A-Z of Flower Portraits: An illustrated guide to painting 40 beautiful flowers in watercolour

The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. The instructions are very well written and Billy Showell is very generous, sharing many step by step photographs. There are many in very sequence and they have done a fantastic job at designing the spreads, They are not overwhelming, the fonts are fine and every annotation for every photograph says something of value, not just fillers. It is quite difficult to find those attributes on books of this nature, many artist do incredible work but their instructions many times fail when translated into a book. Not with Miss Showell. For anybody who is really interested into practicing with her book please buy the right paper, is SUPER important. None of her instructions will work , even for advanced students, if you don't use good paper. And if it says let it dry completely do so. You will love this books if you are serious about learning. My suggestion would be to practice in small sizes , good paper, before attempting to do a complete or final illustration. The best results I've had following her instructions have been on Arches Hot press 140LB. I have used Cotman watercolors, which are very transparent and affordable on this paper, and painted 10, 12 layers and the paper looks like new. She doesn't tell you what brand to buy because we all have access to different brands etc. If you decide to try paper that is new to you I suggest you buy the smallest size or sheet to know for sure before you commit to blocks or many sheets at once. This books is so beautiful that even if you don't ever watercolor anything you can use as reference for drawing and sketching botanicals, it's stunning. Enjoy!

It is hard to know where to start with this review because this is absolutely one of the best watercolor books on the market for advanced beginners and beyond - even if you are only mildly interested in painting in the botanical style. Five years ago at age 65, I decided to leave fiber arts and move into fine arts, more specifically watercolor painting. Because there are little or no art education support systems where I live, I have relied exclusively on books and videos along with a couple of good friends who are willing to give me honest feedback. Given that background plus my years as an educator, I believe I am well qualified to judge good instructional material. First of all, Billie explains in the introduction that she paints in the botanical style but not to the rigid code of true botanical art because the latter does not offer much space for creativity. This told me immediately what to expect in the content of the instruction - in other words, no science lectures! Like Billy, I admire and respect well done traditional botanical paintings, but it is not what I want to do. Her introduction to materials and the use of the "lessons" are concise and to the point, but she does not try to teach basic skills. Wonderful! Because that is not the intention of the book! And she evidently did not feel the need to cater to beginners just to sell a few more copies of the book. Instead, she includes a masterful section on composition, again focused on what is needed for the content of the book. It is one of my weak areas, and I learned lots! Each of the 40 flowers is given a two page spread, with one dedicated to a beautiful photograph of her finished painting. These are so well done that it is easy to see how the various applications of brush marks and color blend together. The other page contains a combination of written instructions and, again, very well done photographs as needed to illustrate what is to be done to complete the flower. I would recommend that when you first start to use a lesson, you take the time to become very familiar with that instruction page, focusing on the layout of what information is where. This will make it much easier to refer back for help when you are working on a painting. Having said all of this, I will now tell you my 2 favorite things about the book. The first is the conversational style Billy uses in sharing what she knows. This is not a published formal lecture. The second is the set of remarks about the need to practice and do parts of the painting more than once before putting it all together in a final piece. Both of those helped me relax immediately and look forward to having some fun! I live on a very limited budget, and for me this is an expensive book. However, I have Billy's other book and felt fairly certain the second one would be good as long as it was not just a repeat of the first one. I was not disappointed on either count. I know this review is long, but this book is a gem for those of us who rely heavily on printed instructional material. It shows a lot of planning, thought, and awareness of the audience for which it is intended, and deserves a big hooray! What I appreciate the most about the book is that Billy does not try to be all things to all readers. This lets her stay focused on the intention of the lesson - to share what she knows about botanical floral painting at an advanced level in a focused, concise, and coherent style. If you are a beginner and are interested in the content of the book, by all means buy it! Just be sure you have a beginner's manual handy to explain some of the techniques and terminology if you need it. Thank you, Billie, for all the time and effort it took to put this lovely book together.

Billy Showell had an eye for both color (in its smallest gradations) and composition. This book in particular shows her incredibly sharp talents. This book is very much a flower painting techniques book. While some 24 pages of basics about painting watercolor 'portraits' of flowers, the majority of the book is made up with step-by-step painting instructions on 40 specific and oft represented wild growing flowers. They include the following flowers: 1) Anemone 2) Camellia 3) Clematis 4) Freesia 5) Blue & Pink Hydrangea 6) Sweet Pea 7) Honeysuckle 8) Magnolia 9) Hybrid Tea Rose ("Rosa") 10) Wisteria And 29 other flowers. Her approach to the book is very straightforward yet extremely brilliant in its simplicity. For each new flower of the 40, Ms. Showell gives the palette vertically down the first page naming the colors she will use through the entire painting. Then numbered paragraphs state which colors to use on which parts of the flowers as you paint them onto your paper stock or vellum or whatever as your 'canvas.' Her palette is generous with colors, but not overly packed with colors that are not necessary. Likewise, with her directions she is not verbose, but fluid and intelligent. Painting any of her examples are truly terrific lessons in botanical illustrations. Ms. Showell has a great and wonderful talent and her books are particularly exquisite. I would recommend this book to watercolor painters of flowers in any place in the world. Ms. Showell's advice is universally applicable and wonderfully presented. I would recommend this book to any artist above the age of 14 years or as soon as the artist has a good understanding of light, pigment and coloration.

Very helpful and beautiful book on drawing and painting various flowers.

Livro perfeito para artistas e pintores se inspirarem..ótima compra

جميل والرسومات حلوه

Mitlerweile habe ich sämtliche Bücher von Showell, weil sie wirklich gelungen sind und in gebundener Form eine reine Augenweide. Das "A-Z of Flower Portraits" ist ein tolles Buch für alle, die sich nicht ganz an das Thema herantrauen und an möglichst vielen Blumenportraits sehen möchten, was möglich ist. Es gibt eine gelungene Einführung in Material und einigen Techniken gefolgt von den Pflanzen, die mit einer Seite Erklärungen und einer Seite mit der ganzen Abbildung vorgestellt werden. Dazu werden immer sämtliche genutzten Farben abgebildet (die Farbtreue des Drucks ist sehr gut) und kleine Details Step-by-Step gezeigt. Ich würde das Buch uneingeschränkt weiter empfehlen.

each flower had a list with swatch of color so it was not hard to get the colors ready and the directions of drawing the blooms and the explanations of mixing which colors for what was easy to read. also the drawing and painting were easy to see how things went together love it

色鮮やかで綺麗でした!