If you want to know how to paint using acrylics - this is the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed Dani's style. After an introduction of materials, she launches into the basics of making a good painting including composition, texture and colour. Dani says she wants to help free your creativity and help you find your voice as an abstract painter - I think she does that admirably in this book through four step-by-step demonstrations. These are thorough and easy to follow and use various multi-media techniques. Learn how to paint vibrant, personal abstract paintings. Highly recommended.-KarenPlatt.co.uk As the introduction says, until the camera was invented art was the only way of depicting reality. After its invention art was free to go to places no camera could go, depicting images not of reality or even fantasy, but to evoke moods and show our inner world. It can be a daunting style to attempt for a beginner, so there are books like this one to lend a helping hand. I like this book. There is nothing daunting about it at all, being rather on the thin side and unlike other books on abstract painting it actually has some staged projects to work through. Maybe some people might say that this goes against what abstract art is all about but I am not one of them - a beginner needs all the help they can get to understand the anatomy of a subject. The first project for example shows how a study of a pot of geraniums can be reduced to a picture which is all about their vibrant shapes and colors, and then rendered down further and depicted again as a series of bright shapes. There are ideas to free up the imagination as a painter, and these include using your other senses for stimulation. Experiment with unusual materials such as kitchen paper to add dimension and a feeling of movement, and have a go at working with different types of paint. All the paints in here are water-based so if you get a bit carried away getting cleaned up won't be too bad! Of course there is a brief chapter at the front to introduce you to what you need, and even this is less daunting than in many other art primers. On putting the book down I felt thoroughly inspired, and like the author's idea that the book is like a High Street that can be returned to when you need something. If I was buying somebody a book on how to get started in abstract painting I rather think that it might be this one.-Myshelf.com The How to Paint series is perfect for those artists wanting to try a new medium and who are looking for help to build up their confidence and skills. They are colourful, well-designed, full of ideas, information and step-by-step instruction. Mixed-media abstract work is becoming increasingly popular, and in her book Dani Humberstone explores various ways of working with shape, colour and texture to demonstrate the potential of abstract art and encourage us to 'start our own journey as an abstract painter'. With information on materials, design, imagination, integrity and meaning, and four detailed demonstrations, the book is a useful introduction to this complex subject.-The Artist

Dani was born in London and educated at Michael Hall School in East Sussex. She trained as a fashion designer in Brighton and developed an award-winning design business, before working in graphic design and book illustration for a number of varied clients, including nightclubs, magazines, offices and schools. As well as producing greetings cards used worldwide, working as a freelance gallery manager and curator and sitting on the board of a prestigious Sussex based fine art exhibition, DanI has been a professional artist for ten years and exhibited in galleries, art fairs and group exhibitions. She works from her art shop/studio on the High Street in Wadhurst, East Sussex.