Drawing and Painting Flowers with Coloured Pencils

Great book, with excellent examples and lots of techniques to learn and apply. The author is obviously quite versed in the art of drawing and painting with colored pencils.The only drawback this book has is that the author only talks about Derwent products. My assumption is that she either got sponsored by this particular company, or she has't tried to use other colored pencil brands. There is nothing wrong with Derwent products, but there are other brands out there, like Faber-Castell or Caran d'Ache, that I like using better because of how they feel when I apply them to paper.

An inspiring, beautiful book, written by an inspiring artist--one of my favorites. My students love this book and wanted to borrow it before I had a chance to read it. I can recommend this book to beginning artists as well as advanced. There is something to learn and use no matter one's level.If you love to paint and draw flowers, you will love this book. Trudy Friend is a gifted artist and a great teacher.

This is a very comprehensive and beautiful instructional book by a truly competent artist. I will be able to greatly improve my drawing skills because of the lessons it contains. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in drawing.

Wonderful instruction and examples by an accomplished artist and writer and above all teacher.I have whatever she has in print that I can get my hands on.This is a stunning example of exacting yet fluid realism.Bravo! Just simply a winner

I have purchased many books on the use of colored pencils for fine art work.Maybe I have read so many before that this one was not the best.

Beautiful book.

This is a great book for the person who likes to draw. I also use oils but prefer this book for drawing. I would buy it again.

Excellent teaching guide for learning my new form of artwork. Exactly what I needed. Great service. Thank you very much

This book has some good points and it's nicely laid out and pleasant to flick through, but I've had it several months now and I find I haven't actually used it at all - I've used other books by Ann Swan and Wendy Hollender far more.This is mostly because Trudie Friend's work is very accomplished but it is very pale and washed-out looking, which isn't necessarily the most 'current' style of coloured pencil work (and not what I want to achieve). Also, the book only mentions Derwent pencils, with no mention of other brands like Faber Castell, which are actually better in terms of lightfastness. Of course this is the author's right, but it does mean the book is less appealing to those who use other brands of pencils.The instruction in the book is rather sketchy (excuse the pun!). There are some useful tips, but the format is mostly brief little notes referring to sketches or finished works by the author. There's no real step-by-step exercises that you can work through with pictures of each stage. Having said that though, quite a lot of different techniques are covered.The title's definition of 'Coloured Pencils' includes ALL forms of pencil-shaped colour sticks - watercolour pencils, pastel pencils etc, and there is a lot of content about using these media, which can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your interest in them. However, if you are looking for a book which is just instruction on using dry coloured pencils, this isn't the best.Basically, if you love Trudie Friend's pale, sketchy style and you want to know how she achieves that using a wide array of Derwent products, you'll probably quite like this book. However, if you're looking for an instructional book about dry coloured pencils, I would suggest books by Ann Swan or Wendy Hollender (notes: they are both botanical artists, so there is rather a lot of content about the discipline of botanical painting rather than just the process of painting flowers. However, they both do contain useful instruction on shading, layers etc. Wendy Hollender does use some watercolour pencils but the book doesn't focus heavily on this).Having bought every book I can find on the subject of drawing flowers with coloured pencils, it is a frustratingly short list. There is a huge opportunity here for a talented coloured pencil artist to produce a really good, detailed instructional book on the subject, with step-by-step illustrated exercises, and a focus on sharing the layer-by-layer process, shading, underpainting etc.As for this book, I might have a look at it now and then, but it's not on my 'frequent reference' shelf.

I was very pleased indeed with this book. There aren't that many books on coloured pencil work as opposed to books on other media. The book not only has a very good number of attractive paintings that I would like to have a go at but also accompanies them by good instruction and preliminary sketches and how to proceed. It is an attractive and well produced book which is both nice to look at and full of very helpful instruction. Highly recommended

A lovely book with a great deal of information about the various pencils available. Possibly a little advanced for those starting out in this media, but some useful hints and techniques.

she is a great artist but too complicated for a beginner and seems to be promoting Derwent pencils in this book

Just as expected clearly written, ideal for showing to people who ask me how to draw flowers. I can show them my way but feel that it is better for them to see other examples, from a better teacher than me. I am self taught and just draw for my own pleasure.