Customer Reviews

Enchanting Fairies: How To Paint Charming Fairies and Flowers

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought the step-by-step painting technique demonstrations were excellent. Aside from being a how-to on painting fairies, there is a lot in the book about rendering natural details like flower petals, bubbles, leaves, water, hair, flames and snowflakes. All of the techniques Barbara Lanza uses to create her enchanting worlds can be applied to landscape and still life painting, as well as portraiture. I've learned a lot from her book.

I am a self taught oil painter and craft artist who was raised on Fairy stories. When I saw this book advertised I hoped it would help me and it has. I like her Fairies, not to baby type of cute.

She has great pictures with detailed instructions of how to achieve her art work using two different media. The way the book is written, her instruction is also adaptable to any media or type of work you want to do. A friend was having trouble painting a nice drape of fabric on one of her projects. I showed her my Enchanting Fairies book and it showed her exactly what to do. This is a good investment.

I bought this book for my daughter who loves to draw and loves fairies. She has read other fictional works by the author and enjoyed them. This drawing guide had the right mix of how to and fictional background to keep her interested and inspired to draw the various examples as well as take them a step further. It also has enough detail in the information and interesting presentation to keep the "child at heart". If you want to draw this particular fantasy subject or just people, it is an enjoyable read that contains many useful details.

If you wish to learn to draw, this is NOT a drawing book. There are some basic facial and body proportional charts, but if you need to learn to draw the figure, this isn't the best book to buy. This is a technique book, which provides you with a basic 'traceable' pattern, and then instructs you to enlarge the pattern and trace to begin each project.

I think the patterns are beautiful, and the instructions clear and concise. The techniques included are pretty advanced (including masking off figures and painting backgrounds), so I would not recommend for juveniles or those who do not have the skills to paint tiny, small or intricate pieces. Also, since the supply list looks fairly expensive, you might consider your wallet before thinking of utilizing this book verbatim.

I know the first part sounds critical, but I just don't want people to be disappointed when they buy this and discover it might be too complex for their child, or too advanced for the average person. I was an art major, and I find some of the techniques a bit more complex than I'm willing to try right now. I, however like a challenge and do intend to use this book as intended- in the future.

If I were composing this book, I would've provided a few 'easier' pieces so that beginners might have something to 'get their feet wet.' I would've also liked to see a few more male fairies. Even in the faces and body section, the focus is largely on drawing female fairies which is nice if you only wish to draw one gender.

I also think the original art you are expected to trace should've been made larger and printed on a single page for ease of use. making the drawing so small just makes it harder to copy and enlarge.

I hope the artist produces another book, perhaps with fairies ranging in difficulty from beginner to advanced. I'd also like to see some of the other fairies which were included as complete art made into patterns. I like all the autumn-style fairies.

Overall, this is a nice book for intermediate to advanced artists. Beginners might be able to utilize the patterns and paint or color them in by fudging the techniques described in the book.

I bought Barbara Lanza's book and was thrilled. Great product for the price! Her beautiful, delicate illustrations and clear instructions were easy to understand. I also liked that her love of fairies came across and inspired me. The variety of fairies and flowers was also refreshing. I would recommend this book if you would like to learn fantasy art!

This book is really more about how to paint in watercolor and gives great techniques on how to do so. I haven't taken any classes in watercolor and think this book is just the thing to teach me how. The fairies are cute and charming, so if you're looking for that type of fairies to learn to draw, this is the book. If you want a more alluring or sexy fairie, then you'll need a different book. This book also gives you excellent techniques on how to paint and draw flowers, leaves and wings. I would have given this book 5 stars if it gave more instruction on the drawing of fairies. It gives you a full frontal and a 3/4 side view of baby, child and adult fairies, but it doesn't give you techniques on drawing movement or flying. If someone is a novice they really won't be able to learn how to draw fairies in flight from this book. All-in-all it has a lot of lovely vibrant water color paintings and techniques, so I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn how to watercolor, or who is interested in cute fairies.

This book starts off really well, but by the end it just recommends that you trace fairies if you want to draw/paint them yourself. I was hoping for a little more in-depth instruction. Overall, it was informative and should help quite a bit if you're just getting started.

A beautiful book with clear, easy to follow instructions. A great addition to any collection for fairy lovers/artist. As a lover of fantasy and creator of fantasy art for many years I enjoyed this book very much. I especially love the fairy babies included in this book,
since they often seem be left out.

I was excited to order this book as I was doing a new painting regarding faeries. Once received, I was even more ecstatic as it had all the information I needed to do my work.

THIS book has been and, will continue to be, an invaluable resource for me.

Thank you

Joy Braverman, Artist... and more

My wife is into this stuff. For one of her recent birthdays, I scoured some local bookstores and picked out the two best books on painting fairies that I could find. If you've no experience in this area, you might be surprised to find that there are a ton of books out there on the subject, and they all seem pretty similar on Amazon.

The two I chose were Barbara Lanza's "Enchanting Fairies: How to Paint Charming Fairies and Flowers"and Linda Ravenscroft's "How to Draw and Paint Fairyland."

My wife later applauded my choice. Here are our considered opinions:

1. Lanza's text: this is lots of fun. I think Laza is short on raw talent but heavy on technical talk. This is not a put-down: it is a recommendation. What I mean is that her creations are not so mind-blowingly amazing that you'll get the feeling there's no way you could ever do this. They're actually on the mediocre side, which you might find inspiring. You get the idea that this isn't so hard after all. But most of the text is technical: "With a no. 1 round, paint a medium tint of Permanent Mauve . . . " etc. Besides that, though, it is geared to the beginner.

2. Ravenscroft's text: the woman is extremely talented. The book is a bit intimidating. But you can get some wonderful ideas from this text. It is also full of technical talk, but short on the step-by-step, unlike Lanza's. If you're going to buy only one book, I would say it should be this one. But it is basically advanced: for people who already know how to paint and want to start painting fairies.