Frequent visitors to this website will know all about Search Press’ pioneering Ready To Paint series. This is aimed at tyro painters who want to get some practise with the painting part but aren’t too confident about their drawing skills. Each book contains six tracings and step-by-step instructions showing you exactly what to do at each stage. Now just in time for the Christmas market comes the Paint It! series, a set of ten booklets that show the new artist how to work through one painting.

I love this—if I were getting a wannabe artist a box of paints I would add one of these inexpensive wee books (£3.99 or $5.95). This is my own favorite out of the range, showing a glorious image of a bluebell wood taken from Ready To Paint Watercolor Trees & Woodlands (also reviewed on this site). It takes you from the initial tracing right through to the best bit where you stand back and admire your masterpiece in no less than forty-three stages, each one illustrated and showing the next part you paint in.

If you think that this sounds somewhat akin to painting by numbers, think again. It is more about discovering the anatomy of a picture and getting the feel of drawing (even if it is only tracing at this stage) and the best order to paint which part when. Each picture comes with a useful list of which brushes and colors to buy, so if you are getting this for a present, why not have a look first so you know what to put with it as regards colors and types of brushes and paper? You won’t hear a peep out of the recipient for hours... a lovely idea.

Reviews of other titles by Geoff Kersey

Watercolour Landscapes (Take Three Colours)
Mediterranean Landscapes in Watercolour (Take Three Colours)
Watercolour Seascapes (Take Three Colours)
Bluebell Wood in Watercolour (Paint it)
New York in Watercolor (Ready to Paint)
Trace and Paint Watercolour (Ready to Paint)
Trees and Woodlands In Watercolour (Ready to Paint)
Trees, Woodlands and Forests in Watercolor (What to Paint)

More Watercolour studies by Geoff Kersey at AmazonUS || AmazonUK

UK Reviewer: Rachel Hyde's work can be found in The Bead Magazine, Making Jewellery and www.craftsuprint.com/rachel-a-hyde/