I have just started with watercolor and have minimal artistic background. I had one or two other beginner books that I was using while waiting for this to come in the mail. Although these were rated pretty highly I have found "Let's Get Started" to be the best at, well..., getting started. It uses exercises to teach basic techniques. The author gives some concise but thorough instruction and then you learn by painting. I have found that the practice exercises are a satisfying way to learn using a specific technique at a time. The finished product of each exercise while simple, most often using 1 or 2 colors, is a nice little painting. The other books- while really pretty good- did not have as clear explanations and tended to try to include too much in their exercises. I feel like I am getting a good foundation using this book.

The product came quickly and was like brand new. A great way to buy a book.

Watercolor painting can be discouraging for the beginner because of
its delicate and difficult technique. A complex sketch that took a
long time to develop can be ruined in two minutes when the novice
painter starts putting watercolor on it, therefore wasting precious
time and effort plus some expensive paper and paint. That's why Jack
Reid, a fine painter with a great instructional sense, suggest
approaching watercolor by learning-by-practice four basic techniques:
flat wash & glazing, graded wash, wet-on-wet and dry brush. Mr. Reid
proposes practicing these techniques on exercises a learner will be
glad to try: nice looking pictures based on very simple sketches,
appealing enough to be stimulating but simple enough to avoid lazyness
and frustration. Also, the exercises proposed can be made in small
format, thus relieving the distress of wasting materials that often
makes the beginner repress from practicing. It's indeed a delight
working on that simple projects and finding that Mr. Reid's advices do
work. Along these exercises the beginner will adquire a practical
knowledge about how things are done in watercolor.

Once the beginner is supposed to manage the basics, the second half of
the book goes into the general problems of painting: value, colour and
composition. Again, every subject is accompanied by exercises of
increasing difficulty that the learner may be willing to reproduce.

In summary, the book is brief but worth every paragraph and
illustration. It makes those of us painting for some time as
self-learners to stop for a while and think seriously about changing
the way we focus our work. The only doubt it poses is if Mr. Reid's
approach is valid for general watercolor painting or just for
"Reid-ish watercolor". Anyway, one's style can only be develop by hard
work; a book can only give directions on the basics. And this book is
great for that.

This book is for the "Very Beginer". It tells you what to purchase to start...ie..which brushes, what paint colors, and paper type. It then goes on to show you step by step how to use those supplies to create a picture.

I am teaching myself watercolor painting and this book has helped me tremendously. The step by step exercises make is so easy to learn technique and the reasons for different techniques. It has also helped me to learn to draw better. I highly recommend it to any beginner!