This series just gets better and better. Having been through the main media and also colour mixing, it’s now getting down to subjects. The editorial team at the originators, Quarto, have the illustrated book down to a fine art and they can convey more in one double-page spread than many others do in a whole chapter. The result is that you get information in a format that’s easy to understand and absorb without being dumbed down. Sure, you can find more comprehensive, more learned books on flower painting (one of the most published subjects there is), but you won’t get half this information in such a concise form.
What you do get is a thoroughly comprehensive guide to flower painting divided into three sections. The first is Materials and Techniques, fairly comprehensive and the one which the more experienced artist might want to skip over. After that, there are demonstrations grouped by flower shapes and then a directory of flowers, arranged by colour. This last makes sense because, as artists, we tend to think of flowers in terms of their colour rather than families or botanical names. It just feels more logical and this is typical of the sort of sense that pervades the book. It’s one you’re going to feel at home with quite quickly and you’re not going to be forever turning the pages over to try to find what you’re looking for.
Like all the others in the series, it’s spiral bound, so it stays flat when you open it.
Search Press 2008
£12.99
Author: Claire Waite Brown, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Search Press, Series: Artist's Bible, Subject: Flowers
This is a well-designed series that’s established itself with other subjects and which offers an easy reference to a variety of techniques and a spiral binding that lays flat so that you can keep it open while both your hands are otherwise occupied.
All the other volumes in the series have gone down well and I have no reason to suppose that this one won’t as well, although I’m not really qualified to comment on sculpture. All I can say it that the illustrations are copious and clear and that it’s always apparent both what you’re looking at and what the accompanying text refers to. I suspect that the appeal is going to be to the beginner or to someone who’s just developing their skills rather than the more experienced practitioner and, if that person needs a handy reference manual, then this is undoubtedly it. The editors’ track record on other subjects bodes well and I’d say it’s definitely one to consider.
A&C Black 2007
£12.99
Author: Claire Waite Brown, Medium: Sculpture, Publisher: A&C Black, Series: Artist's Bible, Subject: Techniques
This excellent little series has now found its way to Pastel. Following the successful formula of spiral binding that allows the book to lay flat in use and, for the most part, confining each section to a single spread, the book covers materials, colour, basic and more advanced techniques and a series of typical subjects from landscape to still lifes, people and animals.
Extensively illustrated, the book is easy to follow and offers a potted guide that’s laid out so that everything is easy to find and it’s the sort of thing you can keep beside you as you work. Being the size of a large pocket, it’s also handy to take out with you on sketching trips, but the reduced page size never feels cramped.
The whole series would form a handy primer for anyone working in any of the media covered, but also contains enough information to satisfy the more experienced worker who just wants the occasional refresher or quick reference tool.
First published 2006
£12.99
Author: Claire Waite Brown, Medium: Pastel, Publisher: Search Press, Series: Artist's Bible, Subject: Techniques