Bring a Fantasy World of Enchanting Beings to Life! Angels, faeries and mermaids have engaged the imaginations and enchanted the brushes of artists for centuries. Now you can evoke the spirit of these mythical creatures and create fantastic works of ethereal art in watercolor. Step by inspired step, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law shows you how to paint the otherworlds' most marvelous creatures and exquisite settings. Twenty step-by-step projects show you how to create fantastic scenes that are elegantly styled, brilliantly colored, and alive with a sense of wonder. Fabulous Realms! Create strange and lovely backgrounds, such as the meandering oak branches of faery folk, the celestial surrounding of angels, and the seascapes where mermaids dwell. Delightful Details! From angel wings to mermaid tails, from flowing robes to faery gowns, learn to paint an imaginative variety of features, clothing and other details that ensure one-of-a-kind results. Mystical Effects! Discover special watercolor techniques for adding magic and mystery to your paintings. You'll begin by learning about essential materials, including brushes, paints, paper, then will move on to important techniques such as planning and sketching; figure proportions; specific characteristics of angels, faeries and mermaids (including clothing); developing backgrounds; and finishing techniques that add an air of magic.
Author
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law has been painting fantastic otherworlds from early childhood, though her art career did not begin until 1998 when she graduated from a program of Computer Science. After three years of programming for a software company by day and rushing home to paint into the midnight hours, she left the world of typed logic and numbers, for painted worlds of dreams and the fae. Her illustrations have been for various game and publishing clients, including Wizards of the Coast, HarperCollins, LUNA Books, Tachyon Books, Alderac Entertainment, and Green Ronin. In addition to the commissioned projects, she has spent a great deal of time working up a personal body of work whose inspiration stems from mythology, legend, and folklore. She has also been greatly influenced by the art of the Impressionists, Pre-Raphaelites, Surrealists, and the master hand of Nature. Swirling echoes of sinuous oak branches, watermarked leaf stains, the endless palette of the skies are her signature. Her background of over a decade as a flamenco dancer is also evident in the movement and composition of her paintings. Every aspect of her paintings moves in a choreographed flow, and the dancers are not only those with human limbs. What Stephanie tries to convey with her art is not simply fantasy, but the fantastic, the sense of wonder, that which is sacred. While most of Stephanie's work is done with watercolors, she experiments with pen & ink, intaglio printing, acrylic, and digital painting as well. [source: http://www.etsy.com/people/shadowscapes#]
