This is a compilation of five previous books on drawing cats, dogs, wild animals, birds and horses, not a brand new book. If you don't have these previous titles you can now obtain them in one handy volume with nothing omitted. Each page (larger than UK size A4) shows you how to draw an animal or bird, starting with a rough outline and adding more in subsequent diagrams (usually six). The last two show the drawing shaded in pencil and finally with paint added for a colored study. One helpful aspect of this is that each additional drawing shows what has been added to it in a different colored pencil, although in some cases more stages would have made the book even more user-friendly. For a beginner it is not always obvious how to get from a simple line drawing to the fully shaded study next in line, but working it all out is perhaps part of the fun. Certainly this is a beautifully simple approach to drawing, where there are no captions - they frankly just aren't necessary - just steps to work through. I enjoyed using it, and anybody who wants to learn how to draw a range of different creatures will too.-Myshelf.com Another one from the popular How to Draw range, this time a compilation of individual books brought together to cover cats, dogs, birds, wild animals and my favourite section - horses. The artists show us in a series of simple steps how to create a selection of different animals in a variety of characteristic poses. They use a simple method of shapes, mainly circles and ovals joined together by lines to show us how easy it is to draw these, in a step by step format from the initial step to the finished portrait. The beauty of this book is that like all the How to Draw series it's so simple to follow each step. The first step is drawn in one pencil colour and subsequent steps in a different one, with the last step changing back to original colour. Its incredibly easy for even a very beginner to create great drawings following these simple instructions. Although all the poses are very typical of the individual animal( and birds!) my favourite are the horse ones. Having tried so many times to photograph my own horse moving and failed - I really only get a good picture when she's grazing - using this book I'll hopefully be able to tailor the poses into some lovely paintings of her. And of course use the individual portraits to bring some life into other paintings. If you'd love to draw but think you can't this book is the one you want, it demystifies all those problems and shows you just how simple drawing is by following a few key instructions.-JeannieZelos.com

Eva Dutton is a professional artist and qualified riding instructor and stable manager. Polly Pinder has written and illustrated books on subjects including cake decoration and papercrafts. Jonathan Newey is an award-winning artist with extensive experience in many drawing and painting mediums including coloured pencil. Susie Hodge has been teaching practical art and art history to children and adults for over 11 years.