Create over 100 vibrant watercolour mixes and paint a range of inspiring botanicals including flowers, leaves, seedheads and bulbs with award-winning artist and colour-mixing guru Julie Collins.
'Why so happy? Because it’s so good. Where previous guides of this type (all of them) have gone for quantity, this very much goes for quality and relevance. I’d class this as pretty much a must-have for any flower painter.' Henry Malt, artbookreview.net
This colourful, practical book features 15 vibrant and varied botanical subjects including a geranium, hydrangea, maple leaf, cardoon and allium bulb. All 15 subjects feature a complete list of colour mixes used with colour ratios and finished swatches for inspiration, and five of the subjects are painted step by step so that you can follow the process of selecting colours, mixing and painting from start to finish.
Discover:
- Comprehensive information about colour, including a colour wheel and a guide to pure and mixed pigments;
- Essential watercolour techniques such as painting wet into wet, wet on dry, washes, lifting off and more;
- 15 inspirational paintings with colour swatches, 5 shown step by step from start to finish;
- Useful tips and tricks scattered throughout.
This book will inspire your love of colour, provide you with colour mixing inspiration and is designed to equip you with the knowledge you need to confidently create your own colour mixes.
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Mix the perfect colours for every painting with the inspiring and easy-to-use Colour Mixing Guide series. Each book features over 100 key colour mixes on a popular theme, showing you how to create exactly the colours you want, and building up your colour knowledge at every stage. These handy, pocket-sized paperbacks make ideal gifts or on-the-go reference guides: each contains 64 pages bursting with colour and jam-packed with practical information.
Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Tools and materials 6
Colours 8
Colour wheel and colour charts 12
Watercolour techniques 16
PROJECTS
Flowers 22
Geranium 23, Tulip 28, Bird of paradise 29, Hydrangea 31, Spray of flowers 36 Orchid 37
Leaves 38
Maple 39, Plantain lily 44, Feathery leaves 45
Seedheads 46
Love-in-a-mist 47, Cardoon 52, Hollyhock 53
Bulbs 54
Hyacinth 55, Allium 60, Fritillary 61
Glossary62
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About Julie Collins
Julie Collins studied Fine Art at the University of Reading and has been an artist, writer and teacher since then. She has written a number of colour mixing guides and artists’ problemsolving books and also writes for The Artist magazine. She works from her studio in Hampshire, UK, where she explores her passion for painting, drawing and crafts.
Julie has received numerous prestigious awards for her painting, including from the Royal Watercolour Society, the Royal West of England Academy and ING Discerning Eye. Julie was elected a Member of the Society of Women Artists and on to the SWA Council in 2022.
Julie is also the author of Colour Demystified, published by Search Press in 2021, which has sold over 9,000 copies to date.
Artbookreview.net
Julie Collins long ago became the default go-to author for books on colour mixing, but its been a while since we had an addition to her oeuvre. Given how much has gone before, I thought it wise to check that this isnt a re-hash and Im pleased to be able to say that it isnt.
Why so happy? Because its so good. Where previous guides of this type (all of them) have gone for quantity, this very much goes for quality and relevance. It is a lot more that just a guide to all the colours you might possibly want for painting flowers, but rather a series of palettes for depicting specific examples chosen for colour variations so that you get the full range of what you might want. Youll also find leaves and seedheads as well as blooms themselves, both individually and in arrangements. Julie introduces themes, settings and techniques as well as considering lighting conditions, making this a rather nice primer and leg-stretcher in flower painting, as well as that all-important analysis of colour. Id class this as pretty much a must-have for any flower painter.
This has, if Julie is willing, all the hallmarks of a rather promising series, with titles devoted to a range of subjects. I do hope so.
