{"id":20036,"date":"2019-06-01T01:10:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T06:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=21431"},"modified":"2019-05-29T14:24:59","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T19:24:59","slug":"book-review-celestial-watercolor-by-elise-mahan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2019\/06\/01\/book-review-celestial-watercolor-by-elise-mahan\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review – Celestial Watercolor: Learn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal Night Skies by Elise Mahan with D.R. McElroy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Book Review<\/strong>
Celestial Watercolor<\/strong>
Learn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal Night Skies<\/strong><\/em>
Written by Elise Mahan with D.R. McElroy<\/strong><\/em>
128 pp<\/strong><\/em>
The Quarto Group<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCelestial\nWatercolor: Learn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal\nNight Skies\u201d is a book that does dual duty. On one hand, it\u2019s as\na beautifully illustrated and produced full-color coffee table-style\nbook which is immensely enjoyable to flip through whether you read it\nor not. On the other, it\u2019s a genuinely useful guide through the\nworld of classic watercolor technique, with watercolor illustrations\nof the phases of the moon, astrological signs, and the seasonal night\nskies as examples. These examples come paired with corresponding\ntexts that delve into some basic magical associations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe first part of the book, Mahan and McElroy lay out all the tools\nnecessary to get the reader started with watercolors: papers, paints,\nbrushes, pens, and pencils, with some basic recommendations of their\nfavorite brands. They briefly discuss the techniques and effects used\nin the book, such as wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry watercolor; while\nthese descriptions are not very detailed, they are more than enough\nto get an artist through the examples used in this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe second part of the book, the authors walk the reader through the\ntraditional Western zodiac, the phases of the moon and names of each\nmonth\u2019s moon in different cultural traditions (which makes a really\nlovely addition, as many authors choose only one version of these\nnames and omit the rest, but it\u2019s enlightening to see several in\none place), and seasonal landscapes and palettes to ground the\ncelestial watercolors to the earth in full-color illustrations. Each\nof these sections is accompanied by a walkthrough of the process used\nto create the watercolors depicted, and an array of inspiring images\nfor each sign, moon, or season. They are also peppered with\ndescriptive lore and tradition about each topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of \u201cCelestial Watercolor<\/a>\u201d is very focused, and the book accomplishes it well: there is a lot of inspiration, information, and technique here. While the lore is illustrative in its own way and adds greatly to the book, there isn\u2019t enough astrological, lunar, or seasonal information for this book to be used as a thorough guide for a serious astrologer or magicians, but it really isn\u2019t the point of the book, either. Instead, \u201cCelestial Watercolor<\/a>\u201d gives a solid foundation for basic astrological information and a type of art that many witches would probably love to add to their journals, Books of Shadows, wall art, and more, with Mahan\u2019s beautiful illustrations shining through for inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celestial Watercolor: Learn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal Night Skies on Amazon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About\nthe Author:<\/strong>\n \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sarah\nMcMenomy <\/strong>is\nan artist and witch. Her craft incorporates herbalism, spellwork,\ntrance, divination, auras, and more. Her work can be found at\nhttps:\/\/sarahmcmenomy.tumblr.com<\/a>\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book ReviewCelestial WatercolorLearn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal Night SkiesWritten by Elise Mahan with D.R. McElroy128 ppThe Quarto Group \u201cCelestial Watercolor: Learn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal Night Skies\u201d is a book that does dual duty. On one hand, it\u2019s as a beautifully illustrated and produced full-color coffee table-style book which is immensely enjoyable to flip through whether you read it or not. On the other, it\u2019s a genuinely useful guide through the world of classic watercolor technique, with watercolor illustrations of the phases of the moon, astrological signs, and the seasonal night skies as examples. These examples come paired with corresponding texts that delve into some basic magical associations. In the first part of the book, Mahan and McElroy lay out all the tools necessary to get the reader started with watercolors: papers, paints, brushes, pens, and pencils, with some basic recommendations of their favorite brands. They briefly discuss the techniques and effects used in the book, such as wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry watercolor; while these descriptions are not very detailed, they are more than enough to get an artist through the examples used in this book. In the second part of the book, the authors walk the reader through the traditional Western zodiac, the phases of the moon and names of each month\u2019s moon in different cultural traditions (which makes a really lovely addition, as many authors choose only one version of these names and omit the rest, but it\u2019s enlightening to see several in one place), and seasonal landscapes and palettes to ground the celestial watercolors to the earth in full-color illustrations. Each of these sections is accompanied by a walkthrough of the process used to create the watercolors depicted, and an array of inspiring images for each sign, moon, or season. They are also peppered with descriptive lore and tradition about each topic.  The goal of \u201cCelestial Watercolor\u201d is very focused, and the book accomplishes it well: there is a lot of inspiration, information, and technique here. While the lore is illustrative in its own way and adds greatly to the book, there isn\u2019t enough astrological, lunar, or seasonal information for this book to be used as a thorough guide for a serious astrologer or magicians, but it really isn\u2019t the point of the book, either. Instead, \u201cCelestial Watercolor\u201d gives a solid foundation for basic astrological information and a type of art that many witches would probably love to add to their journals, Books of Shadows, wall art, and more, with Mahan\u2019s beautiful illustrations shining through for inspiration. Celestial Watercolor: Learn to Paint the Zodiac Constellations and Seasonal Night Skies on Amazon *** About the Author: Sarah McMenomy is an artist and witch. Her craft incorporates herbalism, spellwork, trance, divination, auras, and more. Her work can be found at https:\/\/sarahmcmenomy.tumblr.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20036"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19801,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20036\/revisions\/19801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}