Fiona Peart has pulled off quite a coup here. There were hints in her previous book of touches of looseness that seemed to contradict the way you'd expect the Ready to Paint series to go and here she's taken it almost to an extreme. If you just paint a flower as a shape, it's always going to look flat and unnatural. There are subtleties of shading that give form and substance and you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is beyond the scope of such a simple guide as this. However, Fiona has managed to include techniques such as wet-in-wet and granulation to produce results that belie their origin in pre-printed tracings. I suspect that getting results that look like Fiona's may be beyond the natural audience for these books, so I'd recommend this to anyone who has a basic grasp of flower painting and wants to take things to the next stage. By keeping it simple overall, there's every chance she's given you the key to some amazing work.-Artbookreview.net Readers would be forgiven for thinking that the Ready to Paint series, with its pre-printed tracings and extended step-by-step demonstrations, is not for them. However, there have been some recent additions, of which this is one, that are rather more than they seem. Flowers are a tricky subject to get right and have the capability to mar a painting even if they are not the main subject. Fiona Peart provides some handy hints on shapes, colours and shading that go quite a long way beyond the painting-by-numbers tag that the series tends to attract, and her approach is pleasantly simple and clear.-The Artist Fiona's book is colourful, exuberant and enticing. She demonstrates five watercolour flower paintings, including two tulip compositions, a Mother's Day posy, pink and white study, and a beautiful Spring bouquet. The book is characterised by plentiful stages included in each demonstration, plus free tracings of each of the demonstrations so that you can get going on the painting immediately.-Leisure Painter The ever-growing Ready To Paint series now has a third floral title, and the second by this artist. This time it is the turn of one of my own favorite flowers the tulip. As usual, this book starts with a short section on what to buy and why. It is always a good idea to tell readers why you need an item, and this book does just that, so you don*t ever feel you are being made to buy something you won*t often need. Find out what brushes are best, notes on choosing paper, the color paints for these paintings and a few other ordinary items (not very many). Again, there is in inevitable short section on how to transfer the tracings, and then the projects start. There are five plus one extra one where you don*t get the instructions, but after such exhaustive illustrated instructions, you will be more than ready. These are studies of tulips, from large close-ups to many blooms in a vase. The five are shown on the back that cover several colors and varieties of tulip in various settings. Each project is described in at least thirty illustrated steps, each one showing what new detail has been added and how to do it. You can*t go wrong with this, and it is surely the best way of learning to paint ever. Even better, once you have finished your work you don*t have to hide it away * upload it to the Ready To Paint page on Facebook and everybody can see it!-Myshelf.com
