This joyful book gives you the confidence and skills to paint lively, contemporary faces and characters. Unusually, it teaches how to paint before exploring the drawing skillset necessary to capture a likeness, and thereby encourages the artist to try this genre. By explaining the techniques in clear steps with plenty of examples, it makes painting exciting and energetic portraits achievable for all.

This practical book explains how to capture the character of various species of bird, without getting caught up in the detail. It celebrates everything that watercolour can offer as a medium when painting these fascinating creatures. It is not a field guide but instead offers a path towards understanding the behaviour and structure of birds to be able to paint their character. Topics covered include: advice on materials and getting started with watercolour; personal observation and drawing from life; looking at the features of birds and how to capture their behaviour; examples from major bird groups, including domestic fowl, birds of prey and songbirds, and finally step-by-step demonstrations of watercolour techniques.

Artists seem compelled to try to capture the amazing variety of the animal kingdom; the challenge remains how to breathe energy into your paintings and make the animals jump off the paper. This deeply practical book offers an accessible introduction to sketching animals from life, to try to capture that essence. It gives instruction on how to approach drawing; covers ideas for materials and supplies to make sketching from life a joy; gives step-by-step demonstrations of different watercolour techniques; offers specific advice on using colour and painting, fur, feathers and features and gives ideas for mixed-media experimentation. Full of colourful examples and guidance, this new book explains how to transform your studies into finished artwork that are brimming with character. It encourages you to find the extraordinary in the everyday, as well as revelling in the breadth of nature. Taking a contemporary approach to traditional watercolour, the author shows how a few, well-chosen brushes of paint can reveal the soul of your subject.

Line and wash is an exciting combination. This practical book shows you how to exploit the strength of ink with the transparency of watercolour to produce powerful and dynamic paintings. With over 170 illustrations, it covers a wide range of styles and subjects, before exploring mixed media, new surfaces and other ways to take your line and wash work to another level. Includes advice on choosing materials; exercises to hone your drawing and painting skills; gives inspiration for new approaches to line and wash and, finally, step-by-step demonstrations of ideas and projects. This book is a visual treat and an essential guide for all artists who want to try this exciting technique.

Painting on canvas poses many exciting opportunities for the artist. Along with the immediacy, vibrancy and unpredictability of watercolours, it is a liberating and creative process. This practical book explains how to start painting with watercolours on canvas and goes on to encourage new style and experimentation. It gives step-by-step demonstrations on different techniques to achieve loose, dynamic images. It is a beautiful and passionate account of how to work on a non-traditional surface to achieve striking and innovative paintings.