Boats and harbours make great subjects for watercolour, and Charles Evans makes painting them simple and striking.
Pull-out tracings are included along with a clear guide on how to transfer them to your watercolour paper, so you don't need to be able to draw to paint these wonderful pictures.
A useful section on what materials to use will have you painting like a pro in no time!
Oct 08
Like Geoff Kersey's Trees & Woodlands in the same series, this little book is an excellent primer in its subject matter, even without the pre-drawn sketches that allow you to concentrate on getting the colour down on paper.
The idea behind the series is that you have 6 re-usable tracings that allow you to get the drawing and the composition out of the way. This is, of course, no substitute for learning either of those techniques, and you'll have to do that in the end. However, by helping you avoid getting bogged down at the very start, these guides allow you to achieve a finished result you can justifiably be pleased with and which will encourage you to develop the other necessary skills as you progress - which you will because you weren't discouraged at the first turn.
Charles Evans is an excellent teacher and he explains all the techniques you'll need clearly and economically. As part of a series which is growing in popularity, this can't be faulted. However, the information on the details of boats and harbours is so good that more experienced artists shouldn't pass it by as just painting by numbers.
* Artbookreview.net *Nov 08
Have you seen Search Press' pioneering new Ready To Paint series yet? This is just the thing to start off tyro painters who want to get some practice with the painting part but aren't too confident about their drawing skills. Now you can get to grips with both, tracing and learning how to not only construct the painting, but see how simple drawing can be if you are only using it as a framework for painting.
I did think initially that it would be rather akin to painting by numbers, but it isn't. It is about discovering the framework of a picture in a good number of photographed stages. As with most Search Press titles, there are enough of these stages to enable even a total beginner to see what is going on, complete with supportive descriptions. So it really does take you from tracing the outlines to the actual painting. Each picture comes with a useful list of which brushes and colors to buy, the size of the finished piece and lots of tips germane to the watery subject. There are six pictures depicting harbours in various different parts of England: including Cornwall, Norfolk and Suffolk, all popular locations for artists. This series is highly recommended for anybody starting out in watercolors who needs to see what their work looks like before they tackle the drawing aspect.
* Myshelf.com *Charles Evans is one of Britain's leading painters, well-known from his long-running TV series and for his art classes, which are run all over the UK. His exuberant and informal personality is reflected in his paintings, which have a lightness and simplicity that many artists aspire to. Charles lives in Morpeth, Northumberland.
Five tracings, one for each demonstration
Clear, step-by-step pictures make painting easy and fun
Free bonus tracing