What do you think?
Rate this book
Watercolor Botanicals: Learn to Paint Your Favorite Plants and Florals
Learn to paint gorgeous watercolor flowers, houseplants, and arrangements with this inspiring guide that includes 30 step-by-step tutorials.
Filled with lessons and daily exercises, this fun introduction to watercolor teaches beginner artists how to create their own botanical-inspired paintings. It covers everything from selecting paper, paint, and brushes to choosing a palette, blending colors, and adding dimension and detail. Once you’ve mastered the essential techniques, you’ll learn to paint cacti, popular houseplants, and individual flowers, and see how to combine these components into more complex compositions, including frames, wreaths, and colorful bouquets. Step-by-step tutorials, along with artist Eunice Sun’s expressive artwork, provides all the guidance and inspiration you’ll need to render small motifs, decorate a card, paint a charming still life, and more.
Filled with lessons and daily exercises, this fun introduction to watercolor teaches beginner artists how to create their own botanical-inspired paintings. It covers everything from selecting paper, paint, and brushes to choosing a palette, blending colors, and adding dimension and detail. Once you’ve mastered the essential techniques, you’ll learn to paint cacti, popular houseplants, and individual flowers, and see how to combine these components into more complex compositions, including frames, wreaths, and colorful bouquets. Step-by-step tutorials, along with artist Eunice Sun’s expressive artwork, provides all the guidance and inspiration you’ll need to render small motifs, decorate a card, paint a charming still life, and more.
- GenresNonfictionArtCrafts
144 pages, Paperback
Published April 7, 2020
26 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 11, 2022
Excellent instructions, beautiful botanicals to paint, full of encouragement! I am a beginner and definitely need the kindness this book gave to me as I try to explore this new hobby.
September 5, 2020
After about a year of learning, I’m probably an advanced beginner at watercolor thanks to Let’s Make Art.
As a supplement, I thought it would be nice to find books that contain simple exercises to use as warmups to more involved projects or subjects for watercolor cards I’ve been sending to friends and family.
I checked this book out from the library based on a quick flip through.
The intro is super thorough on topics like setting up a painting space, how to hold a watercolor brush, color theory, etc. there are lots of useful pictures and illustrations throughout this section. Pp. 28-29, for example, includes a nice reference of common paint names mapped to a general color description, and color dot accompanied by a short list of common color mixes. There’s no need to know anything about paint pigments to use this book.
The book proceeds with a progression of simple to more complex projects and is aimed at beginners to slightly more advanced watercolorists.
Each project includes references to painting techniques used the project (I.e. lifting paint, wet on wet, wet on dry, etc). from the intro. The project call-out box also includes a list of the paints used with an example of what those colors look like as there can be a lot of variation in paints like veridian green or cadmium red. Each step provides detailed instructions about which colors and technique are being used along with helpful tips including ways to correct potential mistakes. The written steps also explain what colors to mix and even how much water to use to achieve the desired effect. The written step has also a reference to an accompanying picture of that step.
At the end of each larger section (leaves, florals, tropical plants, and desert plants) Ms. Sun includes a capstone project that includes a suggested layout. At the end of the leaf section, there’s a leaf pattern project including the 8 individual leaf projects earlier in the book.
I highly recommend getting this book if you are looking for a comprehensive reference to watercolor common flowers and plants for practice.
As a supplement, I thought it would be nice to find books that contain simple exercises to use as warmups to more involved projects or subjects for watercolor cards I’ve been sending to friends and family.
I checked this book out from the library based on a quick flip through.
The intro is super thorough on topics like setting up a painting space, how to hold a watercolor brush, color theory, etc. there are lots of useful pictures and illustrations throughout this section. Pp. 28-29, for example, includes a nice reference of common paint names mapped to a general color description, and color dot accompanied by a short list of common color mixes. There’s no need to know anything about paint pigments to use this book.
The book proceeds with a progression of simple to more complex projects and is aimed at beginners to slightly more advanced watercolorists.
Each project includes references to painting techniques used the project (I.e. lifting paint, wet on wet, wet on dry, etc). from the intro. The project call-out box also includes a list of the paints used with an example of what those colors look like as there can be a lot of variation in paints like veridian green or cadmium red. Each step provides detailed instructions about which colors and technique are being used along with helpful tips including ways to correct potential mistakes. The written steps also explain what colors to mix and even how much water to use to achieve the desired effect. The written step has also a reference to an accompanying picture of that step.
At the end of each larger section (leaves, florals, tropical plants, and desert plants) Ms. Sun includes a capstone project that includes a suggested layout. At the end of the leaf section, there’s a leaf pattern project including the 8 individual leaf projects earlier in the book.
I highly recommend getting this book if you are looking for a comprehensive reference to watercolor common flowers and plants for practice.
January 7, 2021
Really good intro to botanical painting, with some fun projects (bouquets, succulents) along the way. An entire chapter on tropicals! They are usually overlooked in botanical watercolour books, which tend to focus on just the "English garden" botanicals ... This book by Eunice Sun covers those but goes well beyond. The author's voice is also encouraging and positive, while keeping the instructions clear and easy to follow. Bravo!
August 24, 2021
Good demos and step by step instructions. Basic supplies etc covered. This is not an inexpensive hobby, but the knowledge imparted is very valuable
April 30, 2023
Instructions were a little dry to me but I really appreciate all of the pictures
September 25, 2024
Step by step visuals!
September 27, 2025
Good instructions on how to paint an abstract rose.
January 11, 2026
Was expecting/looking for more realistic/detailed techniques
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews