The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration


Book Description

Draw and paint beautiful, vibrant, and realistic birds and botanicals with The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration. Take a sketch and transform it into fine art! The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration is a guide for contemporary artists aspiring to master shape, color, and texture and render beautiful, realistic, and vibrant botanical artwork. Author Mindy Lighthipe, an expert botanical artist, educates you about the tools and materials traditionally used in botanical illustration, including pencils, colored pencils, watercolor, gouache, and pastels. This thorough yet easily digestible guide includes overviews of key illustration techniques and basic color theory and mixing, and it's loaded with exercises designed to help you learn to see shape, value, and form. By learning tounderstand plant life and anatomy, you can craft elegant flowers, leaves, trees, and much more in no time! To bring it all together, The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration includes step-by-step demonstrations to follow along with as you practice taking sketches and transforming them into fully rendered, colorful pieces of fine art.




Botanical Inspiration


Book Description

"Botanical Inspiration is a timeless collection of artwork and illustrations that feature flora and its many facets through a variety of visual concepts, styles, and techniques."--




Botanical Sketchbook


Book Description

This is the story of one woman's journey from amateur painter to botanical artist, told through the sketchbooks and paintings she produced for the Distance Learning Diploma Course run by the Society of Botanical Artists. Packed with advice and tips, this book will serve as a guide and inspiration to anyone wanting to embark on life as a botanical artist. This book is both a showcase of Mary Ann Scott's work and a record of her achievements, including first-hand accounts of the joys and challenges she faced as she progressed. It contains work from every assignment she undertook, from her first attempts at drawing a tulip to the triumphant paintings she made for her diploma portfolio. Along the way are delicate floral compositions, juicy fruit and vegetables, botanical dissections, and her adventures out in the field. Margaret Stevens's comments on each assignments are also included, giving an insight into the assessment process and an all-round view of Mary Ann's successes and (very rare) failures. The book ends with a glorious selection of Mary Ann's ongoing work as a botanical artist.




Botanical Illustration


Book Description

Botanical Illustration is an introduction to the marrying of art and science in the aesthetic and accurate portrayal of plant material. This book builds on the work of illustrators of the past, ranging from Elizabeth Blackwell, whose drawings helped to release her husband from debtors' prison, through to the exceptional scientific drawings of Beatrix Potter. It deals with the practical art and the related botany of the subject. Introduction to basic botany; preparation of plant material for drawing; use of pencil, watercolour, coloured pencil and pen and ink; suggested topics for further study; correcting mistakes and finishing touches. Invaluable for beginners and skilled artists alike, and an excellent reference book for teachers. Superbly illustrated with 216 colour illustrations.Valerie Oxley is a freelance tutor who has inspired students worldwide with her enthusiasm for natural history and plant illustration.




Botanical Art Techniques


Book Description

“This comprehensive work covers the gamut of techniques… will take students from beginner to expert.” —The English Garden This definitive guide is the most thorough how-to available on every major technique of botanical artistry. The experts at the American Society of Botanical Artists offer step-by-step projects that move from introductory to advanced—so any level of artist can build on acquired skills. Helpful tutorials cover watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, vellum, egg tempera, oils, pen and ink, and printmaking. Filled with more than 900 photographs and stunning examples of finished art by the best contemporary botanical artists, Botanical Art Techniques is the authoritative manual on this exquisite art form.




Botanical Illustration in Watercolour


Book Description

Capture the fascinating beauty of plants. How can an artist create a botanical portrait that is both accurate and aesthetically pleasing? This is the essence of an art form whose charm and universal appeal have made it popular for centuries. Botanical Illustration in Watercolor is the first authoritative, comprehensive book to focus specifically on the materials and techniques of painting plants in watercolor. This book is full of essential advice not found in any other watercolor books, such as: • What a botanical illustration must include to meet the requirements of scientific accuracy. • How to prop up a heavy woody branch at the desired angle. • How to keep ferns and delicate flowers from wilting before the picture is finished. • How to mix the specific colors of paint most often needed for depicting plants. • How to plan the design of a drawing that involves heavy foliage or multiple stems.




The Joy of Botanical Drawing


Book Description

A gorgeous, easy-to-follow, and inspiring guide to stunningly realistic botanical drawing that covers everything you need to draw our natural world. Achieve amazingly realistic and vibrant botanical illustrations, from flowers so dazzling you feel as if you might be able to smell them, to tomatoes that look as if they've just been picked from the garden. Wendy Hollender is known for her vivid, detailed, and inspiring illustrations and in The Joy of Botanical Drawing, she helps you take your art to the next level by sharing her perfected techniques through short lessons that start simple, then build on the basics with easy-to-use and clear step-by-step illustrations. Using colored pencils and watercolor pencils, Hollender shows you how to accomplish scientifically accurate botanical portraits of a spiraling pine cone, a spiky chestnut, a fuchsia-tined radish, a graceful morning glory, and many more. From colorful leaves to delicate petals to textured bark and slender stems, The Joy of Botanical Drawing will give you the skills to complete lifelike drawings while also enjoying nature and the mindfulness of a regular drawing practice.




Watercolour Fruit & Vegetable Portraits


Book Description

"First published in hardback in Great Britain 2009" -- Colophon.




Botanical Painting with Gouache


Book Description

A practical guide to using gouache in botanical painting, by a leading botanical painter. Gouache is an opaque water-based medium, often called body colour, that produces crisp and vibrant paintings, and is becoming increasingly popular in botanical painting. Leading botanical painter, Simon Williams, specializes in painting in gouache and this is his first book. Botanical Painting in Gouache is full of practical advice on all aspects of using the exciting medium of gouache and contains many step-by-step demonstration paintings. In addition to the sumptuous flower paintings there are also sections on painting butterflies, birds and exotic and unusual plants from the rainforest.