Product Review

Art students aspiring to diverse careers that range from book illustration to creating animated films will value this book as a solid, practical tutorial. The author instructs in methods for creating imaginative and atmospheric fairy habitats in watercolor, gouache, acrylic, and other media. She offers a wealth of creative ideas that include step-by-step instruction for transforming familiar objects into magical things. For instance, she demonstrates ways to change toadstools into homes, rocks into goblins, and leaves into carriages. She gives special attention to texture and detail in illustrations of tree bark, stones and rocks, water ripples and reflections, flowers and leaves, mushroom villages, fairy groves, and rainforest scenes. After giving detailed instruction in basic techniques, she guides students through an advanced project, "A Midsummer Eve." This complex mixed-media scene depicts characters and animals in a fairyland setting. The book concludes with a gallery selection of fairyland images that include moonlight scenes, fairy celebrations, and seasonal landscape scenes. The instructive text is supplemented with more than 350 full-color illustrations.