Ready To Paint are a series of unique books designed for beginning artists who want to paint, but whose lack of drawing ability is holding them back.  Each book concentrates on a different popular subject for paintings, and contains six reusable tracings plus full instructions on how to paint the pictures.  This title shows you how to paint views of Venice using acrylics.

What news on the Rialto?  Along with the famous view at night, you can also paint pictures of reflections in the water, gondolas and a view of the Grand Canal.  It is easy to see the appeal of these lovely scenes and their vibrant, sketchy quality adds to their vigor and interest.  You don’t need many supplies to take up acrylic painting and the basic range of colors is quite small— encouraging for a beginner not wishing to spend too much. This series has covered many subjects for watercolour painting, and now it is the turn of acrylics, the most versatile and modern of paints.  Unlike Charles Evans’ Landscapes in Acrylics  (also reviewed on this site), these projects do not each outline a different aspect of working with the medium but just show how to paint the picture.  Both methods are useful, and if I were a beginner I think I would want to have a go at each to see which I learned the most from.  Each of the five projects (you are on your own for the sixth as always) is explained in at least twenty stages, starting very simply and adding a bit more each step with a brief explanation of what is going on.  This is a grand way of mastering painting a picture, and it is nice to see a more unusual topic for one of these basic primers.

If you cannot find a good range of acrylics and other art materials locally try  SearchPress.com for a list of suppliers.