ArtPlantae Today

WATERCOLOR – THE TRADITIONAL MEDIUM

Barron’s Art Handbooks. 1996. Mixing Colors: Watercolor. Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. ISBN: 0-8120-6619-7
Frustrated with the trial-and-error approach to color mixing? If so, then you may appreciate the more methodical approach described in this book. This book contains color charts that were created using only the three primary colors and the three secondary colors (i.e., yellow, red, blue, orange, violet, and dark green). Each color swatch is accompanied by a bar chart that identifies the colors needed (& their quantities) to make the specified color. If you drive yourself crazy mixing colors that come out too dark or too light to use, then this little book might just provide the insight you need. It’ll at least stop you from chucking your homework out the window. A total of 425 colors are featured.

Crespo, Michael. 1988. Experiments in Watercolor. Watson-Guptill Publishing. ISBN: 0-8230-1621-8
Crespo believes that “the best way to learn painting is to paint” and that “painting is a cumulative experience.” This is why his book is a collection of twenty exercises, each leading into the next. His exercises address topics such as: edges, aerial perspective, painting water, and chiaroscuro.

Dewey, David. 1995. The Watercolor Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist. Watson-Guptill Publications. ISBN: 0-8230-5639-2
An extremely helpful book containing step-by-step demonstrations supported by descriptive photographs. The chapter about color is especially informative.

Evans, Anne-Marie and Donn Evans. 1993. An Approach to Botanical Painting in Watercolour. Hannaford and Evans. ISBN: 0-9520862-0-4
Anne-Marie Evans describes her six-step painting process in this book. She also guides students through the drawing process and through various painting exercises.

Fletcher, Adelene. 2000. The Flower Painter’s Pocket Palette, Book 2. Chartwell Books, Inc.
ISBN: 0-7858-1173-7
The description to Harden (1996) applies to this follow-up book as well. Fletcher’s preliminary sketches are informative and she discusses techniques that were not discussed in the first book. She also offers instruction on how to paint berries and different types of leaves. Both this book and the first book are small enough to fit in a journaler’s backpack (whereas your favorite journaling instructor does not). Contains over 70 examples of flowers, berries, and leaves.

Guest, Coral. 2001. Painting Flowers in Watercolor: A Naturalistic Approach. Timber Press. ISBN: 0-88192-509-8
Guest carefully leads the artist through all the stages required to paint botanicals. She shares her approach to drawing, planning, and painting and demonstrates her process throughout the book.

Harden, Elisabeth. 1996. The Flower Painter’s Pocket Palette. Chartwell Books, Inc. ISBN: 0-7858-0578-8
The strengths of this small book are the eight pages dedicated to flower shapes and the many pages of painting demonstrations. Nature journalers may be especially interested in this book, as each of the featured flowers were painted in no more than three easy-to-follow steps. The step-by-step demonstrations are good examples of how to see and think more quickly. If you would love to loosen up (and are looking for instructions), then browse through this book. Contains over 70 examples.

Harrison-Tustain, Susan. 1999. Glorious Garden Flowers in Watercolor. North Light Books. ISBN: 1-58180-389-3
Harrison-Tustain discusses how to buildup washes, how to handle paint, and how to create backgrounds, textures, and luminous colors. She provides 17 demonstrations focused on the painting of flowers and leaves and their respective features (e.g., crinkly petals, leathery petals, shiny leaves, etc.). The author also demonstrates how to paint insects, chewed leaves, and dewdrops.

King, Bente Starcke. 2004. Beautiful Botanicals: Painting and drawing flowers and plants. North Light Books. ISBN: 1-58180-494-6.
This book is an inspiring reference and a practical one too! Bente Starcke King provides a general overview of the following: art supplies, workspaces, flower morphology, foreshortening, composition, shading techniques, signing & dating artwork, framing, concealing mistakes, and exhibiting one’s work. She also leads artists through 18 demonstrations that allow students the opportunity to apply what they learn from her. She teaches students techniques in the following media: graphite, pen & ink, ink wash, transparent watercolor, watercolor w/pen & ink, and watercolor w/colored pencil. Feature demonstrations include: graphite (how to transfer a drawing, curled leaf on acetate); pen & ink (spruce cone, cyclamen); ink wash (curly grass, daffodil), transparent watercolor (onion, snowdrops & winter aconites, bluebells, daffodils, trillium & violets, magnolia, rose hips); watercolor w/pen & ink (Mountain Ash, Echinacea); watercolor w/colored pencil (tulips, Virginia creeper, irises, dog roses).

Seslar, Patrick. 2001. The One-Hour Watercolorist. North Light Books. ISBN: 1-58180-035-5
Seslar offers artists many suggestions on how to create paintings in less time. His suggestions are good and, while this book doesn’t address botanicals specifically, it does contain information the traveling botanical artist may find useful. For example, the practice of creating preliminary sketches from postcards when traveling to unfamiliar locations. This simple act prepares artists for the unique shapes that will be found on their journey.

Sidaway, Ian. 2000. The Watercolor Artist’s Paper Directory. North Light Books. ISBN: 1-58180-034-7
Sidaway has created a very helpful reference. He offers information on 62 different types of watercolor paper, some common and some not-so-common. For each type of paper, he offers a rating for the following characteristics: absorbency, speed of absorbency, wet strength, amount of size, ease of correction, whiteness, roughness, uniformity of texture, cost, formats available, and heaviest weight available. Sidaway also subjects each paper to different watercolor techniques and notes how each type of paper performed.

Sherlock, Siriol. 2004. Botanical Illustration: Painting with Watercolors. B T Batsford. ISBN: 0-7134-8862-X
Sherlock provides instruction in the painting of a variety of flowers and instruction in how to create a variety of effects. She describes the color choices she made for each featured painting and describes how she approached each painting. Sherlock also offers many helpful tips throughout the book. Sherlock discusses wet-in-wet technique and how to achieve color & form in flowers, foliage, and fruit. She shares time-saving techniques and advice on how to paint details such as the center of flowers and petal markings.

Stevens, Margaret. 2004. The Art of Botanical Painting. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN: 0-00-716988-4
Margaret Stevens and fellow members of the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) in England have created an invaluable reference. Artists are sure to benefit from instruction in drawing techniques, colored pencil techniques, watercolor techniques, and gouache painting techniques. Stevens and SBA contributors also provide instruction on the painting of fruit, vegetables and foliage. Artists will find the leaf library and the flower library of particular interest. Not to mention the step-by-step explanations of how some SBA members completed plant portraits featured in this book.

Stevens, Margaret. 2008. The Botanical Palette: Color for the Botanical Painter. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN: 9780061626678
Written by Margaret Stevens, in association with the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA), this book complements The Art of Botanical Painting (2004) also published by Stevens and the SBA. In their first book, the SBA provided instruction on drawing techniques, colored pencil techniques, watercolor techniques, and gouache painting techniques. Stevens and SBA contributors gave instruction on the painting of fruit, vegetables and foliage. In their follow-up work, they focus on colors specific to the botanical palette. They give special attention to the following colors: white, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, brown, and black. Read a detailed review here.

West, Keith. 1991. Painting Plant Portraits: A Step-by-Step Guide. Timber Press, Inc. ISBN: 0-88192-372-9
West leads artists carefully through the painting process by showing, step-by-step, how he drew and painted respresentatives from eleven plant families: Amaryllidaceae, Ranunculaceae, Iridaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Papaveraceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae, Campanulaceae, Asteraceae, Onagraceae, Alstroemeriaceae. [ArtPlantae Books]

Wise, Rosemary. 2001. Botanical illustration in colour. Plant Talk. Issue No. 25.
This article was written by Rosemary Wise, who is the botanical artist at the University of Oxford. In this article, Wise explains how to create a botanical painting. She explains how to mix greens and how to stretch paper. She also describes clearly how to lay washes, how to paint leaves (both upper and lower surfaces), and how to paint flowers and fruits. She makes a few comments about framing and reviews the materials artists need to create their own botanical painting. Visit Plant-Talk.org to see if this article is available.

Wunderlich, Eleanor B. 1991. Botanical Illustration in Watercolor. Watson-Guptill Publications. ISBN: 0-8230-0530-5
In this book, artists will find thorough instruction on the drawing and painting of botanical specimens. Wunderlich does a wonderful job preparing artists and their workspace before showing artists how to draw buds, flowers, leaves, stems, shrubs, trees, fruits, and vegetables.