Product Description

Readers who want to learn to paint trees and woodlands but can not rely on their drawing skills have everything they need in this book.No drawing skills are required. The outlines of five paintings (plus one bonus picture) are provided to pull out from the centre of the book.Clear instructions and step-by-step photographs show how to transfer the outlines on to watercolour paper and then how to capture the beauty of trees in striking watercolour paintings.Geoff shows how to paint a bluebell wood, a snow scene, an Autumn woodland, a pair of ancient oaks and a willow leaning over a boat.Learn how to capture the beauty of trees in watercolour. This title features: five easy to follow demonstrations; step-by-step photographs and clear instructions; and, six reusable tracings to pull out.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10578 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Review
Trees can be one of the most tricky subjects for the artist because, like flowers, everyone knows when you ve got it wrong! For all that, there are relatively few books devoted to them, largely because they are more of a landscape element than a subject in its own right: painting a landscape, all you really need is a sufficient variety of generic types with or without foliage (according to the season). The details of how a hornbeam differs from a maple are really not relevant! Given how early in their career beginners are going to encounter this problem, the Ready To Paint series really couldn t be better suited to the subject of trees. The approach of a printed outline sketch that you can trace, itself linked to a series of very detailed step-by-step demonstrations makes learning the tricks of the trade a relatively painless process and you really do feel that someone is holding your hand all the way. For some subjects, there have to be reservations about this approach and care has to be taken not to allow it to descend into painting by numbers, but here it s in its element. --artbookreview.net

Here is another in Search Press innovative new Ready To Paint series, which give novice painters a kick start at handling watercolors without having to get past that tricky drawing stage. These books give you the outlines to trace, and then explain how to construct the painting. This looks as though it would work well, and is nothing like painting by numbers. Instead you learn the anatomy of a painting in photographed stages. There are a lot of these stages, with helpful captions telling you what is going on, and what you need to do next, from tracing the outlines to working with the actual paints. This even includes things that often get missed out, such as when to clean the brush and how to hold it to get the right effects. It is rather akin to having a tutor beside you telling you what to do, and very confidence building for a beginner. This also includes a beginner not only at painting, but anybody who fancies trying their hand at a totally new subject. Each picture comes with a helpful list of what colors to buy as well as which brushes you will need, as well as tips on capturing the appearance of different types of trees. There are six pictures, and these include all four seasons as well as painting water, snow and different types of light. This reminds me of the way I learned to draw and paint, working from coloring books with faint outlines to trace over and copying staged examples in those wonderful old Walter Foster books. Think of this as an update on that highly recommended for anybody starting out in watercolors who is a little unsure of the drawing aspect. --Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.com

About the Author
Geoff Kersey is an experienced watercolourist and is much in demand as a teacher and demonstrator. He lives and works in Derbyshire where he has a studio, and he exhibits extensively. He has made two watercolour videos and contributes to various art publications.

Customer Reviews

A Practical Little Book
Quite good as it shows you how to do woodland scenes step-by-step. This book will be useful to two types of people: firstly for the absolute beginner who wants to get into watercolour - you don't need to be an expert at drawing because included in the book are 6 reusable pullout pages (of 5 different tree/woodland scenes) which can be traced directly onto your own paper/canvas. Secondly for the beginner or intermediete artist who won't be interested in the pullout scenes but will be able to apply the watercolour techniques and ideas to their own woodland paintings.

I've been drawing and painting for a few months now and my paintings have really benefited from the techniques shown in this book - something just as simple as layering colors can make all the difference and I wasn't really doing this much before. The five scenes shown are a nice varied selection including different types of trees and one useful snow scene. My only complaint is that there's no scene of a close-up tree or anything from too much of a distance - these would have been helpful additions. Nevertheless, everything is really accessible and simply shown so anyone can follow the ideas and apply them to their own work even on location. Highly recommended!

Creative painting
Bought for me by my husband. Lovely book, I especially like the fact that different aspects of the picture can be traced, not necessary to trace the whole item. Which helps to create your own paintings. Would recommend all books in this series.

Trees made easy!!!!!
I just could not paint realistic looking trees until I used the exercises in this book! It has pull out tracings of the pictures so the trees are drawn out for you, and then step by step painting instructions. I completed all the exercises and now I can create my own pictures using the techniques I learnt. Highly recommended!