The Colour Mixing Guide: Watercolour Botanicals
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Search Press Ltd
Published:10th Jan '25
Should be back in stock very soon
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.
***
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.
Julie Collins long ago became the default go-to author for books on colour mixing, but it’s 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 isn’t a re-hash and I’m pleased to be able to say that it isn’t.
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. 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. You’ll 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. I’d 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.
-- Henry Malt * Artbookreview.nISBN: 9781800922440
Dimensions: 215mm x 155mm x 5mm
Weight: 160g
64 pages