Draw a whole fairyland of fantastic creatures with this latest addition to Search Press’ popular Bible series. This book opens out flat, which is so handy when working from it, and there is plenty in here to work from. The subtitle promises "ready-to-draw templates and step-by-step techniques" and this book delivers the goods, starting from scratch with lots of projects to work through. To inspire and inform, the book opens with a brief chapter on great artists who have chosen to depict this type of subject, from William Blake in the 18th century right up to Alan Lee’s Tolkein illustrations. Only one picture from each (nothing from William Blake) is included, so maybe "inspiration" is a bit of a stretch for this.

The section discussing what you need is diverse but short, ranging from colored pencils and markers to an airbrush—so take your pick. There are even two pages on working digitally, although not enough of this to really do more than introduce the topic. The book’s strength is in the staged projects, which take you from pencil sketches and outlines to the finished work in fewer stages than in the Ready to Paint series, but still enough stages for any but the total tyro.

There is just about everything in here to do with drawing and painting fairies, from getting expressions just right to assembling a suitable wardrobe, and a whole host of other creatures from folklore as well as hints for flower fairy paintings. One original way of working involves line drawings of some of the characters for tracing or scanning and then coloring in—an interesting idea and rather how I learned to draw as a small child. All in all, I was impressed by the many and varied suggestions for getting pencil to paper, and all roads seem to lead to a good grounding in basic and intermediate techniques.