About the Book
This practical beginner's guide includes all the inspiration you need to draw and paint a range of fairy habitats and the fairies that live there.
Learn how to compose magical scenes and conjure up enchanting fairy figures. Design your very own vision of fairyland or assemble all the essential fairyland details you need from the easy-to-use galleries.
Beginners to watercolour will find easy, step-by-step techniques explaining how to draw and paint the textures and details of the fairy environment - from frosty leaves to clouds and rainbows, feathers, fruits, berries and mushrooms. And as your skills develop, you'll be able to create your own individual style.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Getting Started
Colour Theory
Picture-making
Techniques and Treatments
Scenes from Fairyland
Ready-to-draw Figures
Index and Credits
About the Author :
Linda Ravenscroft is an artist of international standing, whose beautifully detailed fairy and fantasy images can be seen all over the world, from fine art prints to exclusive giftware and fantasy art books. Linda became a professional fantasy artist in 1996, and since then her work has been in demand, with many of her pieces now with American collectors. Linda is the author of How to Draw and Paint Fairyland, and How to Draw and Paint Fairies, which has sold 200,000 copies worldwide.
Review :
Artbookreview.net:sure you get just the right variety of dragon or dwarf if you don't want the world to laugh at you.OK, I'm being unfair, but not as much (if you're a general reader) as you might think. So, this quite substantial volume offers a good variety of subject matter and pulls together figures, landscapes and buildings so that you can create a complete world without having to refer to a dozen or more different titles.The result is a consistency of style that's very welcome and it does have to be said that the results are really rather charming. I've remarked elsewhere that I have a specific allergy to fantasy art, but this has won me over. The fairies aren't too cute, the flowers and plants in the background have a firm basis in reality and the buildings (castles, for the most part) are pretty much architecturally sound. A building inspector would condemn any house built in a toadstool, but that's building inspectors for you; lighten up guys, fairies have no weight so floor loadings just don't apply!Anything like this has a particular market but work with Linda and you should be able to produce results that appeal to a more general audience. The instructions and demonstrations are first class, too.Myshelf.com:Painting fairyland might at first sound rather daunting, as it must surely involve painting solely from the imagination. But most fairyfolk are based on the human form, and the world they inhabit contains mostly the same things are ours - think of Flower Fairies! What's more, as nobody has seen a real fairy they cannot tell you that you have painted them wrong - Like any other type of painting, fantasy art starts with the same basics such as what to buy, and how to use it. This book contains this information, as well as how to achieve the right sort of look to your work. Painting an underwater environment for example, creating castles in the air or getting the scale right for a miniature world. The chapters talk you through the process, from getting started where you go shopping with the right list and then get to put your purchases through their paces. I particularly liked the attention to detail, such as the palette you need for each season, the right colors for painting weather, transferring with a grid and mixing leaf greens. Picture making involves just what it says, from getting inspired to keeping a sketchbook, composition and even some simple rules of perspective. There are some useful ready-to-draw files showing different items or beings you might find in Fairyland, from insects to furniture. Again, it is the small details that impressed me the most such as how to change a simple drawing of a lizard into a dragon, or getting the right veining on your leaves. Later on there are galleries and staged projects to work through, and by the end of the book I felt I knew more than I thought I would need to know which is surely the sign of a good practical book. If you want to have a go at this type of artwork then I honestly haven't seen a better book than this.JeannieZelos.com:Linda takes painting fairyland into new dimensions in this superb softback book. She explains initially how to use different mediums such as monochrome media, gouache, watercolour paints and other media to best advantage. She includes some useful information on how to transfer images, and use grids. Her works are very detailed and so this section is especially useful in learning how to use source materials. The chapter heading A"gathering fairyland inspirationA" is essential reading for would be fantasy artists because Linda shows how to work basic photos and gathered materials into a fairyland landscape. As well as a brief overview of the mechanics of any painting, perspectives and colour for example Linda explains very clearly some useful techniques that are essential to fairyland paintings, such as how to paint trees from a fairyland view and how to use size of fairy within a landscape to improve composition. Linda shows how to take an everyday flower such as a sunflower and incorporate it with the mystical and different properties it needs for a fairyland painting. She explains clearly how to use backgrounds and colours to create moods within a work and how to create different effects for fairyland weather. In one section this is illustrated by the same simple castle painted in different colours and shades to show how it can be welcoming, scary, disappearing into a mist, an ice palace, an elegant silhouette or have a fiery, supernatural glow all by simply changing the colours and tones used. Tips such as this are so useful when trying to set a feel in the background of a work. A warm and welcoming castle in an icy scary background simply wouldn't fit and yet by changing the colours used the scene can work very well. The A"natures detailsA" section covers how to take everyday trees, plants and pools of water and bring them into the realm of the fairyland world. There are some short but incredibly detailed step by step sections on fairyland environments to practise culminating in an amazingly intensely elaborate painting of a midsummer feast. Each step of this carries information on how to complete each section and exactly what colours to use.It ends with a lovely gallery of artwork from different artists and some useful reference figures to use. This book isn't one for beginners I feel, as Linda assumes a basic level of technical skills in painting, but will be an excellent and thoroughly interesting follow on book for the more experienced fantasy artist. There are many beginners books already on the market and its a welcome change to see one that takes painting fairies onto the next level. Machine Knitting Monthly: Offers a step-by-step guide to creating the world of fairies. It's a practical beginner's guide that includes all you need to know to draw and paint fairy habitats and the fairies that live there. Learn how to compose magical scenes, conjure up enchanting fairy figures, design your very own fairyland or assemble all the essential details. Step-by-step techniques explain how to draw and paint frosty leaves, clouds and rainbows, feathers, fruits, berries and mushrooms. As your skills develop, you'll be able to create your own individual style.
