Draw Flowers

Drawing flowers is something that really appeals to me. The 16 projects in this book are suitable for artists of all abilities but particularly for beginners. Also useful to the more experienced artist who is not familiar with flowers. A variety of mediums and backgrounds are used giving the reader and artist a chance to experiment. An excellent introduction from how to hold a pencil to the choice of materials and equipment. Good photographs and excellent detailed instruction.

Flowers are a very popular subject for artwork of all kinds, and this book shows you how to capture those beautiful blooms using pencils, pastels, crayons and charcoal. It's all in here, from what paper and materials to choose, practicing using the pencils and pastels, and how to tackle flowers in particular. Various different shapes of flowers are looked at in detail, from daisies to tulips, shapes of leaves, and what they look like from a selection of angles. The flowers chosen are a good range and include wild flowers such as dandelions, cow parsley and poppies, as well as garden favorites like gerberas, narcissi and calla lillies, so you can always find something to draw. I particularly liked the way all seasons were represented, with cow parsley shown covered with hoarfrost and looking magical. Whatever time of the year it is, there is always something to draw without recourse to lurking indoors looking at old photographs and books. Each flower is treated as a series of exercises and a drawing project, so you can get to grips with all aspects of that particular flower. I found that this was a user-friendly book filled with projects that often were quite quick to complete, meaning that drawing some good pictures of flowers could be mastered with a lot less fuss than many other books.

This straightforward book is a perfect introduction for beginners. The format is logical and the drawings simple yet effective. Anne Pieper uses a range of materials, including pencils, coloured pencils, graphite, watercolour pencils, pastels, wax crayons and charcoal, and takes the reader through everything necessary to achieve bright, bold and accurate flower drawings. With the detailed introductory section and the second part showing more detailed studies and demonstrations for 16 different flowers, this book will instil confidence into even the most nervous flower artist. Helpfully taking the reader through several different stages of drawing each flower, it diagnoses and resolves potential problems.-The Artist For those people with limited drawing experience Anne has included a beginners section. This included a useful overview of different mediums that can be used in drawing and a bit about papers and mounts. Not only do mounts give some works impact but they are used to protect some mediums such as pastel from touching the glass in a frame. She then goes on with brief outlines of techniques and mark making and shows how each can be used in different ways, and a few words on composition and light and shade. Having become reasonable proficient the student can then go on to part two with confidence. If you have more experience you may wish to go straight in to the second part which comprises more detailed explanations of individual flower anatomy with botanical information, close studies and practical exercises. Anne gives advice I've heard so many times but still forget to practice! - look closely and make lots of sketches. This enhances our powers of observation and means we learn to reproduce more accurately. Flowers are available all year round so its not difficult to find a subject to practise with. In this section Anne has taken many different flowers from tulips and apple blossom to calla lilies, cow parsley and roses. She looks at the individual parts of each one - shows us how to break it down into simple shapes and how to fill in gradually more detail until we have an accurate reproduction of each flower. I found her drawing projectsA for each one very simple to understand, and when she moves on to more complex flowers like the beautiful multi petalled dahlia it becomes easier to understand how to create it having learned from her earlier lessons. Anne covers a beautiful Phalenopsis (moth) Orchid towards the end of the book, and having tried and failed miserably to draw a beautiful one of these I was given last Xmas I'm going to try again following Anne's easy to understand instructions. I hope that this time I end up with a beautiful (or even reasonable!) artwork and not the poor sad looking flower I completed last time :o) This book will be welcomed by anyone artist who enjoys floral studies and the challenges they can present to create realistic artworks.