Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes: Flowers in Watercolour

Ann is a professional watercolour artist and tutor. She started her working life as a French teacher having gained a degree in European Studies at UEA and a PGCE from Southampton University. She had always had a passion for drawing and painting and in 1990, with her children in Secondary school, she took up a study of watercolour painting and was soon selling her work and designs for greetings cards and mug wraps. She became a member of the Society of Floral Painters with whom she exhibited annually. Ann has demonstrated for art societies around the country, has held workshops in her garden studio at home and run painting holidays. She regularly designs greetings cards for Medici cards. Ann has written several articles for Leisure Painter and in 2014 produced a watercolour techniques video. She now continues to share her skills with watercolour demonstrations on her website blog, on social media and YouTube.Ann’s love of painting has always gone hand in hand with a love of flowers and gardening, each activity complementing the other. Ann has three grown up children and lives in Nottinghamshire with her husband. For more information please visit www.annmortimerart.com

• Introduction 6Basic painting equipment 8Working with watercolour 10Washes 12Working wet in wet 14Layering 16Blending out 18Using the white of the paper 20Techniques 22Masking 24Cutting out 26Negative painting 28White flowers with shadows 30Spattering & scribbling 32Salt & wax resists 34Colour & tone 36Mixing greens 38Mixing dark colours 40Mixing shadow colours 42Mixing yellows 44Mixing autumn colours 46Contrast & tone 48Backlighting 50Form & detail 52Drawing & composing 54Flower shapes: star 56Flower shapes: bell 58Flower shapes: cup 60Flower shapes: cone 62Complex flower shapes 64Buds 66Painting leaves 68Leaf shapes 70Seed heads 72Seed heads: ‘Honesty’ 74Flower markings: orchid 76Flower markings: hellebore 78Flowers in context 80Flowers in a vase 82Mixed border 84Woodland with daffodils 86Flowers in pots 88Dog roses in a landscape 90Pansies in a vase 92Clematis on a trellis 94Index 96Templates 97

Having just had a handful of ‘beginners’ watercolour lessons and finding them very challenging I was introduced to this book. Wow! I found it to be very exciting and inspiring. For people new to painting and to watercolour this is the book for you. You don’t even need to be able to draw!The book is full of ideas, tips and projects for you to work through. Each chapter leads on to new and interesting techniques to learn such as ‘spattering’, ‘wax resist’ and the use of salt. For those who find drawing difficult as I do tracings are provided of the flowers, leaves and seed heads featured so there is no excuse not to get started! Each ‘tracing’ is carefully cross referenced to the relevant project and page where you will find step-by-step instructions to lead you through the painting techniques needed to complete your chosen project.At the beginning of the book there is information about the basic equipment needed. A list of the paint colours used throughout is given but as well as their names there is also a colour chart. I found this a great help as it meant I could mix the colour I needed if I didn’t have the particular paint mentioned.As it is now autumn I decided to have a go at the leaf (see Pic 1). This involved painting ‘wet-in- wet’. I particularly enjoyed trying out the effect of ‘spatter spots’. Painting the ‘Anemone with shadows’ picture (pic 2) introduced the idea of using ‘negative space’ to keep areas white, and of using masking fluid to reserve areas of the paper from the paint in order to add a different colour at a later stage. The background to the flowers is achieved using the ‘wet-in-wet’ method whereas to deepen the shadow and add detail required ‘wet-on-dry’. My most successful picture was achieved using wax resist to paint a picture of Honesty seed heads (see Pic 3). I was very happy with the result at just my first attempt!If you love flowers and have always wanted to paint them then this book is for you.https://notcompulsory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/two-ready-to-paint-in-30-minutes.html