Painting Close-Focus Flowers In Watercolor
$30.00
Click Image Open for a Look at Pages
Hard Cover Book
Capture The Intimate Beauty Of Flowers
Step-By-Step
© 2000 Ann Pember
Great Resource
Infuse your watercolors with breathtaking qualities by portraying the exquisite beauty of flowers from a close-focus point of view. This book shows you how by providing easy-to-learn techniques: for mingling clean luminous colors, manipulating light, insights into the “character” of petals, advice on designing your composition, choosing materials, preparing for setup and more. Using the 5 full-painting demonstrations and the instruction and nine min-demos throughout, you’ll be able to portray the stunning splendor of flowers from a creative point of view.
128 Pages
Susan Crouch –
Painting Close-Focus Flowers in Watercolor is one of the art books I find myself coming back to again and again. Ann demonstrates her beautiful technique as well as giving clear guidance in composition. Some of my favorite sections include her instruction on color mingling, edge variety, and handling values. Thank you, Ann, for sharing your knowledge and glorious paintings in this excellent book!
Moira, Ontario –
“Your book and CD arrived yesterday and I have done little besides read in the ensuing time. Your advice and great tips are terrific, but the way you describe painting and walk other artists through the process of applying paint to paper is invaluable. The vivid colors and even wetness show beautifully in the CD and understanding color mixing becomes much simpler. I will certainly recommend your book, CD and DVDs to my artist friends, as I believe that learning is life-long.”
Susan –
Stunning paintings and excellent instruction!, Susan February 5, 2009
“I bought this book on the advice of an online friend, and I’m so glad I did!
My favorite aspect of the book is that it contains LOTS of step-by-step demonstrations, and the pencil sketches for each demo are included, so I can enlarge them and paint along with Ann Pember. Admittedly, some of the sketches are quite faint and a bit difficult to see, but I’ve managed to work with them. Also, a few of the drawings are very detailed, so if you’re more interested in learning the basics of a specific technique than you are in completing a whole painting, you may only want to reproduce a small section of the sketch instead of the whole piece. Every project (even the smallest,) includes a materials list, which I found quite helpful. It was nice to know what I’d need before I started a project, and there was no chance of getting halfway through a painting, only to find out that I was missing some crucial materials.
I like it that Ms Pember starts us out with the basics, and progresses to more complex techniques. She teaches you how to mix and mingle colors, as well as different ways to add texture to your paintings. She also discusses the use of triads and limited palettes, and demonstrates lifting techniques and ways to vary your edges. Of course, she applies all of this information to flower painting, and she does a nice job of teaching how to paint the different parts of flowers. I particularly enjoyed the section on painting backgrounds, as those can be a real challenge for me!
After Ms Pember teaches you the basic techniques, she presents five detailed “putting it all together” demonstrations of complete paintings, which I found to be extremely helpful. Many books teach the basics, but leave you hanging when it’s time to combine the steps into a complete painting, while others gloss over the techniques and provide impressive-looking demonstrations of gorgeous paintings, that turn out to have crucial steps missing so there’s no way for the reader to “paint along” with the artist. That’s not the case here — I was able to understand Ms Pember every step of the way.
I highly recommend this book if you want to paint vibrant, colorful close-focus florals. You’ll learn a lot of fun techniques and benefit from the information on color mixing and how to paint the details of a flower.”
Guest –
“Thanks so much! Your book and website were referred to me by a fellow student in a watercolor class I’m taking. Your book changed her work completely. She went from stiff, formal depictions to passionately colorful, full-bodied flowers from one class to the next! I don’t hope for such complete change, but even a little insight will be more than welcome. And that doesn’t even take into account the joy of just looking at your work and admiring it!
Thanks again,” Candy
Guest –
Just to say thank you so much for writing your book “Painting Close-Focus Flowers” & sending it so promptly – it is just beautiful – you are a gifted & talented artist. I recently received your two DVD’s (Flow of Watercolor & Vibrant Orchid) from CCP VIDEOS & found your website & am looking forward to studying with you at home. I hope you derive much satisfaction & joy from beauty & inspiration you give others through your paintings & teaching. all the best to you.
Guest –
You inspired me to start doing watercolors and floral paintings (I had put it on a shelf so I could raise a family). I tried very hard to get a handle on watercolor and found it so hard. I did a little painting here and there, but I didn’t like them and was disappointed. Then I saw your book “Painting Close- focus Flowers in Watercolor”, and said to myself THAT’S how I want to paint. I studied your book from cover to cover, did every exercise in the book I was starting to get it. It took a long, long time, but I began to turn out some paintings that I liked. It has been a long time to get where I am now. it was through your instruction and I have many books of artists I admire.
Verena –
I wanted you to know you were the very first artist to get me started on this road, so a big thank you. I have been awarded numerous awards, have Signature from the Watercolor Society of North Carolina, have been juried into the Southern Watercolor Society, twice. I was a finalist in International Artist magazine on line competition in 2008, I’m now doing an article for International Artist magazine, and I will be featured on Chris Beck’s blog next month. Thank you for your wonderful book I owe so much to you. Your biggest fan.
Diane –
My package arrived on Friday, and I have enjoyed the weekend with your beautiful book and workshops, it was just like being there! Thank you so much for sharing your talent with others, hope to meet you on the painting trail some day down the road.
Your work is a delight to eyes, mind and soul. Diane 2008
The McAras from Cataumet –
I love looking at this book! For years I have been filing away myriads of floral photos with the hope that one day I might attempt to capture them in paint. I muse over these photos from time to time wondering just how a painter might do them justice. I need wonder no more. In Ann Pember’s “Painting Close-Focus Flowers in Watercolor”, she has been able to demonstrate a variety of step-by-fluid-step techniques to bring high drama to the world of simple blooms. Her close-ups of hollyhocks, gloxinias and peonies float upon the pages, which are jam-packed with carefully chosen, eye-pleasing colors. Thankfully, the vibrancy of Ms. Pember’s palette has been well reproduced in the printing process. There is so much valuable information packed into this book. One should read it from cover to cover initially to pick up all the helpful hints. What a wealth of knowledge Ms. Pember has shared with her readers including: preferences for specific papers, paints and brushes; how to avoid turning paints into “mud”; and my toughest assignment – how to see shapes and values as patterns; to mention a few. Ann Pember’s close-up compositions are outstanding. Even if my attempts pale in comparison to this well-seasoned artist’s, she is very encouraging. She reinforces the idea that given some degree of perseverance and practice, we too may develop our own means of capturing nature’s beauties “up-close and personal”.
Zephyrhills, FL –
I really don’t think that any artist can survive with just one book on the shelf. This book is a great resource with beautiful step-by-step photographs. I recommend it to someone with a little experience and foundation. This book is not too intensive but also does not hold your hand at every step. A resource to add to your library. It helped me relax my style a bit.