Painting Unicorns in Watercolour (Fantasy Art)

July 07

Have you ever stood at the edge of a great dark wood and pondered to yourself what magical creatures could be living within? If you have an amazing imagination then this book is for you. This book tweaks old magical memories and urges you to imagine new magical moments. If my dad was still alive he would have retold me the story about when he was a boy and how he saw a unicorn in between a few trees and no one would believe him. Those memories remain convincing even when we turn into adulthood. Isn't it amazing the imagination a child has?

Anyway, the book provides an interesting little history on unicorns. Did you know that the most fantastic quality a unicorn possesses is the ability to leap from the earth and produce a magical rainbow in the sky? The unicorn always appears very majestic, so you have to be quite accurate to capture that quality. The book explains that it is easier than you think to create the image of a unicorn because they are usually based on creatures such as horses, lions and deer. The traditional unicorn was based on a beard of a goat, hooves, legs and body of a deer and the tail of a lion. If you study carefully all these creatures, you can produce a pretty impressive painting of a unicorn. Giving your unicorn character can be quite a task but this book aims to show you how to infuse various qualities such as beauty, inquisitiveness or pride.

Rebecca Balchin, the author is very passionate about the subject of unicorns because she is a great horse lover and this shows through in her accuracy in her paintings. The book runs through the materials needed, the colours of paints you will need and the basic techniques. The section `drawing unicorns' is then separated into sub-sections entitled `drawing a horse,' `faces,' `horns,' `manes,' `tails,' `hooves,' `movement,' `foals' and `backgrounds'

There are some amazing paintings in this book that are so ethereal you feel like you have almost been transported into another world. My favourite being one entitled `Pink Moonrise' which is a pale moon rising in a pink glow with dusk settling, whilst the unicorn stands on its back legs on a stone in the middle of an ocean. Just the sight of these paintings would inspire you. Another beautiful painting is one entitled `Midsummer Whispers' and this one has a fairytale feel to it. The painting is of a close up of two foals locking horns with a background of stunning summery flowers. If I ever get chance I would love to make up a book of my unicorn paintings and produce a little fairytale story to accompany it to help my son learn to read. This book sparks all sorts of wonderful ideas in you.

The book then ends with two in-depth and details projects entitled `Firefly' and `Enchanted glade.' I won't describe these painting as I will leave it to your imagination to come up with what you think these paintings could be. But I can tell you they are really astounding. The instructions are so detailed and easy to understand you couldn't fail to follow with ease. The only slight flaw I could see with the book is that I would like to have seen the author's inspiration behind each picture, because I like their inspiration to rub off on me. But if you want to create some stunning pictures of unicorns then this is most certainly the book for you!

Sarah Cooper

Aug 07

This site normally has a policy of avoiding fantasy art. It's not that I have anything against it, I simply don't understand it and I find it difficult to be objective and to know whether the results are any good or not.

So why would I touch a book on unicorns? They're the stuff of fairly tale, they don't exist, missed the last bus to Noah Central and failed to make it to the Ark. Up there with the Dodo, except that the Dodo was real, so what kind of analogy is that?

Well, a very clever one, actually, because unicorns do have a sort of existence. Artistically speaking, they're just a horse with a broom handle stuck on its head. Take the pole away and you're left, plus or minus the odd cloven hoof, with a horse. And what this book is, above all else, is one of the very best books on painting horses you could wish for. Horses are a tricky subject and the proportions are hard to get just right, so full marks to Rebecca for some superb, sensitive drawings and paintings which get to the very heart of her subject.

If you want a book on unicorns, this is pretty much the only one but, if you want a book on horses, it remains the one you should buy. Of course it's a bit fairytale, but that doesn't get in the way if you don't want it to.