5.0 out of 5 stars Paint fowers

N.g. · June 10, 2025

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5.0 out of 5 stars I want to set the record straight!

L.M. · August 19, 2019

I hesitated for a while about ordering this book. A lot of negative reviews (like, super negative) were centered around a few complaints: First, that the flower on the cover is not taught in the book; second, the instructions are not step by step; third, there aren't "loose" water color designs; and finally, that she doesn't tell you how to sketch the flowers.I am very glad that I ended up purchasing this book. I have several other watercolor flowers texts, but this is the one I continue to come back to. I appreciate that Jenna Rainey is centering her instruction on shapes and principles, with the support of a few step by step instructions to guide the process. I am a novice artist, and I want to become a better artist-- I don't want to produce exact copies of someone else's work. Rainey's instructions include helpful tips for watercolor fundamentals, the composition of pieces you are painting, and brush strokes. There is still plenty of room to play and experiment, so that I feel like I am painting my own pieces while learning vital skills that are building up my confidence as a painter. I appreciate how the lessons/projects are organized by flower shape. As a gardener, this makes me excited! If I want to paint a flower in my garden that isn't covered in this book, all I need to do is analyze its shape, and find a similar shape within the book to find some helpful reminders.The first and most common complaint was that the cover art was not featured in the book. No, it is not explicitly taught how to paint that exact flower with exact hue. However, the flower on the cover is a Peony, which is taught. It's a different kind of Peony, but it is a Peony! As mentioned above, the instruction is not so rigid and step by step that you feel like you're copying someone else's work. Instead, you are given helpful, global advice for how to master the shape and form of specific flowers, and there's room for you to play and create. If you want to paint the Peony on the cover, all you need to do is change the hue you're working with and modify the center of the bloom.The second big complaint is that the steps are not very clear. Again, if you're looking to exactly copy someone's painting, then no, the steps are not clear enough for that. However, if you're looking for tools and suggestions to help you grow and develop as an artist whilst painting your own pieces that you can truly call your own, then the directions are more than enough.The third complaint was that there weren't enough loose designs. I would say that the book is about 40/60 loose to realistic, which I found to be and ideal mixture. Again, I don't want to create duplicates of Rainey's work. I want to learn how to watercolor. So this was just fine by me.Finally, there were complaints that some of the first steps (especially for the realistic style tutorials) were "sketch X flower." Yes, this can be daunting... but this is a watercolor book, not a sketching book. I would recommend the book "In Bloom: A Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Lush Florals" by Rachel Reinert if this step is really daunting. It's a great, literally step by step guide to drawing most of the flowers that are included in Rainey's text. I've used both of the books together to complete some of my pieces if a flower was particularly intricate.All in all, would buy again. I love that Rainey's books feel like an art class that is teaching me art principles. If you're looking for a painting guide that's like one of those wine and painting nights where everyone paints the exact same thing, then this isn't the book for you.

5.0 out of 5 stars Jenna Rainey is the BEST Watercolor Instructor!

S. · March 3, 2024

I loved her first book, and this one went into even more depth: more sketches, more step by step guides, and more explanations. I love it!I pre-ordered her third book, which is due out March 5th, and I cannot wait.I have been painting for a number of years, but my painting has been bad or so-so. By watching Jenna's YouTube lessons, and becoming a Patreon member, i have gotten so much better, and have gained so much more confidence in my work. I'm no longer painting tiny little throwaway things; I am painting on bigger paper and having so much more fun!I also love her recommendations. While I have been using the Princeton Heritage brushes for a long time now (and love them!) I never found a paint I truly loved until I switched to MaimeriBlu. I love the stuff. I'm hooked on Arches paper (anything else I've tried has been disappointing) but I am going to try her paper suggestions as well.I highly, highly recommend this book and this author!

5.0 out of 5 stars Painting

D. · October 26, 2024

This is a gift for my daughter-in-law. I know she will love it.

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book - Beginners Will Want To Also Watch Author's Videos/YouTube Channel

T. · June 12, 2019

Jenna's artwork is truly beautiful and there is a lot of great information in this book. The supplies and technique sections closely mirror her 1st book Everyday Watercolor and that will give you a lot of good information regarding starting out if you're a beginner. I consider myself more of an intermediate but not too long ago was just figuring out the ins and outs of watercolor so I write this thinking of myself a couple years back. I've seen a lot of Jenna's tutorials and instagram videos and have recently started watching her You Tube channel as well, and for that reason I know what Jenna is trying to say in many of her instructions, however if you have never seen or watched Jenna talk about how she paints I think the descriptions may be pretty confusing and it would greatly benefit you to jump over to her You Tube channel and see some videos. Once you've seen some of her technique its so much easier to understand. I found the little brush drawings to not be very clear even when I already knew how to make the petal shape and the step by step photos are sometimes really jumping ahead without laying the foundations. I'm sure this was for length due to the amount of layering in a realistic watercolor painting that she didn't want to show every step, but it kind funny when she's talking about laying down a light foundational wash and the photo shown is already showing veining details of florals with stems and leaves and shading, etc.. But when you watch Jenna use her brush in her videos it all makes sense, she is a really great teacher and I've learned a ton from her. Probably just the difficulty of teaching watercolor via a book. I would just consider this only one of the many resources you should use when learning the beautiful but difficult technique of watercolor painting. If you are a bit confused don't lose heart, just find additional visuals. I can definitely work from this book as an intermediate not needing detailed technique instructions but still gaining a lot of great knowledge as to how she conceives and composes her paintings.

5.0 out of 5 stars Rosanna's review of Everyday Watercolour Flowers

K.C. · December 8, 2023

I think this book is excellent for beginners and for intermediate artists wishing to loosen up their painting style. It is not a step by step drawing and painting guide but it encourages the beginner to practise with colour mixing and brush control, making shapes (or tonal forms) to teach an art student to observe and therefore become a more confident artist in completing their own interpretation of flowers. It is written in an easy to follow fashion with illustrations.

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book

D.S. · November 22, 2023

I am ready to begin these books next week after the holiday. I have set time aside and will do another review after. But I have read through and am excited to get into this. I am a self taught Artist that am actually coming from Acrylics… I’m exploring other mediums and it’s so exciting!!!!

Slightly disappointing

A.H. · September 23, 2021

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } First of all, I ended up buying this book by accident, I was pondering between buying this or the same author's other book, and kindle one-click buy system kindly beat me to it while scrolling. I'm not returning it, I read the whole book already and it was in my wishlist anyways, but I won't be buying the other book. It's disappointing in many ways and I'd really advise people new to watercolor to go for other books, especially when on a budget, or stick to her youtube channel, instead of wasting money on a book. I admit the amount of flowers is good enough to practice and all of them are very pretty, but most of them seem like they came out of nowhere, the tutorials lack steps, and important parts are either long paragraphs or small pictographs that could have been explained in pictures on how to grab the brush. Her youtube channel explains very clearly most of the thing omitted here, and for free, so better go there for brush technique on this specific kind of art (loose flowers, not the realistic ones, those aren't her strongest point). But honestly, I've bought better books that are more technical and graphic enough to understand the technique, and most of them are cheaper.

Lovely book

N. · January 4, 2025

Added so much joy to my art book collection. Easy to follow. Cute illustrations. Informative. And I got it for a steal of a price. Totally recommend

Super for beginners

B. · May 26, 2024

In a world of bewildering introductions to watercolor painting this book helps you to confidently take the first steps. It doesn’t assume you know anything but isn’t written like an idiots guide either. I’m working through it and enjoying it.

Sooooo Helpfull

G. · July 23, 2020

Thank you for preparing this book!

Très beau livre

L. · March 23, 2024

C'est le deuxième que j'achète de Jenna Rainey et je ne suis pas déçue.Complète bien l'apprentissage avec sa chaine YouTube, permet d'aller plus loin ;)