Customer Reviews

Watercolour Flower Portraits

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book improves on many previous painting books by giving very specific step-by-step instructions. Each step is beautifully photographed and carefully explained. This makes it a must have for both the beginner and the experienced painter.

Billy's paintings bring a contemporary feel to botanical art. Her work is meticulous and detailed. The Artist's talks about all aspects of creating a painting including choosing paints, brushes and paper for the execution of your work. Her comments about composition and her approach to painting help guide you to develop your own approach.

I highly recommend this lovely book.

For watercolor, this is the best botanical illustration book I've seen yet. Showell is an absolute master, and the illustrations are positively gorgeous. But more importantly, she generously demonstrates how she does it, step-by-step. There is more detail in the lessons than in other similar books. Here is a superb course in watercolor botanical illustration. Be prepared to be inspired.

This book is one of the most beautiful art books I've ever seen. The detail on the artwork is amazing. The content is nicely laid out. For flowers or watercolor lovers, this is a must have!

Billy Showell's title, "Flower Portraits", says a lot about her approach. Although not a botanist, she endeavors to create highly accurate pictures of flowers -- portraits -- rather than being satisfied with the vague splashes of color and hints of line used by some other "flower painters". The "portrait" on the front cover conveys a lot: a lovely painting of red amaryllis created in a very artful way. Best of all, her respect for the plants and her meticulous approach to painting them only serve to enliven her paintings. Her instructions are clear and lucid. Highly recommended for those who truly love flowers and who can understand and enjoy a meditative approach to watercolor painting.

My mother is extremely hard to please when it comes to birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas....she began to do watercolors several years ago. I saw this book at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and went straight to Amazon to order it. She was happy, I was happy... a win win!

Billy Showell is one of the great watercolor botanical artists that I have found. I have this book (which I have bought for friends as well) as well as her book on vegetables and an additional on Flowers. When I want to curl up with an art book, this is one of my favorites!

This is one of the first watercolor guidebooks that has it all. It gives the colors used for each plant portait on one side of the page with good color impressions and mixing instructions, followed by step-by-step demonstrations. The step-by-step is clear and very helpful. Finally, the final product is very pleasing. There are many flowers to choose from and the leaves and stems are beautifully done. This is a book by a talented artist which helps anyone looking for guidance. Amaryllis on cover, however, is quite misleading. No where in the book is it demonstated. A piece of it here and there is all that the book shows.

The paintings in this book are wonderful. It is well written and easy to follow.

My wife was thrilled with this book that was added to her resources. She has used it already.