I spent a lovely afternoon painting with this easy to follow watercolour book

I might be married to an illustrator and work on an art and design site, but I am definitely not an artist. My drawings can be described as either "absolutely terrible" or "naive", depending on how nice you're feeling.

But with a bit of instruction from a drawing book or tutorial, I get along better. When I tried the Simply Draw book a few years ago, I found that I could draw simple shapes with reasonable success.

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And I've found a new book that I've been really enjoying. It's called Animal Watercolour in 10 Minutes by Miriam Sugranyes and it's available to pre-order now (it comes out on 5 August in the US and 17 July in the UK).

The book takes you through the basics of watercolour before giving simple step by step instructions of how to draw various animals, including a panda, otter, elephant, flamingo and penguin.

The steps are pretty easy to follow, even for a novice like me. After my first attempt trying to draw a panda (above), I attempted a flamingo (below):

The first step is always a line drawing, which I chose to do with a pencil as I didn't trust myself to go straight to watercolour.

Next I added some colour. The book suggests which strokes to use and where, which I followed with varying degrees of success.

I then added more details until I eventually got to something that resembles a flamingo, but alas, doesn't look a huge amount like the picture. But this is my fault for not following the instructions carefully not, not the book's!

So now I had a flamingo and a panda. After that I went on to draw a tortoise.

I honestly had a lovely time making these drawings. I used Staedtler's 60 karat aquarell watercolour pencils to make these, but next time I want to try out some proper watercolours like M. Graham Artists' Watercolours.

Other beginner watercolour sets like the one below are currently on sale as part of Amazon Prime Day, so you can bag yourself a bargain.

Save 16%

Artecho Watercolour Paint Set 50 Colors: was $18.99 now $15.98 at Amazon

This watercolour art kit comes with 46 classic colours plus four fluorescents. You also get a couple of brushes, a drawing eraser, pencil sharpener and pencil and there's even some watercolour paper to get you started. All you need to start experimenting with watercolour.

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Save 43%

Astistro Watercolor Paint Set: was $29.99 now $16.99 at Amazon

There's a huge 43% off this watercolour paint set that includes a range of vibrant colours to get you started on your watercolour journey as well as fluorescents and metallics. It comes in a sweet tin box with paper and brushes also included.

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And don't forget to pre-order Animal Watercolour in 10 Minutes for $19.99 at Amazon as it comes out soon. I fully recommend it to beginners and those who want to improve their skills. Plus it would make a great gift for a budding artist.