Colorways: Acrylic Animals: Tips, techniques, and step-by-step lessons for learning to paint whimsical artwork in vibrant acrylic

by Megan Wells

  Acrylic Animals teaches artists of all skill levels how to paint vibrant, colorful renditions of animals from around the globe.

Grab your paints, canvas, and imagination because it's time to paint pointillistic pandas, tetradic llamas, vibrant flamingos, and complementary cows...and that's just the beginning! Each step-by-step project in  Acrylic Animals  shows you not only how to capture an animal’s likeness , but also how to use color to create magical, other-worldly, and whimsical paintings. You'll also learn how to use acrylic paint to add texture and fanciful flourishes , like florals and collage, to your glorious animal subjects.

The Colorways series from Walter Foster teaches artists of all skill levels how to create innovative, inspired artwork that's full of color and imagination. Focusing on creating expressive pieces over realistic scenes, Colorways shows artists how to break the "rules" of color and let their imaginations and artwork soar to new heights. In the Colorways series, flamingos are green, giraffes boast multicolored spots, and raccoons feature blue undertones. For more fun books in the Colorways series, check out Watercolor Flowers and Watercolor Animals .

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published January 8, 2019

About the author

Megan Wells is an artist, author and instructor and the founder of her art studio, Makewells. Her whimsical illustrations and lettering have led to a devoted following of likeminded creatives. She's passionate for all things Jesus, making things, and teaching others how to express their creativity through art. See more of her work at www.makewells.com and follow along on Instagram - @makewells.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colorways: Acrylic Animals by Megan Wells is a book I from from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. This book gives the reader a list of tools needed then goes into the step-by-step projects of several animals with many accompanying images. They are carefree and fun pictures that remind me of the fun color designs like the pitbull or dog pictures on t-shirts! They are not realistic in color but lovely to look at! I really want this book!

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so inspirational! Beautifully styled and very helpful. Usually I use watercolours to paint, but I like to venture out of my comfort zone once in a while. The introduction and basics are clear and useful. I love the step by step tutorials to begin with. When you practise with them and get the techniques down, you can move on to other animals or things. There's also a really interesting technique using paint swatches and other mixed media tutorials that I can't wait to try. The book looks so colourful, it makes you happy by just reading through it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

[B.C. Deeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book on spec based on the cover as much as anything else. Who doesn't want to paint friendly colourful animals during a stressful time like the pandemic. The book itself is large scale and bright with lots of pictures - full scale and closeups - for each of the projects. Each project lives up to the promise of the subtitle with cute whimsical animals painted in vibrant color combinations. I found the book more useful for inspiration rather than instruction as the artist is more inclined to tell you what she did rather than why or how she did it. If you are a novice artist like me, you may find the step by step instructions too vague, for example, "Look for more places to put the darker value paint," whereas I need more explicit direction like "The light doesn't shine under the giraffe's chin so place the darkest value paint there for shadow." Overall, this is a lovely book to look at and suggests a fun approach to painting animals, encouraging the reader to break out of the normal 'natural' colourways and create a whole new world of colour.

[Beth Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually did every single project in this book save one (which I will do once I obtain some gel medium). Mostly I did them in the order presented, however my daughter did one right from the middle of the book without problems. Each project is broken up into easy to understand steps that are well illustrated. I especially like how the author talked about a different aspect of color theroy in each project. And of course the projects themselves were fun to do because I enjoyed the expressive animals. Personally I did not care for the more multi-media projects but that is entirely my own preference. Highly recommend for beginners and intermediate level artists.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been going through the projects and sketching out my animals on watercolor paper. I noticed that the final picture of the giraffe project has been "flipped" and the giraffe is angled the opposite way from all the other project snapshots, which I felt was a little disappointing. I would prefer a few more details on which supplies to use, particularly with which paint brushes to use.

[Agnes Preszler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'ts an enjoyable instructional book for beginners on how to paint animals in acrylic. The subjects are sympathic, the colors are psychedelic, the layout of the book is coloured and joyful, however the result IMHO is more craft than art. One other negative thing, at least for me, the use of the grid method, using that you'll never learn to draw.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a creative painting book. I enjoyed the artist's style of painting colorful animals, not just the colors you see in the photo.

This book is a great exercise in color theory. I found it unique that each step by step painting is a different example of the color theory. This technique makes it easier for a beginner to understand cool color, warm colors, complements, split complements, triadic, and value. When you are just reading about color theory it is more difficult to fully grasp the concepts and apply them on your own. By painting Megan’s examples you progress much more quickly.

Megan also provides tips on how to sketch the animals prior to painting. Some paintings use multimedia as well as acrylic paint.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of Colorways: Acrylic Animals through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Colorways: Acrylic Animals is a really cute and inspiring guide. I loved the art style included, and personally found both the style and the guide to be soothing. I felt like the way Megan Wells explained everything made a lot of sense, and made the idea of getting started a lot less intimidating than it can sometimes be.
This book covers a little bit of everything, which is always a plus in my book. There are the basics, of course. The tools of the trade, how to create certain effects in paint, and so on. I particularly enjoyed the paint effects sections, but that’s just my personal preference.
The book then went on to covering color theory, which is an important, but difficult to explain basic of the art world. From there it moved on to actual projects; taking us step by step through a variety of different projects. It was brilliant seeing a piece slowly come together on the pages. It was educational as well, as intended.
I have to confess that while I adore all animal portraits, I did find myself particularly drawn to this style. I really enjoyed the lighter and freer style. It made everything feel so alive and genuine. I felt like it would apply especially well to pets – as there’s nothing better than seeing their endearing personality shining through.

For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dare to improve your color-mixing skills!

The author offers us 12 projects to create playfully quaint, fanciful, especially in a colorful, appealing and amusing way. Each has step-by-step images along the way, tips, tricks, as well as how to add depth and dimension. And at the beginning of the book a brief explanation of the basics of acrylic painting and color theory is offered.

Megan Wells allows us to explore our own expressiveness in color, she invites us to be daring to improve our color-mixing skills, to use a range of values and intensities, suggests color combinations based on their relationship in color wheel, so that oneself is able to create their own palette, balancing hues and creating contrasts, it offers us the basis for a richer and more vibrant color result. The beautiful design of the book, the visual and content quality of Quarto Publishing Group always leaves me satisfied.

My sincere appreciation to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgallery and the publisher for providing me for a digital arc for my honest review.

Inside the book "Colorways: Acrylic Animals" Megan offers us 12 projects to paint along with. Each project includes step-by-step instructional images, as well as helpful tips and tricks. The beginning of the book briefly explains the basics of acrylic painting and color theory.

You can tell Megan Wells really knows her stuff. I loved her explaination of the order of operations. She explained painting in a way that really clicked for me. Not even my painting professors were able to do that. I can't wait to apply these tips to teaching my students!

[Rachel Armington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: Don't over-mix acrylic paint with water. In some of these lessons, the author dilutes the acrylic paint to the point that it resembles Kool-aid in order to use the paint for washes. Diluting the paint to that degree ruins its adhesion. You can maybe get away with diluting the paint this much if you are painting on watercolor or Bristol, but on canvas it may eventually cause flaking. Instead use an acrylic polymer medium for your washes.

This book is more an introduction to color theory than acrylics (and it does a good, approachable job with color theory). Good beginner book.

[Patricia Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful animals, inspiring photography and easy to follow step-by-step instructions to create Acrylic animal paintings. It's an enjoyable instructional book for beginners on how to paint animals in acrylic. The subjects are sympathetic, the colors are psychedelic, the layout of the book is colored and joyful.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an inspiration to go back to the basics of painting I learned years ago, with a twist on using color in a new way. I definitely want to try to see what I can create. Great instructions to begin and finish your painting. Given a free copy from Netgalley for an honest review.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book if you are looking to paint colorful animals. Learn how to capture an animals likeness and put paint to paper or canvas and create each animal step-by-step!

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seems like a good instruction to the vibrant acrylic painting. Sketching, colors, and painting. Good photos and step by step.

[Judith]

It's fabulous. Did all the paintings.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas and some very good hints given. For trying to free up my art style, a must read.

[J E Supple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for beginning painters.

Loved the color as value project and the blocking instructions. Really gives you step by step beginner friendly instructions for some great pictures!

[Lael Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this book some years ago because the bright colors drew me in - but never have been drawn to actually paint them

[Fiorella · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review*

I love animals but I always thought that they were a difficult subject to paint, so this book was perfect for me. I haven't tried any of the tutorials yet, but I understood that you don't need to paint an animal with a lot of details or in a "realistic" way. Even more, I never really tried painting animals because I felt I was bad at drawing them in the first place, so the tips here were really helpful(and I love the style). The design of the book is cute as hell, I liked the pastel colors and the pictures <3.

[Audrey Stars in Her Eye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for intermediate painters. There are some great idea in playing with color but the most basic techniques are not instructed. As a beginner, I wasn't sure how to do details and the best stroke and such to do them. Plus, mixing colors confused me as their was only a little instruction.
But I learned a lot and can see colors in a whole new light. I saw techniques that i would have never thought off.
As a how to book this is a pretty good book. As a piece of literature isn't not great. If I rad "expressive" one more time, I might hurl the book across the room lol. (also, i'm not even sure what that means for painting.)

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great inspirational reference with projects starting with grid work to capture your animal look, and moving on to color choices, flourishes, and techniques to complete original, magical, stylized pieces of art. Great book!

[Jenny Houle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acrylic is, in my opinion, a great place to start learning and building confidence in painting, because if you make a mistake, you can let it dry and then paint over it (not the case in watercolors and definitely not as easy in oil either). This book not only gives great techniques on animals specifically, but it also covers a lot of refreshers and beginner instructions on acrylic painting as a whole, which makes it great for any level of experience. The guides to the specific animals are easy to follow in the step by step format created by the author.

[Jackie Lantern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool stylized approach to the traditional (read: boring) painting subjects we are used to. I’m definitely keen to try the styles taught within. This is good both for beginners and artists already familiar with painting in acrylics. Step by step instructions with pictures throughout. Highly recommended.

[Klf Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book of acrylic painted animals that I actually painted my dog with the tips. This book can teach beginners how to paint their pets and other animals. It’s a step by step book using pops of colours and how to about textures. Breaking the Rule Of Colours you can let your imagination go wild and you can use paint to show for animals personalities.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great primer if you have never tried to paint with acrylics. Even if you have painted with other mediums, you will find something in this book that you didn’t know, or that will make you a better artist. It starts with small lessons and ideas, and then works it way through full step by step projects that you can copy, play, and learn from.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always had creative leanings, although my original expressions tend towards writing and knitting, not drawing or painting. However, that's more of a lack of training and skill, not a lack of interest. When my older sister visited me in my first home after college, she decided we'd make a series of paintings for my walls. What followed was an informative couple days as she taught me that white flowers aren't just white, for instance, that upon closer inspection, there are shades of gray, even greens and blues visible.

When I picked up Colorways: Acrylic Animals by Megan Wells and I saw her whimsical paintings, I couldn't help but remember those earlier lessons. Wells offers step-by-step techniques, touches on color theory, and discusses tool and paint selections; her use of color is vibrant and engaging. Everyone will find an animal they want to try their hand at, whether it's the rooster, the raccoon, the elephant, or any of the others included. I look forward to carving out time and using this book to guide my girls and me through some creative exercises.

(I received a digital ARC from Quarto Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

[Leyla Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who says that painting subjects should have realistic colours to depict them. This book is a wonderful way of understanding and learning the ways of the colour wheel, all by painting animals in the most glorious and pleasing colours.
I really love this book, such a wonderful projects with step by step instruction. It isn't a big book but what it lacks in volume certainly gains in content and fun.
Can't wait to start on some animals of my own.