Painting Animals in Watercolour

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There is one difference between painting animals and painting other subjects - such as landscapes, plants, still life, even human portraits - animals move. As Sally Michel says, it is impossible to know, when you start portraying an animal, whether you have time for a detailed, considered study or will need to work fast to sketch its general appearance. The principal sections of this book are devoted, appropriately, to dogs and to cats, which Sally portrays both vividly and with careful attention to anatomical accuracy and to the different breeds. She has further chapters on birds and other domestic animals (including guinea pigs and hamsters), on horses, and on wilder animals that can be found in parks and fields as well as gardens. In the early part of the book she explains how the artist can best approach those subjects. Her chapters on 'Animals in Repose' (where the artist should start for obvious reasons) and 'Animals in Movement' are particularly helpful and instructive. What is vital, she points out, is observation and accuracy. Even the apparently random patches of colour on a tortoiseshell cat, for example, obey certain rules. In Drawing and Painting Animals Using Watercolour, Sally Michel has written and illustrated a book that is as varied as it is colourful and as practical as it is both affectionate and knowledgeable.