The Modern Flower Painter: Creating Vibrant Botanical Portraits in Watercolour

by Anna Mason

Learn to paint stunningly realistic botanical watercolour flowers with award-winning artist Anna Mason.

Anna's popular style and trusted techniques have inspired and delighted aspiring artists in over 100 countries worldwide. Covering every aspect of painting modern botanical-style flower portraits, Anna guides you step by step through her six-stage watercolour process. Each of the six stunning projects is accompanied by an outline drawing, tonal notes and useful colour swatches so that you can compare the tone and hue of your mixes to Anna's own.

Inside, you’ll find:

• How to get started, from setting up your workspace to drawing your projects;
• How to work with watercolour to achieve the right tones, hues and colour mixes;
• How to hold your brush, apply paint and other useful brush techniques;
• How to paint watercolour flowers in Anna’s signature 6-stage process;
• 6 step-by-step flower portraits including clematis, violets, tulips and more!

Anna Mason’s exceptional botanical artwork has won awards from the Royal Horticultural Society, International Artist magazine, and earned her a spot in the prestigious Society of Botanical Artists. This is the paperback edition of the best-selling hardback original, which sold over 25,000 copies.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Drawing, Crafts, Reference

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2014

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book for no other reason than it introduced me to the Munsell Color Wheel. I checked out a large stack of Botanical Watercolor books from the library and this one is by far the best when it comes to step by step instructions.

Currently following one of the exercises and enjoying her building by layers explanations, I purchased this book for myself now.

Bonus: The artist includes sketches you can copy and then do the step by step instructions with on your own.

[Eadle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This may very well be a really decent book, but the Kindle version is virtually worthless.

[Christine Zook · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible Conversion to Digital

I was so frustrated trying to read this book. I love Anna Mason’s work and I am certain she had very valuable information, but I gave up after a few chapters of trying to decipher it. Do better, Kindle!

Here is an example: “Some hues contain pigments made if you accidentally paint in the wrong place. It is the fact that ‘mistakes’ within the each layer is dry before I apply from very small particles. The smaller lightest areas of the composition can be tricky to rectify that gives watercolours a the next’. This is absolutely crucial, the particles, the more likely it is that reputation for being diffi cult to use. and at the heart of the technique. the hue will stain the paper.”

[Sara Coppedge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Editing Would Be a Good Idea

I am sure this book is full of useful information, but the Kindle edition (the one I have) is practically unreadable. It is not uncommon to find partial words and sentences missing. I am also missing some illustrations. If I tried hard enough, I might understand some of it, but it is so difficult that I am not inclined to try. I suggest you take it off the shelf until you find a good editor.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

scattered, unreadable format

I’ve been using the iPhone kindle app for years without issue. I decided to try this book after just finishing Anna Mason’s other watercolor book, which I can highly recommend. However “The Modern Flower Painter” was unreadable - huge formatting issues and half sentences. Disappointing and I hope it gets fixed, what a silly reason for a poor number of stars.

[wildsage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindle edition very flawed

I have this book in hardback and love it. Its a very good book. However the kindle version has chunks of text that are jumbled up. The lovely and useful illustrations are also messed up, rendering this kindle edition uselrss.
The print edition is wonderful.

[Emma Jean Gregory · Rating 1 out of 5]

kindle edition impossible to read

The information in the book (that which I could read) was informative and interesting; however, the editing leaves a lot to be desired. Words are separated, sentences and paragraphs are jumbled, random numbers appear and the list goes on. A good editing of this material would probably result in a very good book.

[ShariB · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not Kindle Friendly

I love Anna Mason, however, this book is totally impossible to read on my Kindle. The sentences are nonsensical and the pictures are fractured.
So, 0 stars because of formatting issues which render this ebook impossible to read.

[Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

totally sad

Formatting created a mess. Many broken words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and photos useless. I believe artist and instructor is probably good but can’t unscramble it.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought the kindle book at first and couldn’t read it because the sentences/text didn’t make any sense and pictures weren’t where they were supposed to be. Plus, there is No download for outlines. I decided to buy the paperback to give it a second change. Anna Mason makes beautiful pictures and I have done her free class. Unfortunately to start with there is no reference picture, which makes it difficult to see what she’s talking about. Then it’s difficult to follow some of the steps as the painting done next to the text doesn’t show clearly what the directions state. Not a book I’d recommend or give as a gift. There are much better watercolor books available.