Watercolour Challenge - Hardcover

The contestants who feature in the series are of varied age, background and ability, with natural styles that range from abstract to traditional. In this book the author Diana Vowles presents case studies from the programme, but also offers tips on how to get started as a watercolour artist. The book also offers useful practical advice such as how to negotiate the temptations of art supplies shops--it lists exactly what you will need and no more.

The principal section of the text is made up of 11 examples of watercolour painting challenges that have been set during the series, featuring landscapes as wide ranging as Kynance Cove in Cornwall, the Thames at Southwark in London and Navan Fort in Northern Ireland. The various experts who advised and judged the contestants are featured with brief biographies and their advice to the contestants is equally helpful to the budding artist at home.

Each chapter literally recreated the show on paper. The experts address contestants' problems, such as the compositional difficulties of location painting and every challenge includes photographs of the work in progress during the four-hour period the contestants are allowed.

In itself the book is very useful to the amateur as most of the contestants featured have had little painting experience. By laying out the challenge step-by-step problems that the enthusiast at home might encounter can be looked up and resolved. There are tips for painting everything from urban landscapes to seascapes, as well as how to start and how to get to grips with concepts such as tonal differences in a landscape or movement and how best to express these in watercolour.

The book is accessible in the same way that the television series is. It is not intimidating and the inclusion of contestants' attempts give it a personal angle that other instructive painting books can lack. Most importantly it offers extremely good practical advice to anyone who wants to take up watercolour painting. --Karen Homer