The Making of Watercolor Wizardry

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Written by Kiara Maharaj, 08/0CT/2025

Since February this year, I've been working on illustrating a book. This book turned out to be my dream project to work on, after many years of self-publishing my stories and art. With the help of an incredible team at Page Street Publishing, Watercolor Wizardry is now finally a published reality around the world.

In this blog post I wanted to share some behind-the-scenes of the work that went into the development of Watercolor Wizardry and the rough timeline. More in depth processes are available on my Patreon. My intent behind documenting everything was to take you, the reader, along on the journey, involving your input. I also wanted to show the beauty and excitement of creating something using your own human brain, like a kid with an imagination on the loose. No AI was used anywhere in the process.

Mapping out the book

January. The first step, guided by my editor, was mapping out the contents of the book. Chapter names, tutorial headings, and the overall payoff of the book. My editor encouraged me to be creative and make the book unique according to my authentic voice. I took that advice seriously and one day, wrote out a few paragraphs of the beginning of a story, which was later used in the introduction. The original expectation for the book was that it will be a simple tutorial book based on fantastical forest scenes. However my imagination took the reigns and led us to a slightly different direction.

I imagined talking directly to the reader, involving them as a wizard creating their own watercolor dimension.

Riding that idea where the reader is a wizard apprentice learning to create their own watercolor dimension, I had so much fun thinking of chapter names and tutorial titles. I knew roughly that I wanted to segment the book according to different areas of a forest. Because forests aren't just all trees - but also mushrooms, animals, flowers, and rocks and moss.

In the end, there was a total of 5 chapters, each titled such that they sounded like ingredients from a potion recipe.

Tools & Tricks of the Trade
Chapter 2: Two Tablespoons of Trees
Chapter 3: A Dash of Mushrooms
Chapter 4: A Handful of Rocks
Chapter 5: And a Hint of Salt

Illustrating the tutorials

February. The bulk of the book is the 25 tutorial projects, which took me the longest time to illustrate. And my deadline was 30th April 2026. So I set out a schedule to complete 1 tutorial per day, at the least the first draft of it. At the end of each day, I wrote a Patreon post, like a diary entry, sharing how it went that day.

These tutorials took the bulk of my time in February and March. Each tutorial had roughly 9-12 steps. And for each step I needed to first paint them, then wait for the paint to dry, then scan the step, and repeat. I also ended up repainting some tutorials that I felt weren't good enough.

With my plan, I was able to complete the 25 required tutorials 1 month before my deadline. Which left me with extra time to add more magic into the book! And this was probably the most exciting part.

Chapter Heading Illustrations

27 March 2025. Following the idea from the contents page, of each chapter heading like a step from a potion recipe, I wanted the illustration to also have a continuous storyline. Starting from an empty cauldron for Chapter 1: Tools & Tricks of the Trade to a bubbling blue-green potion in Chapter 4: A Handful of Rocks to a celestial explosion in Chapter 5: And a Hint of Salt.

A full step-by-step of each of the chapter heading illustrations are available on my Patreon as I was working on them. These are also part of the Watercolor Wizardry Pre-order gift.

March 29 2025, Patreon Post Excerpt: I am really deeply enjoying this project, especially these little details and extra illustrations I'm able to add to the book. Things like these drop caps, chapter headings and additional sketches were not required as per my contract with the publisher. Only the 25 tutorials were part of the official book deal and my advance payment. But my perfectionism and love for books always makes me want to go an extra mile, even if it's unpaid. Besides that, I want to create the most magical book I can, to make my 10 year old book obsessed self proud. She poured over Lemony Snicket, Percy Jackson, nature encyclopedias, Terry Pratchett, Harry Potter and dozens of other stories and art books, always dreaming of creating her own books. Here we are!

Dropcaps

2 April 2025. One of my most favorite detail in a book is definitely the illustrative lettering at the first letter of every chapter. I wanted to include some illustrated dropcaps with the parrot wizard characters to add a special touch to the book, and make it seem like the parrots were with the reader every step of the way, chapter by chapter. Like with everything else in the book, these drop caps were hand drawn by myself using Micron pens, and grid paper.

I scrapped a few first attempts until I finally landed on a design I liked, one of my inspirations being an artist named Florence Harrison. Another inspiration was the classic medieval style drop cap, one that you'd find in fairytale books and other old fantasy books. Here I was drawn by the small symbols that enhance the meaning of the text - instead of a large full-blown illustration, small symbols could still tell a story.

Sketching rough ideas.

Testing those ideas on grid paper for more accurate shapes and scale.

Inking and adding sample text.

The dropscaps turned out to be super fun and one of my most favorite little details in this book. Each chapter introduction has it's very own parrot drop cap. And you can find timelapses and more behind-the-scenes on my Patreon.

Cover Illustration

August. This was something completely new and took many attempts. Thankfully I had a very patient team to work with, and with their feedback and after a few attempts, we landed on a cover we thought was attention grabbing and pleasingly allowed sneak peeks into what was inside the book.

Sketches of different ideas and colors I submitted before developing the final.

In the end this truly turned out to be my dream project, and I can't wait for the book to be out in print very soon.

If you love wizards, watercolor, and a mystery wrapped in story, then this book is for you. The official launch date is 3 March 2026, but you can pre-order it now and get a free gift while you wait. If you're still on the fence and want to see more behind-the-scenes, then check out my Patreon collection titled Watercolor Wizardry Book for my book logs (free).

Thank you so much for reading. Until next time!

With love and magic,

Kiara.