Flower Painters Pocket Palette

Rating:
Summary: Handy guide for outdoor painting!
Review: I agree with the reviewer who wrote that it was a useful guide for painting flowers. It is also practical to take along when working outdoors as it is a small, light-weight book. In addition, the techniques are for each kind of flower - so it is easy to figure out how to work with many of the more common ones. The only caveat to this book is this: use this guide to get the basic idea - but don't assume that this is all there is to flower painting! There are other books which give more extensive treatment about how lighting affects the colors of flowers.

Rating:
Summary: An incredibly easy to use flower painting guide.
Review: I found the book incredibly easy to use. It shows step-by-step how to paint beautiful flowers. I had success from the start and continue to amaze my friends with the colorations in my paintings. It is a helpful guide for beginning to experienced watercolor artists.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, well designed book
Review: I just purchased this book and am very happy with it. It is clearly and concisely written and has ideas and suggestions on shape and color on every page. I like how it takes one flower like an iris and shows it in different color suggestions. It shows individual flowers, not floral arrangements making it a springboard for creating floral designs. It also shows basic shapes of flowers in the initial drawing process before going into the actual watercolor painting. I know that I will use and refer to this book often.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, well designed book
Review: I just purchased this book and am very happy with it. It is clearly and concisely written and has ideas and suggestions on shape and color on every page. I like how it takes one flower like an iris and shows it in different color suggestions. It shows individual flowers, not floral arrangements making it a springboard for creating floral designs. It also shows basic shapes of flowers in the initial drawing process before going into the actual watercolor painting. I know that I will use and refer to this book often.

Rating:
Summary: Great results for a beginner
Review: So many painting books cover too much from one step to the next. For example, they say "And then add the finishing touches" and the picture goes from murky (the type I typically paint) to beautiful. Okay, so obviously great pictures result from knowing what to do at the end, but what was that precisely?
This delightful little book keeps its focus on something small enough to properly explain, one flower at a time. My first attempts to follow the examples resulted in flowers I couldn't believe I had just painted. The small successful efforts I make guided by this book makes me believe I can someday paint the way I want to. Even those who aren't particularly interested in painting flowers will learn how to get paint to look a certain way on the paper. A fabulous book for the beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Great results for a beginner
Review: So many painting books cover too much from one step to the next. For example, they say "And then add the finishing touches" and the picture goes from murky (the type I typically paint) to beautiful. Okay, so obviously great pictures result from knowing what to do at the end, but what was that precisely?
This delightful little book keeps its focus on something small enough to properly explain, one flower at a time. My first attempts to follow the examples resulted in flowers I couldn't believe I had just painted. The small successful efforts I make guided by this book makes me believe I can someday paint the way I want to. Even those who aren't particularly interested in painting flowers will learn how to get paint to look a certain way on the paper. A fabulous book for the beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Handy pocket reference for floral watercolor painters
Review: This book didn't blow my socks off, but I can see its merits. This is a slim, short volume, listing flowers page by page. Each flower is analyzed as to its shape (cup, bowl, ray, spike, or ball) and suggestions for approaching each flower are given.

The palette selections are good--but I like to see palettes for individual paintings. While the author does mention in the text which colors were used, for me, a swatch panel on the side is a helpful tool when doing au plein work. Some less-commonly painted flowers are included; mullein (a spikey wildflower used in herbcraft,) potentilla, which is a flowering shrub with tiny yellow or white blossoms. Red-hot pokers, foxgloves and bottle-brushes are included--things you'd find out in a garden along with the more common pansies and petunias.

For the price, this book is a very good buy--and a useful one, at that. If you are outdoors, it fits into your kit easily and provides on-the-spot advice.