Painting Nature in Pen & Ink With Watercolor

Rating:
Summary: Another Excellent Book by Ms. Nice
Review: I bought this book based on the strength of Ms. Nice's previous book Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor. I was equally pleased and delighted with this one as much as with her previous work.

It first starts out with some very basic pen & ink strokes and techniques along with some watercolor texturing techniques (such as using crumpled plastic wrap which gives a surprisingly snow crystal-like texture).

The next chapters move quickly on to using these techniques as applied to creating wildlife paintings and/or scenic landscapes. For example, in one chapter she starts out showing step by step details of a bird wildlife painting. One of the interesting things is that the bird pen & ink was done in sepia ink rather than the more typical black. The next page showed a step by step of the ferns in the painting along with moss and wood. The last page in the chapter showed all of these things pulled together into the final painting. Each painting gets the same "how-to" treatment. The result is that someone could easily duplicate each of the paintings in the book.

There are also a wealth of mini-demonstrations such as leaves, frogs, birds, seashells, fish, starfish, flowers, grass, trees, etc. All of them most likely pulled from actual full paintings she has done but probably not included due to space and page-length considerations. Each one of the mini-pictures provides another step by step build-up so you can practice first without neccessarily committing to a big project. In short, it just looks like fun.

One interesting side note: comic book artists have long used this technique of watercolor with pen & ink. I am a big fan of comics - DC's Vertigo line and some Image comics in particular feature breathtaking illustrations with pen & ink and watercolor. Any fine artist should do him/herself a favor and see how beautiful and "grown-up" some of these comics have really become. They routinely feature beautiful art for its own sake and the stories are geared toward an adult market.

What is really refreshing is that Ms. Nice finally shows how beautiful these techniques are when applied to the realm of nature art. I don't really see how anyone could be disappointed with this book. You're bound to learn something new to try with your own paintings. I certainly did. :)

Rating:
Summary: Another Excellent Book by Ms. Nice
Review: I bought this book based on the strength of Ms. Nice's previous book Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor. I was equally pleased and delighted with this one as much as with her previous work.

It first starts out with some very basic pen & ink strokes and techniques along with some watercolor texturing techniques (such as using crumpled plastic wrap which gives a surprisingly snow crystal-like texture).

The next chapters move quickly on to using these techniques as applied to creating wildlife paintings and/or scenic landscapes. For example, in one chapter she starts out showing step by step details of a bird wildlife painting. One of the interesting things is that the bird pen & ink was done in sepia ink rather than the more typical black. The next page showed a step by step of the ferns in the painting along with moss and wood. The last page in the chapter showed all of these things pulled together into the final painting. Each painting gets the same "how-to" treatment. The result is that someone could easily duplicate each of the paintings in the book.

There are also a wealth of mini-demonstrations such as leaves, frogs, birds, seashells, fish, starfish, flowers, grass, trees, etc. All of them most likely pulled from actual full paintings she has done but probably not included due to space and page-length considerations. Each one of the mini-pictures provides another step by step build-up so you can practice first without neccessarily committing to a big project. In short, it just looks like fun.

One interesting side note: comic book artists have long used this technique of watercolor with pen & ink. I am a big fan of comics - DC's Vertigo line and some Image comics in particular feature breathtaking illustrations with pen & ink and watercolor. Any fine artist should do him/herself a favor and see how beautiful and "grown-up" some of these comics have really become. They routinely feature beautiful art for its own sake and the stories are geared toward an adult market.

What is really refreshing is that Ms. Nice finally shows how beautiful these techniques are when applied to the realm of nature art. I don't really see how anyone could be disappointed with this book. You're bound to learn something new to try with your own paintings. I certainly did. :)

Rating:
Summary: Yuk!
Review: I really don't see why anyone would buy this. I'm a real art fanatic, and I love Ms. Nice very much. Her past books fill one's pleasure and contentment. I recommend Creating Textures in Pen and Ink with Watercolor (by her) rather than this.

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but material is duplicated in another of her books
Review: This is an excellent book... IF you don't already own "Painting with Watercolor, Pen and Ink" by Claudia Nice. The material in this book is entirely duplicated in the "Painting with...". Please do not buy this book if you already own a copy of "Painting with Watercolor, Pen and Ink". I did and was thoroughly disappointed that there was no new material in the "Painting Nature in Pen & Ink with Watercolor".

Now, if you own the other book "Creating Textures with Watercolor, Pen and Ink" then I highly recommend this book as it has subject matter that was not covered in the "Creating Textures..." book.

If you don't own any of her books, then buy the "Painting with Watercolor Pen and Ink" ISBN 158180265X because it completely combines the material in both "Creating Textures..." and "Painting Nature..." books.