Watercolour Fruit & Vegetable Portraits

NEW IN PAPERBACK
Learn how to paint realistic fruit, vegetables and blossom with this beautifully illustrated watercolour course.
Billy Showell's amazing paintings and vibrant palette are showcased here as she clearly explains how to create a huge selection of shapes and textures using detailed step-by-step instructions. Starting with basic techniques and use of colour, she shows how to capture the individuality of spiralling artichokes, the smooth contours of aubergines, the sumptuous reds of glossy peppers, the cool yellows of bananas, the subtle hues of blossom and more. Using traditional methods, overlaying washes, dry brush techniques, glazing, masking - she develops pictures that are exciting and different, sometimes with an unconventional and amusing twist that takes the images on to new, contemporary levels. Explanations on drawing, composition, lighting, painting white subjects are included, along with many different ideas and dozens of useful and helpful tips.

Billy Showell: Billy Showell graduated from St Martins School of Art with a B.A. in fashion design, but was irresistably drawn to painting and illustration. In 1993 she set course for a career as an artist and now paints, illustrates and teaches botanical painting at her studio and art clubs in the UK, USA and Australia. She lives in Tunbridge Wells, UK with her husband and two sons. Billy has been awarded five Certificates of Botanical Merit from the Society of Botanical Artists and her first book on watercolour flower portraits has been hugely successful in the UK and abroad. Billy's paintings are collected by her followers the world over and many are available as limited edition prints.

Introduction 6
What you need 8
Drawing 10
Composition 16
Colour 26
Techniques 38
Light and shade 48
White vegetables 52
Flowers and blossom 56
Painting details 60
PROJECTS 72
Kohlrabi 74
Pumpkin Still Life 90
Lemon 106
Heart of Berries 118
Index 128