Drawing and Painting Plants and Flowers [Hardcover]

Polly Raynes (Author), Alison Hoblyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

The art of depicting plants and flowers is almost as old as the history of art itself. Polly Raynes addresses this enduringly fascinating subject and shows readers how produce plant portraits in pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, pastel and watercolor, from simple line studies to fully realized, step-by-step compositions.

Readers will also find professional tips for applying the simple laws of perspective and composition, rendering realistic water, creating summer and winter scenes and more. It's all the instruction they need to successfully capture the allure of plants and flowers in their art.

Polly Raynes studied art at Brighton College of Art where she obtained a First Class BA Honors degree in 1983. Since then she has worked as a painter/illustrator in publishing, advertising, design and television. In recent years she has concentrated on her own work and has exhibited and sold her paintings in London, Brighton, Chichester and abroad. Polly lives and works in Brighton, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 130 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581803966
• ISBN-13: 978-1581803969
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #944,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Specific Objects

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and Beautiful. Great lessons, October 25, 2007

By 

silky69 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drawing and Painting Plants and Flowers (Hardcover)

This book is outstanding, beautiful, well-taught, with unique art lessons. I am impressed by how much this book teaches, the beauty of the paintings, and it's unique approach. The artist is an excellent teacher.
This book is mostly (but not exclusively) about painting plants and flowers in watercolor and the other media that can be used to make a watercolor painting more interesting. It is divided into 2 parts--Part I and Part 2

PART 1 explores techniques and the pros and cons of each medium, mixing media, materials, the basic structure of plants and flowers, composition, perspective, color, controlling light, and comparing how to approach a drawing or painting depending on if it is inside or outside.

PART II takes the techniques introduced in part I and gives step-by-step projects with wonderful photographs of each step and excellent instructions on exactly what to do. Each project is unique in using different types of paper and drawing or painting media.

Watercolor is used as the main media in the majority of paintings, and other media such as watercolor inks, watercolor pastels, chalk pastel, oil pastels, acrylic paint, pencil and colored pencil are also used either alone or in combination with another media. I love this book because it opens up a lot of possibilities on increasing creativity in your paintings, both in the approach you take, or the types and combinations of media and methods you can use. It is not your typical watercolor lesson book and that is what makes it so special.

EX: Project I explores the use of oriental brushes on semi-rough watercolor paper to give the project simplicity and a calligraphic style.

Project 2: Wild Plants: Acrylics on gessoed masonite --this project helps you learn to simplify and allow yourself to revise work.

Project 3: Daisies: Conte crayons and watercolor on semi-rough watercolor paper.

Project 4: Ponds and water: Watercolors on semi-rough watercolor paper--painting sunlight and shade, waterlilies and one pink-red flower--a 5 page project in 8 steps.

Project 5: Exterior Architectural Setting: Watercolors, pastels, and conte crayons on semi-rough watercolor paper--considering the trees and shrubs and large hedges in the same way as "architecture", and using watercolor to block-in and pastels for shaping and highlighting--beginning with the sketching and shadowing mapped out.

Project 6: Winter scene: Watercolors on semi-rough watercolor paper--the use of masking fluid and learning to plan the composition carefully through sketches and studies of the photograph, learning tonal and color contrast for snow or ice--GREAT EXERCISE!!

Project 7: Spring Scene: Watercolors and colored pencils on semi-rough watercolor paper--making a composite of two different views--using semi-rough watercolor paper, colored pencils, oriental brushes, watercolor paints.

Project 8: Summer Scene: Watercolors on semi-rough watercolor paper--highlighting blooms in sunlight, using masking fluid and gum arabic, watercolors, oriental brushes, semi-rough paper, pencil.

Project 9: Fall Colors: watercolor inks on semi-rough watercolor paper--pencil, watercolor inks, steel-nib dip pen,
oriental brush, semi-rough wc paper.

Project 10: Botanical Gardens: Watercolor pastels on semi-rough watercolor paper, combining different lights and views (2 different photos) into one painting

Project 13: Interior lilies: colored pencils, pastels, and conte crayons on gray ingres paper

This should give you some idea of how much you can learn from this book.
It is definitely a 5-star. FABULOUS, FUN, BEAUTIFUL, CREATIVE, UNIQUE book!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Technique & Composition, September 25, 2009

By 

Anna "Anna" (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drawing and Painting Plants and Flowers (Hardcover)

I'll admit I am not a trained artist; I came to it over time. That is why I find books like this helpful. I can not draw the human form, but I can draw plants and flowers...and I'm always looking to improve.

As outlined by the other review on this page, the various chapters cover a wide range of topics - specific techniques and how to compose a drawing for maximum visual interest.

This is a solid book to start with, but if you have already taken courses on this topic, you might find this remedial.