun way to spend a few hours together, and helped them to gain a sense of accomplishment, too. Now that they’re a few years older, I’m so glad that I’ve found this wonderful crafts book. The ideas are a little more advanced, for grade-school children, yet they’re still inexpensive and easy to make together. There are fifteen, lavishly photographed, easy-to-follow projects included. We had a lot of fun making the crayon rubbings pictures, which involves cutting out jack-o-lantern type faces out of card stock, arranging them, and then doing a rubbing on top of that. Fun! The book is fun to look through and my grandkids just love it! I do too!

Nowadays, while I can appreciate tradition, I only have limited time to pursue my hobby of watercolor. Plus, it seemed like the works I’d created quickly, more or less at the spur of the moment, were my best works. I just didn’t know how to capture that approach into a consistent system, so I could quickly create beautiful watercolor paintings and illustrations, that portrayed not just the things themselves, but the spontaneity of the moment it was created in.

This is just what I needed. Basic lessons walk me through blessed moments focused less on perfection and more on enjoying my work, in just a few minutes. My painting has become invigorated with this fresh approach. The book itself is gorgeous, with step by step photos, friendly and helpful writing, capture in well-arranged layouts that bring the approach to life.

My client wanted stark, abstract, yet elegant ink-brushed artwork for her Asian Fusion restaurant. I searched and searched for ink–brushed stock images until I was pulling my hair out. I finally found something that would work — a simple circle — but the artist said it was produced while in a trance after 12 hours of deep meditation. It was priced accordingly. Thousands of dollars. And it was certainly not intended for a restaurant logo. If I’d only had this book, I could have simply painted it myself, in a fraction of the time. The book is beautiful, with clear instructions spread over 16 projects, where you (or I) could easily learn to paint elegant ink-brush artwork — with or without hours of meditation.