Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes: Animals in Watercolour

Tracings, Introduction 6, Basic painting equipment 8, Basic techniques 10, Parrot at sunset 16, Bird in flight18, Koi carp20, Zebra22, Swan24

Key features 26
Cat’s eyes 28, Peering tabby 30, Curious kitten 32, Tiger 34, Dog’s eyes 36, Puppy 38, Highland cow’s muzzle 40, Cockerel’s head 42

Textures and markings 44
Penguin’s wing 46, African elephant 48, Lamb 50, Ram 52, Great tit 54

Portraits 56
Drawing a portrait from a photograph 60, Alsatian 62, Rabbit 64, Chimpanzee 66, Meerkat 68

Animals in the landscape 70
Cat on the lookout 72, Sheep in a field 74, Flamingos paddling 76, Penguins 78, Asian elephant 80, Stag in woodland 82, Robin on a branch 84, Stag in winter 86, Giraffe 88, ‘Max’, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel 90, Snow Leopard 92, Hummingbird 94

Index96

About Matthew Palmer

Matthew Palmer is a renowned demonstrator of watercolour painting, and his classes are particularly popular with beginners. He has been painting professionally for over 20 years and specializes in landscapes, still life and animals. He has his own studio at his home in Derbyshire, UK and teaches hundreds of people each week, as well as running watercolour workshops and holidays. He participates in several art shows and appears regularly on television as well as on his own internet-based art show at www.watercolour.tv

Matthew has written a number of books with Search Press, with total sales of over 125,000 copies worldwide.

The Artist

Animals in Watercolour by Matthew Palmer is added to the Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes series and provides 29 postcard-size exercises that cover wild and domestic species and highlight fur, feathers, structure and features along with pre-drawn outline tracings to get you started. 

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Artbookreview.net

Heres an ideal subject for this nicely-maturing series. Matthew presents simple exercises that cover just about every type of animal and coat from hide to hair, fur and feathers (birds are included). Some of the backgrounds are plain, allowing you to concentrate on the subject, others include wider settings that provide context. Nothing is over-complicated, however, and the idea of working quickly on a single idea is never compromised.

Each of the 29 exercises is accompanied by an outline tracing that allows you to get the basic shapes down quickly and youll be working at A6 size, so you wont need to make elaborate preparations or clear a working space. 30 minutes is probably best seen as a target rather than a limit if you want to spend a bit more time, thats fine, just dont get too tied up with details and land up over-working.

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Amazon Customer Review

This book is a perfect introduction to painting with watercolours for those with little or no experience. The tracings that are provided make it simple to get started if youre not confident at drawing freehand, and each of the 32 projects helps you to learn a new painting technique so you can gradually build on your skills as you work your way through the book. Everything is well explained and easy to follow even for novice painters. I hadnt read any of Matthew Palmers books before this one, and I wish Id discovered them sooner.

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Amazon Customer Review

This is my first time trying out one of these books and I was incredibly impressed. Not only were the images great for practicing drawing the animals myself but the watercolour steps were broken down in a way that were easy to follow. I will definitely be trying the other books in the series!