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Title: Watercolor: Pocket Studio (Pocket Studio) by Ian Sidaway ISBN: 0-8230-5630-9 Publisher: Watson-Guptill Pubns Pub. Date: May, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 2 (1 review)

Rating: 2
Summary: Not bad for the $, but not the world's greatest paint/paper
Comment: I purchased this book on impulse while browsing the art section. It seemed to be everything I wanted: instruction, paint, brush, and paper - all in one convenient package for a nice price of $$$. Here's where the old adage "you get what you pay for" starts to ring true.

Don't let the size fool you. Inside the hard cardboard covers is an instruction manual and eight sheets of watercolor paper approximately 3.5 inches wide by 7.5 inches tall. That's not at all a large canvas to paint on, and having now compared the sheets to other watercolor paper, I can attest that it is of extremely poor quality.

The instructions on the other hand, are quite good despite the diminutive size of the manual. It covers stretching paper, techniques such as laying a wash and spattering, colors, composition and perspective. Not bad for a book that would literally fit in your back pocket or pocket book provided you're willing to rip it from the binding.

The paints are small half-pans (roughly half the size featured in the cover picture), though that's not a problem since the wells are deep. The paint quality is poor, but you're unlikely to notice unless you've had experience with more costly paints. For some reason, they provide burnt umber in a tube instead of a half-pan, but it's still rather grainy.

The water bottle is a neat little addition, though newbies may prefer to use a paper cup filled with water. The paintbrush will probably be the first item to be thrown away since it doesn't retain its shape and loses hairs easily. The built in mixing wells (there's four of them, not six like the cover shows) are truly too small to be of any use, but a simple plastic plate will serve as a palette so it's no great loss.

Overall, if you've never tried watercolors before, it's not such a bad purchase. If it turns out watercolor is not for you, it's much better to have spent $ on a book with all the supplies, than $$$ on paints alone (not including brush, paper or instruction manual). If you discover you like painting watercolors, you can rip the Pocket Studio manual out, throw the rest of the kit away, and get yourself some real supplies from your local art store. I'd give it 2.5 stars if amazon allowed 1/2's.