This is a beautiful book featuring step by step instructions on creating beautiful floral works of art. I am recently interested in drawing and watercolor and this is among the favorite instructional books I have come across. I especially like that I can use it now as a beginner but that it will also be useful to me as I become more adept at it.

Love this book for all the details and tips for line work. I adore watercolor but am a complete novice so I appreciate the simplicity of this style of writing and delivery. Great and easy read!

I greatly enjoyed this book as it is a wonderful & detailed step-by-step guide to drawing flowers.

It teaches you how to pencil sketch them, then proceed to adding ink, and finalizing your creation with vibrant watercolor.
It was nice that the instructions are easy to follow, making it a delightful book for artists of all skill levels.

Check it out today!

***Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto publishing for allowing me to read an advanced reader copy of this book***

This was a very good book for people who have some art knowledge. If your a beginner and want to learn about inks, it wasn't very explanatory. It was great if you want to learn how to draw the flowers. I'd recommend this for people who are a little more advanced in their art explorations.

This is a gorgeous little book which would make a great inspirational gift. It shows you how to draw and paint florals with inks, pen and watercolour while improving techniques and developing your own artistic style.
There are step by step illustrated instructions that let even a beginner feel confident in what they're doing, and for those of us who like to take off on our own imaginations, it is easy enough to adapt the suggested activities and everyone will make artwork that is all your own. You can use the photographs in the book to create your own flower illustrations, but the reader is also encouraged to take reference photographs and draw from life, to make something unique to you. The flowers used in the book are typical North American flowers, but the reader an adapt to whatever local flora they find.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto publishing for accepting my request to read and review Inking Florals by Isa Down.

This is a great step-by-step guide to drawing flowers and learning how to see their details and how to include them in your drawing. You'll start with a pencil sketch, then add your ink, and finalize with watercolor.
This book is a great learning tool with easy to follow instructions. I think this would be a great book for artists of all levels, whether just learning or refreshing your skills.

This book is so helpful, I was able to draw other flowers not just the ones in the book. I liked the technique the book showed. It's not for novice artists I think, but it can be helpful to them as well.

A great help for creating flowers
Artist, educator, and writer Isa Down presents "Illustration Studio: Inking Florals. A step-by-step guide to creating dynamic modern florals in ink and watercolor, published by Quarto Publishing Group - Walter Foster. The book can be divided into two parts, the fist part containing the introduction, finding inspiration, tools & materials, techniques, information about color, and basic flower structure. The second part contains the step-by-step instructions for sixteen flowers as well as teachings about "Filler Foliage" and "Putting It All Together". Every painting is developed in three to five steps based on a photograph, except for the last one about Chrysanthemum which is developed in only two steps. At the end of the book Down challenges the readers to go an create themselves.
The book is presented with great photos, drawings, and design. I highly appreciate the example how the different size of the nib of an ink pen influences ones drawing. Downs shows this with the drawing of a flower (p. 12/13). Numerous tips underline Down's teaching about specific topics. The book is inspirational especially for beginners and intermediate artists and I highly recommend it for them.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#IllustrationStudioInkingFlorals #NetGalley

Take your basic flower doodles to the next level with Inking Florals. Detailed instruction and beautiful graphics throughout. The author-artist breaks each element of a flower into three which is helpful, but these graphics are on the smaller side which may make it difficult to pick up subtle details (or I may just need new glasses). I found the beginning projects simple but inspiring. The latter pages felt like more of the same, still pretty to look at, but I found my interest waning towards the end.

This title is certainly beautifully done, and the illustrations are lovely. I am likely to purchase this book for my library’s art collection, although it is not for the most beginner level artist. Some of the basic strategies are glossed over. The most attention is paid to how to draw the flowers, with less detail about the techniques of watercolor and inking. It is certainly aspirational, though, and a lovely addition to any collection.

Great book and loved all the beautiful illustrations! I would highly recommend this as a great leanring resource!

Love this book. The author takes one through the examples of using a floral image and transferring it with the use of ink into wonderful artworks. Not a big book, but packed with instructions on how to achieve a good likeness, composition and use of colour.

Illustration Studio: Inking Florals by Isa Down
A step-by-step guide to creating dynamic modern florals in ink and watercolor

Information is presented in a way that anyone wishing to try their hand at drawing flowers can do so by following specific steps. I liked the idea of doing some sketching first of petals and leaves and other parts of the flower before creating the final composition.

There are five steps to painting flowers mentioned by this artist:
1. determine the shape of the flower to be painted and the number in the composition
2. use pencil first
3. pen over the pencil lines
4. add watercolor
5. spatter (if you so desire)

Information is included on:
* where to find inspiration
* tools and materials to use
* techniques this artist uses
* color
* basic structure of flowers
* the formula for florals
* putting it all together.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I use the ideas in this book? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group and Walter Foster for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

This is a really good guide to drawing and inking flowers. If you would like to draw more flowers this book will give you a lot of valuable examples.

This book couldn't have come at a better time! It was easy to follow guide on drawing florals. The illustrations themselves in the book were really pretty as well. One of many good books to use for drawing florals if you are a beginner.

"Inking Florals" is an art instruction book on how to draw flowers. The author started by briefly covering materials and tools, then she described the basic steps she uses: study the reference photo in detail to see how the different parts (petals, stems, leaves, etc.) are shaped, use a pencil to draw the outline of the flower and the basic shapes, use an ink pen to draw over the shapes and then add details, then add color using watercolor. She assumed that you have a basic knowledge of watercolor as this was usually one step with general instructions like 'paint red over the petals.' There also wasn't much instruction specific to drawing with ink. Rather, the focus was on how to draw flowers.

There were step-by-step instructions for creating 16 different flowers. The first step of each showed the different shapes of the flower "pulled out" by themselves for you to trace or practice drawing before working on the actual flower. At the end of the book, there were some tips for creating bouquets or adding animals. This book seemed to be aimed at beginners who don't have much experience in drawing (since she suggests tracing) yet she also didn't do much hand-holding in terms of describing techniques. Probably the most useful step was where she demonstrated how to draw the different petal, stem, etc. shapes seen in a reference photo, so this may benefit people struggling with that.

Isa Down provides a brilliant step by step realistic approach to picking up inking. With each flower she teaches the reader how to draw there is a reference image and then to the right a series of components for the flower, ie petal, stem, greenery. It is easy to see how Isa breaks down the flower into parts that are able to be mixed and matched in order to form a beautiful image. Her discussion on tools of the trade was light and practical, even stating that any old paint brush would do. The concise writing style and beautiful full color step by step images make this a must add book to any technique collection, I will definitely be recommending this to any artistic types wanting to pick up a new medium at the library.

Illustration Studio: Inking Florals by Isa Down is an awesome and inspiring book. It is chock full of information and suggestions and confidence boosting tutorials. As with any good art book the author goes over the needed supplies. However she explains why you are using these supplies. There is even explanations of size and the purpose of the different sizes whether ink pens or brushes.

In the first section of the book there is extensive explanation on using your own photographs as a reference tool. There is also a section on shading, flicking, wet-into-wet and wet-into-dry water coloring. There are even some tips on how to correct mistakes. There are basic step by step formulas for creating your flowers. There are sixteen flowers in all and each flower is worked in a step by step method covering two to three pages. There is nothing left to ask.

The book is well written, well illustrated, and absolutely full of tremendous inspiration. This is a beautiful book. Well done!

I would like to thank Quarto Publishing, the author and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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.

„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.

This is a glorious book that does, one feels, require a basic level of skill from the wannabe artist to be able to have a go at recreating these floral masterpieces. Sprinkled throughout with the artists own photography, it’s fun, casual style makes the book feel like an artist herself is helping you rather than a how-to book that has to be followed step by step, although for a novice a step by step guide for each flower might prove more worthwhile for the complete beginner. There are several pages set aside to discuss such topics as finding inspiration, elementary colour theory, materials and the like and there are sixteen different flowers explained within this book so that the reader is not relegated to a copier, but rather encouraged to learn, expand and develop additional skills further down the track. In the book introduction, Down also breaks down the parts of flowers, giving a basic anatomy class for beginners who don’t remember year seven science class too well. Down gives the reader a basics class on the how-to of using inks, watercolour paints and the types and sizes of pens and pencils to use the recreate the style of work she produces. With techniques such as for shading, how to blend paint colours to expand the palette range and even what order to do the work in with regards to paint or ink first in which to make the most pleasing results, giving the reader a how-to-draw floral as a basic step by step in one dedicated section.

Athetically pleasing.