A-Z of Bird Portraits

February 2015

Andrew Forkner’s A-Z of Bird Portraits shows you how to set about capturing 26 birds in acrylics, with guidance on composition and important bird features. The clear and easy-to-follow step-by-step projects include plenty of annotated drawings and detailed colour mixes, allowing you to concentrate on the bird themselves. * Leisure Painter, The * February 2015

Art books like this one by Andrew Forkner’s provide cake decorator’s with great inspiration particularly when painting cakes, or producing lifelike wildlife to portray the cake recipient’s hobbies and interests. This book provides you with all you need to paint a range of birds; taking in birds of prey, songbirds and waterbirds from all over the world. With easy-to-follow step by step projects, guidance on composition and important bird features. * Cake Craft & Decoration * December 2014

As a concept art lecturer I look at a number of books and must admit this one intrigued me. The first impression I had was colour and life and this stuck with me as I followed the book. This feels like a natural history tour while explaining the proportions and colours for each bird and makes wanting to draw and paint each of the birds a natural progression. My only concern is that I might get paint on the pages! * Marian Carr, Bradford College * November 2014

For painters and bird lovers everywhere. Great book with all you need to know to paint twenty-seven different bird species. Andrew uses acrylics, both as watercolour and in their natural state. He shows you how to capture features, characteristics and feathers. The instructions are clear, detailed and easy to follow. Outlines to trace, colour palette, materials needed, professional techniques and tips are all included. Beautifully illustrated. My favourite feature is that you also learn something about the birds including their latin names. Absolutely fabulous and highly recommended. * Karen Platt Yarnsandfabrics.co.uk/crafts * November 2014

Have you always wanted to paint lifelike pictures of birds? Inside these covers are staged instructions on how to paint twenty-seven of them in acrylics. You know when Search Press gives a book a hard cover instead of a paper one to expect something special and this is no exception. Self taught wildlife artist Andrew Forkner sets out his love of birds and acrylics in a user friendly manner, ranging from what you need to buy to painting tips. Learn how to capture feathers on paper as well as birds; feet and beaks, get to grips with the unique properties of acrylics and think about how to compose your picture. Each project has a drawing to trace with instructions on how to do this, plus what paint and brushes to use and even the type of paper. This is not a step-by-step book in the usual Search Press sense as the instructions are remarkably brief. But it does not state anywhere that this is a beginner’s book and it is not; aimed more at existing artists who want to try their hand at using acrylics and painting birds. There is a wide choice of these to paint, with British and American species being the main ones represented. Choose from favourites like a golden eagle, robin, kookaburra, bald eagle and mourning dove to name a few; the ends results are handsomely displayed as whole page illustrations in this large format book. This ought to appeal to any bird lover with a bit of painting experience who wants to try something new. * Myshelf.com * November 2014

There aren’t many books on painting birds. The reason, of course, isn’t hard to find: not many people want (or think they want) to paint them. They do, however, provide a wide variety of colourful subjects and there’s no reason in reality for them to be any less popular than flowers. And you can’t move for books on flowers.

Andrew Forkner adopts the sensible strategy of putting all the basic techniques (working in acrylics) together at the beginning of the book. These include information on colours, composition, eyes, beaks and, most importantly, feathers. These are the building blocks you’ll use later when it comes to particular species. The approach avoids continuous repetition, but it does mean a degree of jumping about if you haven’t fully grasped the technical elements - which, frankly, you should have. Time spent at this stage is like learning musical scales, unexciting perhaps, but invaluable.

The whole thing is neatly executed and is about as good, within its own constraints, as it could be.

The A-Z format has worked before, but that was for flowers, and it’s just that I’m not sure this is the place for it. Flowers are popular and well-known. Bird are, too, but I doubt there are enough people who both admire them and want to paint them for something like this to work. It’s not, when all’s said and done, a book for the complete beginner and I do honestly think that’s what’s needed. On the other hand, if you’re passionate about painting birds but need practice and instruction, this is absolutely the book for you.

To read the rest of this review see / * Artbookreview.net *

Andrew Forkner is a keen naturalist and has travelled the world in search of wildlife. His artwork has also travelled widely, with examples of his art in collections in the UK, Europe, Kenya, Canada, USA and Nepal. A self-taught wildlife artist, he works in a variety of media, including graphite pencil, acrylics and pastel to complete his originals. Andrew lives in Oxfordshire. He has produced several commissions for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, of which he has been a member for over thirty years.