[.ca] Chinese Brush Painting Kit (ISBN 1560104481)

An excellent buy!:
Lucy Wang, through Walter Foster books, has put together, as it states, a complete painting kit for beginners of Chinese Brush. Although the ink stick,ink dish and water dish are small, it gives the beginner enough to get started. The brushes are of fine quality and her book is fantastic! I bought it for a grand-daughter, and I know she is going to love it. Having taken Chinese Brush for a few years now, I love Lucy's additions to her book ... especially the siamese cat!

This book is so beautiful, I can't get over it:
I would like to say that I don't usually gush. In fact I'm generally pretty critical in my reviews. That said, this book is beautiful, and more than I could have hoped for. Beyond the basics kit as listed above, there is a booklet that is thirty-two pages long. It has fifteen projects in it that are described stroke by stroke. When I was a kid I had an drawing book that walked the reader through drawing a picture by starting with a rectangle, then you drew a circle on one corner, etc., until you have an elephant or whatever. This is sort of on those lines, but the elegance and simplicity of the finished picture is beyond my ability to describe. Lucy Wang does exactly the style of Chinese watercolor that I most admire, where with a few simple brush strokes she captures life, movement, expression and character. Of course, I can't begin to replicate her paintings, but by mimicking her strokes, I can get the idea of the repetoire of brushstrokes available to me. I'm going to keep practicing until my practice pictures look recognizable and then I feel I will have enough technique to try to develop my own style. All this from a 32 page booklet! Yes, either I am delusional, or this is a really good book. The kit is simple, but everything is good quality. Only five sheets of watercolor paper didn't last vey long, but it's the standard stuff you can get at any art store, or even Fred Meyers (is F.M. a national chain? -- sorry, I don't know.) I am grateful to the earlier reviewer who suggested gettting newsprint paper to practice on. It doesn't absorb the same as watercolor paper, but it's just fine for early doodles. The paints are just standard watercolors, but the brushes are good quality, or better than good enough for me, anyway.

A great all-in-one package!:
This is a great purchase for a beginner to the art of brush painting. It has everything you need to get started (although I would recommend getting a tablet of newsprint for practice work), and the book has a lot of terrific projects, with step by step instructions. A lot of fun, and makes a great art seem less intimidating for the uninstructed.