This is an outstanding and BEAUTIFUL book to learn to BOTH draw and paint wildlife with watercolor media. It is unique to the many other watercolor books I have.

The author uses a "stepping stone" approach to learning proportions and drawing, and a "fearless" approach to painting animals in watercolor--i.e. making small decisions and using thin glazing layers leading to the final product. She uses thin layers of glazes as small decisions that lead to the final product. This book is beautiful for the paintings alone.

Here is what is covered in the book:
1. What to Paint and Where--drawing and painting from life, working in natural history museums, using photographs as references
2. Drawing--getting it right (such as how to proportion), the drawing process, demonstration: caribou, demonstration: gorilla
3. Color-color vs. value, achieving authentic color, creating luminous neutrals, creating depth.
4. Design--Placing our subject, impact from a distance, design principles
5. Watercolor Basics--Material, Materials for working in the field, watercolor paint properties, color mixing, watercolor techniques
6. Peggy's No-Fear Painting Process--overview, demonstration: snowy owl, when good paintings go bad: corrections, finishing a painting.
7. Pattern: counter-shading, spots and stripes, demonstration radiated tortoise, demonstration: zebra, total camouflage 8. fur: building texture, demonstration: black bear, demonstration: gray fox
9. Feathers: feather groups, demonstration: turquoise fronted parrot, demonstration: scarlet ibis
10. Portraiture: Capturing personality, demonstration: eyes, beaks and horns, demonstration: bald eagle 11. habitat: building figure and habitat, landscape, demonstration: great blue heron.

It's great instructional book, but also beautiful just for the paintings.

An informative book that gives advice and examples to demonstrate ways to incorporate the techniques into your own work. It's not a "this is my work and how I did it" book with no application beyond the author's included photos. If you're an artist, or just interested in watercolor, it's a good read!

I took classes from Peggy years ago. I had forgotten some of her techniqes and ordered this book...reading it is like being back in class. She goes through her amazing process step by step with color photographs and clear instruction. This is a valuable watercolor technique book, don't pass it up if you are serious about making some eye popping wildlife paintings.
Thank you Peggy!

I received this book for Christmas and was very impressed. It has so much information and great pictures. I am a self taught beginning water color painter. Very well written book that I could understand. I just hope she comes out with more.

Buy this book and save yourself thousands of dollars literally. As a student of Peggy at the Art Institute of Chicago I know. I paid tons of money to go to art school. Almost everything I learned from Peggy you can learn from this book. Plus it is an excellent showcase of her artwork. One of the best draftsman you'll ever see. Stop reading this and go buy it.