DIY Watercolor Flowers

I am always obsessed with being able to draw and paint flowers. I love them so much in real life that I always try to capture them in my art and can never really do them justice. 

Boudon’s book has three main sections: Basic Techniques, Plant Directory and Flower Compositions. The first section gives you watercolor techniques: how to overlay, how to create transparent layers, how to blend, how to contrast, etc. She also reviews brushes, papers, paint of course. 

Then the plant directory has: roses, peonies, carnations, dahlias, anemones, poppies, and foliage.  She has small detail flowers, too. All of the steps are simple (well they look simple and of course they take a lot of practice to master.) and relatively easy to follow.

The last section puts it all together with some lovely compositions. Frames, circlets, bouquets, patters, streamers, etc. This was my favorite section of course. There are step by steps but not as many as I tend to crave. Having said that, if you practice all the plants in the directory, I have no doubt you can get these bouquets. 

Overall this is a lovely book for people who want to start painting flowers. It’s not super advanced but it will get you started on painting flowers in no time!

A creative, informative and fun book filled with great artistic ideas, tips and tricks. 

This is a great resource for any painter.

This is a great book for beginners with the step by step instructions. The illustrations and photos are absolutely beautiful!  While there are so many great projects and lessons the violet circlet  and colorful bouquet are my favorite lessons.  This would make a wonderful gift!

I'm not a newbie to watercolour but I was still interested to see what this book has to offer. And in all honesty, the cover is way too pretty to pass. And I was delighted to find out that the inside is even prettier than the cover. Love the work which was done on this one. 

This book is very detailed and suitable for beginners, the author takes you step by step through watercolouring. You will learn about brushes and papers which is something I knew when I started. 

I surprisingly liked the "Getting know your colours" part; I never gave this so much thought nor did I go and play with the colours just to see what I will be able to create with them. However, this part gave me so many ideas

I adored the parts on the diffusion effect and gradation since these two I'm still struggling with. I'm excited to go and use the tips from the author. 

The part involving painting the flowers is magnificent! I cannot decide which one is my favourite if Carnations or Hortensia. All the flowers were so pretty and so easy to paint! And I could see where I went wrong when I tried to paint them before! I'm looking forward to seeing the results next time. 

I'm definitely planning to take out the watercolour paints out this weekend to create something! Violet circlet is a must for me, one of the most beautiful designs featured it this book!

The subtitle for this book is "The beginner's guide to flower painting for journal pages, handmade stationary, and more".  I want to learn how to paint my journal pages, so this was a perfect find.

DIY Watercolor Flowers starts out by explaining the different types of materials you can find and which ones will work best for the techniques presented.  I loved the next section on choosing colors, mixing them, and how to create your color palette.  Different techniques are shown next, with tips on how to get the best results throughout. There are a number of exercises to try using what you have just learned, and also a section on digitizing your creations.

The flowers themselves are next, with step by step instructions to draw them from multiple angles and configurations (bud, half opened, fully opened).

Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the section on composition. I feel sometimes the part of actually using new techniques is glossed over in books, but DIY Watercolor Flowers goes in depth into combining different flower types and arrangement styles in the same step by step manner.

Finally, the book is just plain beautiful.  Between the photography and watercolor images themselves it is a treat to read. This book is a must to anyone who would like to try their hand at painting flowers.