Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Watercolour Flower Portraits

by Billy Showell



      What a beautiful book, and a beautiful subject too. Sitting at a table near an open window with the scent of the garden blowing in, painting flowers is something I enjoy myself; now here is a useful primer on it to aid me in my work. It can adorn my coffee table too, and even those guests with no painterly leanings can enjoy its lush and wonderful artwork - with a hard cover, too!

You don’t need much to have a ball with this book. The author recommends buying the best quality paints, but I think it depends on what you want to do with the finished paintings. Mine are preliminary stages between nature and a piece of wearable art or a set of memory album decorations so think about this part carefully. Get to grips with the drawing stage first, look at how flowers are constructed (briefly) and then do some mixing. It is useful to see a palette of what colors to buy as there are so many and if you are painting flowers you need a rather different palette than -for example- a portraitist. There are several flower studies with tips on how the colors used were mixed which I found to be very useful, and the same for leaves. I think this was my favorite part as mixing is something of a bugbear with me, and I think that this is a great way to handle the subject rather than in the abstract. Here too are different painting techniques to try such as wet-into-wet, using masking fluid, dry brushing etc and what sort of effect they give. Other highlights include a short section on painting white flowers, looking at how to paint different parts of a flower and composing a picture. The in-depth staged studies are just the type of thing for any artist to work through to really get under the skin of a painting, and remind me of how I learned to paint. I’ve seen a lot of art books but for sheer conciseness, practicality and down-to-earth good sense this one gets a high score. One for my keeper shelf.

If you cannot find watercolour materials locally try SearchPress.com for a list of suppliers.

The Book

Search Press
15 June 2006
Hardback
1844480666
How-To Books/Art
More at Amazon.com US || UK
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2006
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© 2006 MyShelf.com