review: Inking Florals: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Modern Florals in Ink and Watercolor

weil ich das Rezensionsexemplar über die englischsprachige Seite von NetGalley erhalten habe, habe ich die Rezension auch auf Englisch geschrieben.

I never would have thought that I would enjoy drawing. But in recent years I learnt that I can draw, that I can create something with a pencil, a bit of colour and that I’m not that bad.

Flowers are my favourite things to draw. I may not be very good at it, but it’s fun. On Youtube and Skillshare there are a lot videos on how to draw flowers and of course there are a lot of books, too. One book I discovered on NetGalley and requested an advanced reader’s copy (arc).

Back to the book itself. “Inking Florals: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Modern Florals in Ink and Watercolor*” is by Isa Down, an artist and teacher on Skillshare. You can also follow her on Instagram.

The first pages are about the materials you need to start drawing (e.g. ink pens) and there is a colour chart with primary and secondary colours (something we all learnt back in school but I was never that interested).

Isa Down talks also about finding inspiration, like going for walks and taking photos. That’s something I often do myself. Photography is a hobby of mine since quite a few years and I always enjoy walking in the forest or through fields and meadows. Especially now in spring there is a lot to discover.

The reader learns also about watercolour techniques (like wet-on-wet), how to correct mistakes and if he or she should apply the watercolour first and than the ink or the other way round. Isa says that there are no right or wrong ways and I think that’s the beauty with art.

Before Isa takes us step by step through the process of drawing a flower, we learn some basics about flowers, the names of each part.

There are 18 step-by-step tutorials of flowers like snowdrop, anemone and red poppy. The step-by-step guides are very easy to follow because they include drawings belong-side the text.

I want to show you one of my drawings I did with the help of this book.

“Inking Florals: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Modern Florals in Ink and Watercolor” is a beautifully made book for beginner with a lot of helpful explanations on everything you need to know about drawing flowers.

Für meine deutschsprachigen Leser:

Ob es das Buch auf Deutsch geben wird, kann ich nicht sagen. Aber da das Buch auch selbsterklärende Zeichnungen enthält, sollte es auch kein Problem sein, es auf Englisch zu lesen.