Watercolour Plant Art review…where do I start?! This book is INCREDIBLE!! Nikki Strange is an inspirational and extremely talented artist who expertly guides you through her own methods for creating Watercolour Plant Art!
The contents page is clear and accessible – it doesn’t feel overwhelming at all! The book has a wide variety of projects which allows you to explore different styles, colours, techniques and layouts so there is sure to be something that will catch your eye!
Before starting the projects, Nikki guides you through paints, papers, brushes, palettes, colour-theory and different watercolour techniques in an easy-to-follow style which is also really helpful to continue to refer back to as you work your way through the projects!
Each project starts off with a clear photo of the painting along with a list of materials, colours and colour mixes. As someone who doesn’t have a huge variety of paints (I’m very new to watercolour), I found it really helpful when Nikki specifies the colours, what each mix is made up of and also how Nikki uses only a handful of colours to do all of the projects in the book! It makes it really easy to follow and really accessible.
The project is broken down into step-by-step actions (colours, what brush to use and what technique to use) so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming!
I had so much fun working my way through the projects and playing with different techniques, colour mixes, plants and projects!
I’ve never done watercolour before so it was a real learning curve for me to try these projects but it didn’t feel overwhelming at all. Nikki speaks of letting go of control and letting the water work its magic with the paint and it is such a good mentality because it helped me to get lost in the process rather than worrying about the finesse of the painting!
The book comes with a sketchpad with the outline for each project so that you can watercolour directly onto the outline.
I used the sketchpad for the first project that I tried from the book but, in all honesty, I found that the paper really didn’t work well and ended up quite furry as it didn’t withstand the water and ended up ripping through the paper!
That’s not to take away from the book as the book itself is INCREDIBLE! I just used the book as an instructional guide and painted onto my own watercolour sketchpad instead. You could use the sketchpad with a lightbox to draw the design onto proper watercolour paper too.
All in all, this is a phenomenal book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in watercolour from those starting out to those who’ve been painting for much longer! It is clear to follow, understandable, detailed, accessible, inspirational, creative and utterly beautiful! An absolute 5* book!
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