Don’t be fooled by the adorable cover; this slim volume is a comprehensive guide of how to draw and paint adorable animals, even if you’re convinced you have no natural artistic ability. With an encouraging introduction, a list of basic supplies (including a variety of pencils, watercolors, brushes, a color chart defining warm, cool, and neutral tones), drawing techniques, using a grid, using transfer paper, drawing versus sketching, how to draw basic shapes, and how to draw & paint fur, budding artists will be hard-pressed to find a better instruction book. How good? A reviewer who can’t sketch a decent stick figure was able to draw a basic outline of a horse and a bunny after just one read-through of the instructions, and she swears she’s not making this up. The author, Jane Maday, never talks down to her audience — as soon as you start reading, you realize that she has tremendous faith in your ability and will teach you how to harness it. She’ll show you to draw kittens, puppies, puffins, butterflies, a variety of adorable insects (no spiders), frogs, turtles, otters, pond flora and fauna, polar bears, and more. If you’ve ever wanted to visually depict your pet in any way other than a photo, Ms. Maday will not only show you how to do so, but make you believe you’ve always been a artist. You won’t regret buying this book — in fact, you’ll probably wear it out with use — but thankfully, she’s written more art books.