annieb123's Review of Watercolor Flowers (Colorways)

by Bley Hack

Colorways: Watercolor Flowers teaches artists of all skill levels how to paint harmonious, vibrant, and colorful renditions of flora.

Calling all aspiring artists! Grab your paints because it's time to explore key watercolor techniques, including washes, gradations, painting wet-into-wet, glazing, and understanding the color wheel to create harmony in your art. With Colorways: Watercolor Flowers, you will create vibrant and colorful floral paintings while mastering how to use color for maximum effect.

You'll also learn where to find artistic inspiration, how to become a “visual collector,” and how to add fauna to your floral paintings. While step-by-step instructions are included for some flower varieties, most projects offer inspiration and tips that allow for personalization using mixed-media techniques, as opposed to a specific template to follow. You can learn to stamp, use tissue paper, create monograms, and collage using the gorgeous artwork and instructions in this book.

Colorways is a new series from Walter Foster that teaches artists of all skill levels how to create innovative, inspired artwork full of color and imagination. Focusing on creating expressive pieces over realistic scenes, Colorways shows artists how to break the "rules" of color and let their imaginations and artwork soar to new heights. For more fun books in the Colorways series, also check out Acrylic Animals and Watercolor Animals.

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Colorways: Watercolor Flowers is a tutorial and inspiration guide to floral watercolor composition and technique by Bley Hack. Released 18th Dec 2018 by Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 128 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.

I've long been an advocate of the 'whatever works' school of instruction (for pretty much -any- skill). If you find a book/teacher/method/source of inspiration which actually gets you off your behind and DOING whatever skill you're after, then that's what works for you. This book is packed full of very short beginner exercises which the author uses as a basis for tutorial projects such as frame mats, stationery, gift wrap, etc. This is not a guide to watercolor botanical illustration. It is a a supportive and accessible guide for stylized floral watercolor on paper. They're very appealing and very accessible. Scattered throughout are short and digestible infonuggets (my word) about composition, color theory, finishing, artistic expression and finding your own process.

One of my personal takeaways was a really nice project on collage. I had never thought of doing that, and it had my fingers itching to start. I have a zillion small studies taking up space in drawers and my shelves which will find new purpose with this technique.

This maybe was the right book at the right time for me personally, but I think anyone who is intimidated by watercolor would do well to take a look at this book and jump in and just do it.

Five stars. Really liked this one.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Watercolor Flowers (Colorways)

by Bley Hack

Reviewed by annieb123 on Mar 20, 2019

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