A reading nook is the smallest complete scene there is. One chair, one light, one window and a pile of books is enough to make a room, which is why these sheets are the ones people finish. There is no vast background to fill in and no crowd of figures to get right — just a corner, drawn carefully.
Books are the recurring problem in this collection and also its pleasure. A shelf of thirty spines is thirty decisions, and the fastest way to make it look real is to pick three colours and repeat them out of order rather than giving every book its own. Cloth bindings in the same family, the odd bright one, and it reads as a real shelf instead of a rainbow.
Several of these sheets have a cat in them, in the place cats actually choose: the top of the bookshelf, the arm of the chair, the exact patch of sun. If you want the cat to stand out, leave it almost uncoloured and put the strongest tone on the cushion under it.
These are also the calmest sheets to print for someone else. A reading corner is close to universally liked, which cannot be said for a graveyard picnic.
