A-Z of Flower Portraits
Subtitle
by Billy Showell
If you want to paint professional and attractive botanical pictures
of flowers, here is a good place to start. Ms Showell’s earlier
book on Watercolor Fruit and Vegetable Portraits (also
reviewed on this site) showed how lovely even the humble spud could
look when transformed into the sort of painting you could encounter
in a priceless 18th century book. Now this talented artist turns
her hand to flower painting, and it is time to get those watercolors
out once again.
Actually you can also find my review of Watercolour Flower Portraits
in our archives as well, so prepare for more beautiful floral studies.
Search Press is not known for their hardcover books but this is
one, which will perhaps give you a clue that this is going to be
something special. I love the way the flowers look so three-dimensional
against the starkness of the white paper, and if your watercolors
manage to look insipid then this is one lesson you can learn from
this book to start with. There is good advice about composition,
keeping a sketchbook and of course what to buy as well as mastering
techniques such as wet-in-wet, color mixing, masking etc. Of course
much of this is common to watercolor painting of any type, but I
liked how it was all applied to florals with plenty of examples.
Here too is advice on veining your leaves; painting fine hairs on
stems, creating realistic water droplets and what colors you need
to buy for flower painting. The flowers chosen are all garden favourites,
ranging from traditional roses and lilies to daffodils and fritillaries,
as well as yuccas, pitcher plants and quesnelia. Each project features
a large, whole page study of the bloom along with a pencil sketch
of part of it with some color added. There are instructions (not
the type with staged photographs but just in writing) as well as
a color swatch of all the paints you need to buy and what they look
like mixed into the relevant shades. A short piece about the flowers
together with the artist’s own reason for choosing them completes
the entry, making it eminently suitable for all those watercolorists
who have progressed beyond beginner primers and are wanting something
more intermediate and relevant to their chosen subject. This is
also just a lovely book to gaze at, a celebration of flowers and
a handsome addition to bookshelves (and coffee tables) everywhere.
Highly recommended.
|
The
Book |
Search Press |
September 2010 |
Hardback |
1844484521 / 9781844484522 |
How-To Books/Art |
More
at Amazon.com US
|| UK |
Excerpt |
NOTE: |
The
Reviewer |
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewed 2010 |
NOTE: |
|