Product Description

You have always wanted to paint, you have some materials and time put aside, and suddenly, faced with that scary sheet of paper, you need help. This book is here to help you take those first daunting steps.Keen to paint, but your drawing skills let you down? This book provides pull-out tracings for five beautiful floral paintings, along with full step-by-step instructions for how to bring them to life with watercolour paint.A clear guide on how to transfer the tracings to your watercolour paper is included, along with a helpful section on what materials to use.Wendy Tait's new book makes painting flowers simple and accessible, and offers guidance on how you can develop your new painting skills.This book helps readers to learn how to paint beautiful pictures. It provides five easy to follow demonstrations. It features step-by-step photographs and clear instructions. It contains six reusable tracings to pull out.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22326 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Review
The Ready to Paint series comprises a number of painting projects, each described in some detail and including an outline sketch printed on tracing paper that allows the beginner to start with the basic drawing already done for them. Broadly speaking, this is a grown-up form of painting by numbers and, as a method of instruction, one has to have certain reservations. However, the fact remains that, if you re let down by your drawing skills, then this allows you to progress to the stage of working with colour without falling at the first hurdle. It needs to be said that you will have, at some point, to acquire some skill in drawing as otherwise you ll be condemned to copying forever. As a basic introduction flower painting, even without the printed outlines, this can t be faulted and Wendy Tait is an experienced and capable teacher who has the ability to take you far beyond the scope of the book. If you like the outlines idea (and it has quite an honourable history), this is the book for you. If you don t, but you still want to paint flowers, buy the book anyway; just tear out the tracing paper pages and hide them behind the sofa. --Artbookreview.net

This book takes away that 'blank page' fear, as all the drawing has already been done for you. Use the nin reusable tracings to transfer the flower to paper (by rubbing with a spoon or similar implement) and follow the detailed step-by-step instructions (up to 30 per flower) to paint a floral masterpiece. --Cake Craft & Decoration, June 2008

Have you ever wanted to be able to paint, but been unsure that your drawing skills were up to marking out a picture? Search Press have come up with an excellent notion with their Ready To Paint series of books, giving you the outlines to trace and explaining how a painting is constructed. It s a great way to start, and if you are wondering whether this is a paint-by-numbers or coloring book then think again. How does it differ? By providing you with staged photographs of how to fill in those outlines and explaining what you are doing. This is a book designed to make you think about how watercolors are used and learn all those important tricks of the trade so you are ready to tackle some art of your own. Search Press also has a large range of books on watercolor painting for when you are at that stage, but think on this as a safety net for the absolute beginner. It works too - I can remember coloring books with faint outlines designed to be used in this manner that got my own artistic juices flowing in a way that a blank sheet of paper did not. Have a go and see what I mean. --Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.com

This book takes away that 'blank page' fear, as all the drawing has already been done for you. Use the nin reusable tracings to transfer the flower to paper (by rubbing with a spoon or similar implement) and follow the detailed step-by-step instructions (up to 30 per flower) to paint a floral masterpiece. --Cake Craft & Decoration, June 2008

Have you ever wanted to be able to paint, but been unsure that your drawing skills were up to marking out a picture? Search Press have come up with an excellent notion with their Ready To Paint series of books, giving you the outlines to trace and explaining how a painting is constructed. It s a great way to start, and if you are wondering whether this is a paint-by-numbers or coloring book then think again. How does it differ? By providing you with staged photographs of how to fill in those outlines and explaining what you are doing. This is a book designed to make you think about how watercolors are used and learn all those important tricks of the trade so you are ready to tackle some art of your own. --Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.com --Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.com

The author, Wendy Tait, offers her readers practical advice - from arranging and simplyfying floral subject matter, to capturing its essence in watercolour. After listing and describing her art materials, she deals with transferring the nine tracings in the centre of the book to the readers art paper and then painting them in watercolour. She selects five of these and describes in 20 to 30 step-by-steps how she develops them from the preliminary drawings to the finished paintings. This book offers useful instruction on painting flowers, although more help and advice on working from nature would have been welcome. --Leisure Painter, Sept 08

Have you ever wanted to be able to paint, but been unsure that your drawing skills were up to marking out a picture? Search Press have come up with an excellent notion with their Ready To Paint series of books, giving you the outlines to trace and explaining how a painting is constructed. It s a great way to start, and if you are wondering whether this is a paint-by-numbers or coloring book then think again. How does it differ? By providing you with staged photographs of how to fill in those outlines and explaining what you are doing. This is a book designed to make you think about how watercolors are used and learn all those important tricks of the trade so you are ready to tackle some art of your own. Search Press also has a large range of books on watercolor painting for when you are at that stage, but think on this as a safety net for the absolute beginner. It works too - I can remember coloring books with faint outlines designed to be used in this manner that got my own artistic juices flowing in a way that a blank sheet of paper did not. Have a go and see what I mean. --Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.com

About the Author
Wendy Tait studied at the Joseph Wright School of Art. She now teaches watercolour painting to adults, runs residential courses and often gives demonstrations to Art Societies. She produces designs for publication as greetings cards, and in 1998 was commissioned by the Jersey government to produce a series of autumn flower paintings for postage stamps. She has also written articles and produced illustrations for specialist art magazines.

Customer Reviews

Read the product description carefully!
I'd like to say immediately that the completed floral panels in this book are beautiful - the book is a worthwhile "keeper" for that alone!

The product description needs to be underlined though, especially for the absolute novice, for the "ready to paint" statement is misleading. Some work is required before the painting starts. A decent watercolour pad is an extra, for example, and the design is then traced onto the paper by the novice themselves. After that, it's up to the learner to copy the colours (with their own paints, of course) from the book, so the effect may be different in actual practise, for although the author states the colours she uses herself, she doesn't actually give the brand name she uses, and cheaper brands will produce a different shade.

For myself, I find the constant referral needed from instructions to separate pad disconcerting - it breaks the concentration! Maybe a better idea for the "L" plate holder would be smaller finished illustrations provided with a pre-printed outline beside or below, on the same page? Once confidence is gained, a couple of tracing illustrations could be at the back of the book, with relevant guidance. - ?

This is only my view of course, and we're all interesting people due to our differences!

It's not quite as simple as a first quick scan of the description suggests - so be aware of that, fellow greenhorns!

Great Book
I love this series of books. However I do find this one a bit more complex. Having said that I am not very good with flowers and having the tracings here have helped. Like the other review it is often difficult to get the same shade/mix of colour that the author uses. I also found that the descriptions were sometimes misleading when trying to do the shading of the petals. Achievement was a bit hit and miss. I don't think this one is one for the complete beginner. It would be useful to have some knowledge of watercolour painting prior to starting, but having said that if you are scared of starting then give this a go - I'm sure if you don't mind your painting having your slant on it, then you will be pleased with the results.

And of course you do need your own materials beforehand. Enjoy...

Watercolour Flowers
I decided to try this book to enable me to get out of my comfort zone (painting landscapes and buildings). I have always struggled with drawing flowers but this book has the tracings for the flowers and so you can concentrate on the actual painting. What impressed me the most was the fact that there were A3 and A4 size tracings all of which are re-usable. this means you can paint the picture of say roses and then paint it again using different colours. Excellent value for money.