# Botanical Watercolor Sketchbook | Domestika > A course by Paulina Maciel · Canela · Illustration · Beginner > 15 lessons (2h 53m) · 97% of the 1092 student ratings are positive If you're looking for inspiration for your illustrations, the answer may lie in stepping out and contemplating the nature around you. Its perfection, subtlety, and extensive variety could be the key you've been searching for. Illustrator and watercolor specialist Paulina Maciel is passionate about the natural world, which is evident in the creations of her studio, Canela Estudio, for branding, packaging, book covers, invitations, and more, as well as her other course [Botanical Illustration with Watercolors](https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/260-botanical-illustration-with-watercolors). In this course, learn to fill a notebook with botanical watercolors, including illustrations and handwritten notes, by studying nature. This practice exercises your capacity for observation, visual description, and rapid interpretation and helps you understand many of the species that surround us. ## Who is this online course for? To all illustration afficionados, art enthusiasts, watercolor lovers, and anyone curious about the nature that surrounds us. ## What is this course's project? Take the first steps towards creating a botanical sketchbook that you can carry with you to capture your observations of nature. Explore illustrations in pencil, fineliner, and watercolors as well as handwritten notes. ## Requirements and materials No prior knowledge is required for this course, although if you already have experience illustrating you might enjoy it that little bit more! In terms of materials, you need a suitable notebook for watercolor painting including wet techniques, pan watercolors, a fineliner, a graphite pencil, paintbrushes (waterbrushes would be especially useful). Remember to take a good hat to protect you from the sun if you decide to paint outside! ## Content ### Introduction Hello! I am very happy that you are here, it makes me very happy to share with you my passion for watercolor and nature. In this first unit I will talk about my path as an illustrator, I will share some artists who paint in newspapers and I will explain what this course consists of. ### Here we begin! Before getting down to work, let's review the materials you need to put in your backpack to explore the natural world. We will also do the first color practices in the newspaper, so that you can understand and recognize your watercolor pigment colors from a small palette. ### First the technique Open your diary, which we are going to start painting on it! In this unit we will do technical exercises to know the particularities and possibilities of the materials with which we will be working. We will start with the graphite pencil, then we will do some exercises with the pen and finally we will know the watercolor and its two basic techniques. ### Illustrate in your diary In this unit we will illustrate in our diary different natural objects, mixing the different techniques and processes that we saw in the previous unit. ## Audio and subtitles **Audio:** Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish **Subtitles:** Spanish, English, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Turkish [Botanical Watercolor Sketchbook](https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/732-botanical-watercolor-sketchbook)