An easy-to-follow beginner’s guide to painting animals and birds in watercolour with best-selling artist Matthew Palmer.
The quick way to watercolour success is here! If you have ever wanted to learn to paint animals, then this is for you.
Step-by-steps and clearly explained techniques will guide beginners through the methods needed to easily and effectively paint a variety of domestic and wild animals. Matthew expertly demonstrates how to paint realistic eyes, mouths, noses, fur markings and feathers in watercolour, and clearly explains all the techniques needed for the projects, including wet into wet, lifting out, adding shadows and the all-important dry-brush blending.
Full-size, fold-out outline sketches are provided for all projects, allowing you to simply trace the sketches onto watercolour paper and start painting with ease. A clear and comprehensive colour-mixing section is included to allow you to confidently choose and mix the colours you need.
Three starter projects - a simple bird, dolphin and penguin - are the perfect introduction to the basic techniques before moving on to six larger projects, each set in a simple scene: a parrot, cheetah, panda, giraffes, sea turtle and polar bear.
Matthew includes many handy hints and tip for beginners and improving artists alike to fill you with confidence to create your own stunning watercolour animals.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Materials
Colour
Sketching
Techniques
Wet into wet
Wet into dry
Adding shadow
Dry brush
Lifting out
Adding white paint
Finishing touches
Adding facial features
The Projects
Penguins step by step
Goldfinch step by step
Silhouette dolphins step by step
Parrot step by step
Cheetah step by step
Sea turtle step by step
Panda step by step
Polar bear step by step
Giraffes step by step
Index
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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.
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This is a book that absolutely lives up to its title. Matthew paints birds, mammals and reptiles in a style that is easy to replicate and he provides fully illustrated instructions that explain every step. Youll never have trouble again with textures, skin, fur, feathers, eyes or any other detail.
These are not animals that live and breathe on the page. That element of character we so admire in the best animal paintings is missing, but thats deliberate. This is a book for the beginner and it produces recognisable, realistic results without over-elaboration. Work through this and youll be able to replicate what Matthew does and be ready to move on to those books that do include the elusive element of character.
There are nine full demonstrations, as well as preliminary projects that concentrate on specific techniques including wet-in-wet, drybrush and lifting out. Its nice that all this is done in an actual painting (of an elephant), rather than with abstract marks that have all the excitement of practising scales. Just be sure to pay attention at this stage, though. As an added bonus, traceable outlies are provided, so youre freed from worrying about getting form and proportion right at this stage.
This is a book that knows exactly what its required to do and delivers it with considerable aplomb.
