Product Description

This guide to painting realistic, atmospheric nature scenes teaches how to: choose and mix colours; combine reference materials to design realistic compositions; master watercolour techniques such as washes; render realistic birds, flowers and foliage; and capture realistic textures.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #445551 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From Library Journal
Whether we believe in the Garden of Eden, in simian ancestors on the African plains, or in neither, nature has a powerful hold on all of us. Most artists have been drawn to nature in a usually futile attempt to capture its mysteries. Bourdet's title refers to painting of nature's power to entice a loftier goal than what she actually attempts, which is to paint one's emotional response to nature. Fortunately, she excels at this more modest goal. A gifted teacher and a fine artist, Bourdet guides us through the basics of sketching, field notes, using a reference library of photos, color mixing, and the realistic rendering of birds, flowers, leaves, snow, fog, wood, cobwebs, etc. She offers masterly technical advice in segments on, for example, avoiding mud on paper, not in the field. Wendy Jelbert's Painting Nature's Details (LJ 3/15/97) took a narrower approach, while Robert Reynolds and Patrick Seslar's Painting Nature's Peaceful Places (North Light, 1994) was more akin to folk art. Bourdet's book is more comprehensive and earthier than either. Highly recommended as a solid, inspiring take on illustrating and interpreting nature.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Susan D. Bourdet has been painting, studying and teaching watercolor painting techniques for the past twenty years. Her watercolors have received numerous awards, been featured in numerous exhibitions and currently appear in calendars by Bookmark. She is a member of The Nature Conservancy, the Oregon Wildlife Federation, World Wildlife Fund and the Watercolor Society of Oregon. Susan lives in Jefferson, Oregon.