Painting Watercolour Flowers from Photographs - Softcover

Robin Berry

4.33

6 ratings by Goodreads

9781844486120: Painting Watercolour Flowers from Photographs

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844486125 ISBN 13: 9781844486120

Publisher: Search, 2010

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Practice flower painting at your leisure, without having to worry about seasonal availability, changing light, or your subject altering in appearance as buds open or fade. This is a beautiful collection of 60 superb flower images by professional nature photographers. Each photograph is accompanied by a step-by-step painting demonstration, with advice on special techniques and working methods, palette choices, and colour-mixing tips. Capture the magic of wild flowers in fields and forests, portray intricate single specimens with botanical accuracy, or paint elaborate, exotic floral arrangements. All techniques are clearly explained, from laying washes to methods of salt granulation and wax resist, with advice on bringing detail and vitality to your flower paintings.

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About the Author:

Robin Berry has been a professional artist for 35 years, focusing exclusively on watercolour the past twenty. She has received several national awards and been honoured by inclusion in four best of watercolour books. Her flower painting technique is featured in Watercolor Secrets: an inside look at the techniques of award winning Splash artists (North Light, 2009).

Review:

Its refreshing to see a book advocating using photographs - too often we're told never paint from a photographA". I used to wonder why but having seen works by people that do I wonder if its because the temptation - especially by beginner artists - is to paint everything exactly as it is rather than selecting the best part and moving or leaving out other elements? Anyway - this book says do it and if like me you've a digi camera and therefore hundreds of beautiful flower photos on your pc its good to be able to use some of them. The beauty of painting flowers from photos is that they don't change, the tulips haven't turned and swayed towards the light when you return to them next day, the petal edges of a fragile short-lived poppy haven't curled over and withered and the crocus hasn't gone from just opened to full blown daisy petal effect within a couple of hours in the warmth. (That one I have had happen!) I want to add here a word about copyright - don't browse the web for a likely looking photo or painting and use other people's work without requesting permission from them, its illegal and most will be more than happy to allow you if you ask. Not only is it courteous to request permission but it avoids you unwittingly breaking copyright legislation. The book begins with some helpful information of editing and cropping pictures, and how the eyeA" of the camera sees the subject - not always as we see it - shadows may lose detail and colours are often different shades and tones to the original flower. Robin advices taking photos from different angles and then making preliminary sketches before beginning your painting. I recall a watercolour tutor once telling the class I attended that we needed to look, look and look again at out subject (shells that day) and draw from every conceivable angle in order to feelA" them. I think this is what Robin means when she advises sketches - to get the best possible feel and position before you start painting. There's helpful info on colour mixing and my particular bete noire - Values, where she shows us several methods of interpreting value. I need to work on this so its a section I'll pay close attention to. In the techniques section she shows us many different ways of applying paint to give lots of different end effects. There are lots of different projects in the main body of the book, from single flowers, to floral still life and outdoor flowers, each taken from real paintings by many different artists giving a range of styles. These aren't step by step in the usual manner but depend on the artist having the knowledge of basic techniques and each flower project gives full list of colours and techniques used along with a few basic instructions. If you've mastered basic techniques and want to be more adventurous in your painting than following traditional step by step books this is the bridge to give you confidence to go on to using your own photographs.JeannieZelos.com

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