Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes: Animals in Watercolour

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 has many personal exhibitions, participates in several art shows and appears regularly on television as well as on his own internet-based art show at www.watercolour.tv

Here’s an ideal subject for this nicely-maturing series. Matthew presents simple exercises that cover just about every type of animal and coat from hide to hair, fur and feathers (birds are included). Some of the backgrounds are plain, allowing you to concentrate on the subject, others include wider settings that provide context. Nothing is over-complicated, however, and the idea of working quickly on a single idea is never compromised.Each of the 29 exercises is accompanied by an outline tracing that allows you to get the basic shapes down quickly and you’ll be working at A6 size, so you won’t need to make elaborate preparations or clear a working space. 30 minutes is probably best seen as a target rather than a limit – if you want to spend a bit more time, that’s fine, just don’t get too tied up with details and land up over-working.

• Tracings, Introduction 6, Basic painting equipment 8, Basic techniques 10, Parrot at sunset 16, Bird in flight 18, Koi carp 20, Zebra 22, Swan 24Key features 26Cat’s eyes 28, Peering tabby 30, Curious kitten 32, Tiger 34, Dog’s eyes 36, Puppy 38, Highland cow’s muzzle 40, Cockerel’s head 42Textures and markings 44Penguin’s wing 46, African elephant 48, Lamb 50, Ram 52, Great tit 54Portraits 56Drawing a portrait from a photograph 60, Alsatian 62, Rabbit 64, Chimpanzee 66, Meerkat 68Animals in the landscape 70Cat on the lookout 72, Sheep in a field 74, Flamingos paddling 76, Penguins 78, Asian elephant 80, Stag in woodland 82, Robin on a branch 84, Stag in winter 86, Giraffe 88, ‘Max’, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel 90, Snow Leopard 92, Hummingbird 94Index 96