I have always been intrigued by how artists who use different media and styles approach similar subjects. In this month’s issue, watercolourist, Kerry Bennett and oil painter, Valérie Pirlot, tackle beautiful spring blossom in two very different ways – one showing the precision you can gain from painting in watercolour over a wet-in-wet background (pages 40-43), and the second aimed at teaching you how to become more confident using different brushstrokes in versatile water-mixable oils (pages 44-47). As with all our step-by-step tutorials, we encourage you to practise the techniques on which the demonstrations focus then paint from your own (or copyright-free) photographs, or from life.