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.




Billy Showell's Botanical Painting in Watercolour


Book Description

Billy Showell is a well-respected botanical watercolour artist, and her exceptional eye for detail and ability to re-create the form, texture, colour and patterning of a wide range of plants have earned her a formidable reputation worldwide. Her compositions are given a contemporary, sometimes playful twist, while retaining all the beauty and accuracy of traditional botanical paintings. In this inspiring and indispensable guide for botanical artists, she reveals the materials, methods and techniques she uses to attain her stunningly beautiful portraits of flowers, fruit and vegetables. There is expert guidance on tools and materials, working from life, observation, and drawing and painting techniques, as well as detailed sections on pattern, texture, and colour and colour mixing. With numerous step-by-step studies, close-up photographs and examples of Billy's exquisite paintings, this book is not only packed full of invaluable advice and information but also a visually stunning showcase for the work of this amazing artist.




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.




Vibrant Botanical Painting


Book Description

This lavish book celebrates the timeless beauty of some of our most loved flowers, and explains how they can be admired and captured in vibrant watercolour. Combining practical instruction with personal insights into botanical painting, Jarnie Godwin takes us on a journey of discovery through the life of plants from emerging bud to the final flourish. Jarnie's detailed botanical content provides colourful inspiration and detailed instruction for every artist.




The Modern Flower Painter


Book Description

Anna Mason's exceptional floral artwork has won awards from the Royal Horticultural Society, International Artist magazine and seen her elected to the prestigious Society of Botanical Artists. In this book, she shares her innovative watercolour technique so that you can paint flowers in her clean, crisp style. The book covers every aspect of painting modern botanical-style portraits of flowers, from tips on gathering your reference to Anna's six stage watercolour process. There are instructions on setting up your studio and how to produce the detailed drawings. Each of the six step-by-step projects is accompanied by an outline drawing, tonal notes and useful colour swatches so that you can compare the tone and hue of your mixes to Anna's own. This all builds into a fantastic guide that will inspire and challenge the experienced watercolour artist, while drawing in and reassuring the complete beginner.




Colours of Nature


Book Description

Colors of Nature is the perfect companion for anyone who is puzzled by the seemingly unpredictable behavior of the paints on their palette, as well as those who would like their watercolor paintings to look fresher and livelier. In this new paperback edition, the author has tested more than 150 artists' watercolor paints from six manufacturers, and the results of this exhaustive testing are included here, along with recommendations for the best colors in the palette sections at the end of each chapter. This beautifully illustrated book guides the reader through a world of colors and exquisite flowers and fruit, explaining simple concepts and more advanced color-mixing theory while exploring the serendipity and beauty of wet-in-wet watercolor painting.




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 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.




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.