Creating ethereal fairies is never easy, especially if you are trying to create realistic looking figures. As long as you have some art knowledge of techniques and colours, this book will certainly provide assistance. There are five projects which can be undertaken using tracings to create the outlines. Detailed instructions are given, showing how to complete the painting down to the last detail. The final results can be very pleasing - with fairies based not on traditional flowers but on butterflies, orchids and dunes. For each fairy you are given exact instructions as to the colours required, how to mix the colours to get exact shades, details of brushes and paper size. It is quite an impressive book, and fantasy artists will definitely like it.-Monstersandcritics.com Ready To Paint has a second title, and like the first one Ready To Paint Dragons (also reviewed on this site) is it by talented fantasy artist Paul Bryn Davies. Get those watercolors out again; this time you are going to paint some fairies. As with all the other titles there is a short section on what to buy and why you need it. I appreciate the why as without it you have an illustrated shopping list. Also covered in the introduction is how to transfer the tracings, and then it is on with the projects. There are five of these in grand old Ready To Paint tradition plus a sixth where you are on your own and flexing your (fairy) wings. The paintings include butterfly, desert, water, flower and musical fairies. The extra one is my own favorite as it depicts a modern fairy in a New York setting, lying in an abandoned food carton - delightfully original and different. Each project is described in at least thirty illustrated steps, each one showing what new detail has been added and how to do it. I always think that this has to be the most foolproof way yet devised of learning to paint and am not surprised that the series has won awards. It is all very hands-on and manages to cut through the fog and mystique that surrounds learning how to paint and make it accessible and entertaining.-Myshelf.com
