Flowers in the Landscape (Watercolour Tips and Techniques)

Nov 09

This is a useful guide to flowers as an element within a larger painting rather than as a subject in themselves. Given that flowers feature in many landscapes this is timely, although there are a couple of demonstrations where the surrounding landscape rather seems to have disappeared and the flowers are, perhaps, more prominent than you might at first think. This isn't necessarily a let-down, but if you were expecting less defined shapes and blocks of colour in place of quite a lot of botanical details, let's say you might be surprised. If it's the former you're looking for, then you might find that Terry Harrison's Watercolour Flowers fits the bill rather better.

Dec 09

There are lots of books on painting flowers, but most of these show the blooms by themselves. But flowers are part of a landscape and here they are shown in their element. They grow just about everywhere so there is a variety of different locations in here to inspire you to capture them in watercolors. I like the double-page spread showing the palette of colors needed for painting flowers - all the daubs of paint are flower shaped! It gives their names and a bit about what they are used for and the daubs are large enough to get a good idea of the color. I also like the fact that you don't have to go outside and hunt for what you want to paint but can use photographs, something too many artists seem to think is not playing the game. There is even a pair of photographs of daffodils and a sketch combining the two which is helpful, and this extends to a sketch in marker pen so you can hear the crack of rules being broken which is invariably a good sign. This progresses through a wash to a staged project of daffodils which shows beautifully and directly how a good painting can come from a couple of photographs. This theme continues and there are chapters on scaling up from a photograph using a grid, some nicely illustrated perspective and discussions of a couple of finished paintings detailing how they were created. Staged projects include a doorway with flowers, daisies on a table, a letterbox with hollyhocks beside it, hellebores and my favorite bluebell wood. Each project also shows several photographs that inspired it, and I personally found it a very useful tool that enhances my own work. It is mainly aimed at intermediate painters, although anybody who knows the basics and fancies having a go at floral studies will find it very user-friendly too.