This easy-to-follow guide is packed with ideas for quick sketching that will help you get your subject down rapidly.

Samantha will show you how to capture warm and cool colours and use washes and blending. In the 60 bitesize exercises, subjects range from landscapes and seascapes to people and busy urban streets. There’s no jargon or fiddling and everything is explained in simple, concise terms. Even watercolour’s best-kept secrets and key techniques become easy to understand and you’ll find it impossible not to get your paints out and start working the moment you open the pages.

There are three main sections. Easy Techniques introduces wet-in-wet, drybrush, scumbling, glazing and more. Move on to Applying Your Techniques and you’ll be practising the five-minute exercises of the title, learning about shapes and light before trying your hand at skies, trees, water or flowers. In the final section, Take It Further introduces movement, detail, depth and mixed media.

This is a nicely progressive course that you can work with in spare moments but brings ideas that will last a lifetime.

Search Press • Paperback • 128 pages • Colour throughout