Creating Radiant Flowers in Colored Pencil: 64 step-by-step demos / 54 kinds of flowers

He quedado sorprendido con la gran calidad y el excelente estado de uso de estos libros. Aunque sean, algunos de ellos, en segunda mano, estan en perfecto estado de conservación. Me encantó la experiencia y seguro que trataré de comprarme algunos libros más en estas condiciones, por si acaso estén en tan buenas condiciones 🙂

As a teaching tool for the beginner, this book has severe limitations. The book does present step by step procedures on how to copy images of flowers. However – keep in mind that if you expect to duplicate Mr Green’s colors, you will need to have on hand more than 200 colored pencils, from several different manufacturers. That’s an awful lot to ask of a beginner, or even an intermediate. The other severe limitation for the beginner is that very little of the technique is explained. Most of the “directions” are on the order of “layer with this, this, this, this, and this….” several different colors in one small space – and then on to another small space with another several colors. It’s possible (but unlikely) that an expert could figure out what Mr Green means, but the newcomer has no hope of that.

Still, the book is not useless, just limited. There are flowers one could trace, and then try to “paint” or color – just don’t expect results which are anything like those in the book.

I had first borrowed this book from the library, and when it was time to return the book, I looked for a copy, only to learn the. It was already out of print. Gary’s explanations of creating realistic flowers are step by step with the explanation how to recreate Mother Nature. He has an excellent botany background and translates this into the world of colored pencil. Needless to say, I immediately bought the Kindle book so I could continue my journey in drawing flowers again.

We have here a veritable flower market between the covers of this amazing book, with page after page of step by step guidelines for creating beautiful flower paintings. For each project there’s a list of the colored pencils used, and the steps indicated.
Many of them involve a solvent called Bestine, which smells like gasoline (in fact I think it may actually be gasoline).
The style of the art is realistic and fairly detailed.
I don’t think this is meant to be a free-standing volume. Although the chapter on techniques is an overall summary, it’s so compressed as to seem contradictory at times, e.g., page 20. This seems to be more of an add-on or companion volume for Gary Greene’s Ultimate Guide to Colored Pencil.
I think this book is well worth the purchase price. I plan to study it and use it for a good long while.

Another brilliant book from Gary Greene. I am addicted to pencils and enjoy any help and encouragement, it has been a poor relation to other medium for far too long.

This book by author Gary Green is extremely impressive. It is tailored to colored pencil artists who are drawing specifically flowers. It is not oriented toward “botanical illustrations” but specifically to floral portraits. The book contains good sections on basic materials, comparing the different types of colored pencils on the market. In addition, it discusses drawing surfaces, but not in great detail. It explains the basic items needed to make good floral representations. And it covers the techniques of “Layering,” “Burnishing,” “Underpainting” and color mixing.

Its highest usefulness is in the step by step instructions it gives the reader/artist in precisely how to create over 56 different specific flower representations. Most of the flowers also have included a “Reference Photograph” so that the artist/reader can understand what the flower truly looked like in real life. While those reference photographs do seem to have a “retouched” look, still they are pretty useful photographs to help the artist/reader see what the natural appearance of the flower is and then Mr. Green’s illustrations show what the picture will look like at different steps of the process.

I would seriously recommend this book for artist/readers who are just starting out in the drawing of flowers. The step-by-step instructions are some of the best I have seen in any book of its type. Also, they are not arduously long and involved. Some books have instructions that are so complex that one finds themselves putting those books on the shelf for a later time when they have ‘mastered the basics’ and can concentrate on the highly detailed instructions. This book is NOT such a book. This book can be used by all levels of artists from beginners to long time artists and even experts who are just starting to paint flowers as a new subject.

I would highly recommend this book for all of the above levels of artists. If you want to find a step-by-step instruction process to get you from never having painted flowers to painting recognizable and even beautiful representations, this book will serve you well. Do seriously consider adding it to your library of artistic instructionals.