Venice in Watercolour (Ready to Paint) Paperback – March 1, 2011

This is a brilliant concept from Search Press and is ideal for budding artists who like to practise their craft while trying to copy, with the artist's permission, one of the five painting projects included in each book.Reusable tracings are included for each of the five projects together with a bonus tracing of a sixth painting. These are ready to pull out and transfer each scene to watercolour paper. There are also detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to capture the effects achieved by the artist as well as useful tips and advice on colour and techniques.The books are absolutely ideal for anyone who wants to achieve a successful painting and improve technique without being restricted by the quality of your initial drawing, particularly necessary when you are trying to paint tricky things like gondolas and realistic water and the famous bridges of Venice.

Seriously the best book I ever purchased for watercolors. I got this as a gift for my mother. She is currently dealing with a leg issue that keeps her sitting for the majority of the day. This book comes with large traceable scenes and a literal step by step on the techniques, colors, and order needed to make each scene look like theirs - and not one scene I did not like. My mother is a great painter but struggles with proportions when free handing - she loved this. Really quite lovely.

Beautifully done books with step by step instructions. This is great for someone new to watercolor or someone without manydrawing skills, like myself. I'm working in collecting the whole series. I wish the size was a more generic one and correlated better to average sizes of watercolor paper.

This book, for me, was a lesson in details. It took time to transfer the tracing, time to redo pencil the tracing (I do that because it helps keep the drawing more visual for me) and time in putting in the layers. You know what? It's totally worth it. If you're not familiar with this method, you may want to try another Ready to Paint book first, but this was so much awesome.

I had previously purchased Terry Harrison's Ready to Paint Landscapes so I was eager to get into scenes with water. Venicein Watercolor is quite a bit more challenging but I hope to tackle it with, hopefully, good results.

Joe does a great job of showing his step by step processing of painting different scenes from Venice. I play to travel there in a few years and this will help me in develop some designs and understanding the location.

The Ready to paint series is a fun way to travel without leaving home. The drawings help you learn about the subject and they speed up the painting process.

I might not have the skills to paint much of this book but I'm anxious to try it. It's beautiful.

This artist has covered some lovely paintings in this book with tracings to help those with drawing. The detail as to how he does these paintings is great for anyone not fully au-fait with watercolour plus some good tips to improve your paintings ie gum arabic for water scenes. I am really enjoying this book and having visited Venice myself I am using my own photos of the areas Joe Dowden has painted adapting them whilst using his methods to improve my own work. Definitely a good buy if you love Venice.

VERY difficult for a novice painter (which I am) but the paintings look so easy when you look through the book. I attempted 'the Rialto Bridge' with a marked lack of success, had a go at 'the Gondolier' but had to cheat to turn out something that was not a complete waste of paint and paper. My advice for what it's worth - take a bit of time to work up to these, I'm sure that it will be worth it. I'll let you know :-)

I chose this book to read because like myself, he is self taught, a natural ability that he seems to enjoy doing and writing about it. I do watch him on TV. Agreat artist with a great father evidently

I have said in previous reviews these books with their tracings and colour hints make life much easier.very pleased with the content of this one

These are complicated images but well worth the effort effort to complete.You learn a lot as you go along following the instructions, well worth the money.