A-Z of Flower Portraits: An illustrated guide to painting 40 beautiful flowers in watercolour

Beautifully illustrated throughout with paintings done by the author. All are stunning.Some things to note about this book;Unlike some step by step with picture books, this actually fully explains the techniques Billy uses to create her glorious paintings.If the reader uses this book as ( I believe ) it is intended, you will learn through practise watercolour techniques and skills to improve your painting.Billy's style is almost botanical in its detail, therefore to achieve anything close to realism careful sketching and observation is needed. But sketching can be learned, its just practise.This book will not take you by the hand to enable you to replicate ( as if) her paintings, but it will teach you how to improve your skills, or even inspire you to take up a brush and paint for the first time.A great book.

Beautiful illustrations along with easy to follow instructions. This isn’t a book for beginners, but more for intermediate painters. Certainly one I’ll be keeping in my collection.Some reviews are complaining that this book hasn’t turned them into a professional…… in their case, I’d recommend drawing for dummies.

I used this book for learning to paint in watercolour after watching Billy Showell on u tube. It is very well written and very educational and most informative. The pictures and steps showing the procedure are very clear and helped me greatly. I am hopeing to eventually be a fraction as good as Billy is 🤔might be rather a struggle as she is most talented and produces wonderfull life like paintings . Thank you Billy .👍🏻😊.

Beautiful book , lovely to look through would not say great for teaching but have been on u tube as well and she is good .Worth a buy if you are not a real beginner .Julia April 21

Very informative and enabled me to learn a lot with easy to follow instructions. Good colour likenessand I would recommend this book to any flower artist.The book arrived the next day which impressed megreatly. All in all a very easy transaction.

All I can say is wow! If you thought the first books were good just wait until you get your hands on this one. The format is very good with very clear explanations on how the effects are achieved. Some of the actual flower portraits are a little twee for my liking, but this in no way detracts from the skill of achieving the likeness of the individual flower. There is no doubt that a lot of work has gone into the production of this book, and it deserves to be widely read by both experienced painters, and those just starting out on botanical art.

This is a lovely book for aspiring artists. There are beautiful illustrations and lots of tips. Billy Showell is such a talented artist and I just love her books

Not much more to add really - beautifully presented and lots of information. Well worth the money

Conforme o descrito

Un livre absolument magnifique. Les aquarelles sublimes. Une très grande qualité d'impression reproduisant chaque détail. Un régal pour les yeux.

Billy Showell is a well-respected contemporary artist whose watercolour flower portraits have earned her the respect of watercolour artists all over the world. Worked to the same degree of accuracy as traditional botanical paintings, Billy's compositions are given a more contemporary twist, combining her unique eye for design with her love of flowers. Whether you love to paint, or simply love flowers, this book will delight and inspire you.

It is hard to know where to start with this review because this is absolutely one of the best watercolor books on the market for advanced beginners and beyond - even if you are only mildly interested in painting in the botanical style. Five years ago at age 65, I decided to leave fiber arts and move into fine arts, more specifically watercolor painting. Because there are little or no art education support systems where I live, I have relied exclusively on books and videos along with a couple of good friends who are willing to give me honest feedback. Given that background plus my years as an educator, I believe I am well qualified to judge good instructional material. First of all, Billie explains in the introduction that she paints in the botanical style but not to the rigid code of true botanical art because the latter does not offer much space for creativity. This told me immediately what to expect in the content of the instruction - in other words, no science lectures! Like Billy, I admire and respect well done traditional botanical paintings, but it is not what I want to do. Her introduction to materials and the use of the "lessons" are concise and to the point, but she does not try to teach basic skills. Wonderful! Because that is not the intention of the book! And she evidently did not feel the need to cater to beginners just to sell a few more copies of the book. Instead, she includes a masterful section on composition, again focused on what is needed for the content of the book. It is one of my weak areas, and I learned lots! Each of the 40 flowers is given a two page spread, with one dedicated to a beautiful photograph of her finished painting. These are so well done that it is easy to see how the various applications of brush marks and color blend together. The other page contains a combination of written instructions and, again, very well done photographs as needed to illustrate what is to be done to complete the flower. I would recommend that when you first start to use a lesson, you take the time to become very familiar with that instruction page, focusing on the layout of what information is where. This will make it much easier to refer back for help when you are working on a painting. Having said all of this, I will now tell you my 2 favorite things about the book. The first is the conversational style Billy uses in sharing what she knows. This is not a published formal lecture. The second is the set of remarks about the need to practice and do parts of the painting more than once before putting it all together in a final piece. Both of those helped me relax immediately and look forward to having some fun! I live on a very limited budget, and for me this is an expensive book. However, I have Billy's other book and felt fairly certain the second one would be good as long as it was not just a repeat of the first one. I was not disappointed on either count. I know this review is long, but this book is a gem for those of us who rely heavily on printed instructional material. It shows a lot of planning, thought, and awareness of the audience for which it is intended, and deserves a big hooray! What I appreciate the most about the book is that Billy does not try to be all things to all readers. This lets her stay focused on the intention of the lesson - to share what she knows about botanical floral painting at an advanced level in a focused, concise, and coherent style. If you are a beginner and are interested in the content of the book, by all means buy it! Just be sure you have a beginner's manual handy to explain some of the techniques and terminology if you need it. Thank you, Billie, for all the time and effort it took to put this lovely book together.

Please don't buy. It's really cheating. There is no step by step drawing or painting description. Lot of people give wrong review. So I trapped. There is only photo of 40flowers