This is a really well photographed book and the tutorials are clearly written and illustrated. I am by no means an accomplished artist and the instructions were well within my confidence level as a beginning 'doodler'. The resulting projects are attractive (see cover). The mandala and petroglyph paintings were especially appealing to me.
There's an introduction with materials and how-to's as well as a short section on sourcing and choosing rocks for projects. The author covers preparation and several different prepping methods for making a good and durable base for painting. There's a good chapter section on different paints, inks, and other media as well as tips for different shading and surface effects.
The intro is followed by large tutorial chapters roughly grouped by theme: patterns (mandalas and petroglyphs), animals (including a ton of beautiful stylized owls which I will be doing), and monochrome designs which remind me a lot of 'tribal' tattoos which are very popular.
The book does include templates for the projects as well as some inspiration photos and a short author bio.
There is no resource/link list or index. Neither of these detracts from the value of the material in my opinion, since a simple Google search can give you links and the table of contents is very detailed (and it's a short book).
Five stars. This would make a lovely weekend family project or a really cool 'tie-in' hobby for gardeners, rockhounds, collectors, etc.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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