Brookgreen Landscape

 

 

 

Brookgreen Gardens is in South Carolina. It is a wonderful place to stroll among beautiful plants and art. It started as a sculpture garden and still displays sculpture among the many exotic planting. It also has a zoo of farm and native animal.

The price of admission is good for 2 days, and you are welcome to come and sit, sketch and photograph anywhere and for any length of time.

Well worth a visit if you visit the islands along the coast of South Carolina.
 

Even More Botanicals

Winding up our work on botanical drawings

Working

 

Each of the students are finishing work on their botanical drawings. Some have more to do than others, working in larger sizes. For this project many are doing their first large drawing. Working 16 x 20 rather than the standard sketchbook size.

 

Botanical drawings do require a balance between negative space, in this case, white space and the positive space, ea. the plant. Having enough space to isolate and highlight the subject is important.

 

Justin, Leaves and squash

Another aspect is the accurate depiction of color of the specimen. Analyzing just what makes up that color, what kind of green are you looking at, now much yellow verses blue. Plant colors are not simple, but complex. It does require that you look and observe all aspects of the plant carefully.

 

The same is true of the texture of the plant. It is smooth, fuzzy, rough. Having the actual plant is a big help.

 

 

 

 

Botancial update

Working in Colored Pencil

We are making progress on our botanical drawings. Everyone is now working in colored pencil, so there are new techniques to learn, as well as becoming familiar with colored pencils themselves.

composition on tracing paper

Several of my students have not work with them at all before. They are learning that colored pencils are a different animal! Several of my students have sets of colored pencils themselves, but for others it is a new medium. At the Renaissance Art Gallery I have samples of just about every brand of colored pencils there are, including some I detest. But what better way for them to learn than to try out before investing in materials they will not use. Then when they do buy pencils, they not only know the best brands to buy, but just how they will work.

 

I demonstrated how to start the drawings, selecting reference materials, both from live plants and photos. How to edit and use these materials.

We started by drawing our concepts on tracing paper. Then using colored pencil, transferring our compositions to our boards.



A long discussion of materials to draw on, and a day of trying out different papers and supports gave the students a lot to think about. Most of us are working on mat board. Our local art supply store cut mat board into the sizes we needed. Mat board is one of the supports that is durable enough and has enough tooth for colored pencil. For those working on paper, we are using at least 120 lb. And one student has 140 lb paper.

 

For this project we are working larger than normal, on boards that are 16 x 20. Not all of them are white! Several are working on tinted papers and boards, which I think makes the art very interesting!

 

Once the drawings were transferred, we were ready to start.



Sketched in Watercolor pencil Then wet

 

Again I demonstrated technique and materials. For this project I started my work with watercolor pencils. This is more to set the basic shapes and values. I did use lighter colors than I want the finished drawings, but as each work has a range of values, using a lighter color to establish basic shapes seems like a good idea.

 

Now, you can draw with watercolor pencils without the transfer technique. Neither is right or wrong, I simply wanted by student to know both ways and make their own choices. The same is true of art materials. Try everything so you can make intelligent and informed choices.

 

Which brings me to today blog, photos of how we are doing.

 

Mary Ann's Pears

 

 

Julia Adds Green
 

 

 

Hosta on Tinted Mat Board

Next week I should have more updates of these detailed drawings!

 

 

 

Detail of leaf

 



Detail of flower

 

 







Detail of Day Lily
 

Day Lily

Still working on Botanicals

Hosta drawing

This is proving to be a more absorbing subject than first thought.

Both students and myself are still working on Botanical drawings.

The choice of subjects is unlimited, but still I have been surprised on my students choices.

Bald cypress, squash and pears. Weeds and hostas. Seeds and beans.

Drawing Flowers

Botanical Drawings

My weekend to host the Renaissance Art Gallery. I invited my students to come in and get some extra drawing time.

I am working on my botanical drawings of my hosta plants. for the weekend I pick a leaf and a stem and brought it into the Renaissance Art Gallery to draw.

Each of my students can select whatever media they want to do this drawing in. While we mostly work in standard graphite pencil, it is good to mix things up a bit.

I was joined by a student, Barb. She has selected her subject for a botanical drawing, the Bald Cypress tree, like the ones she often sees at the coast in South Carolina. She had photos from her visit there, as has done research into the Bald Cypress. Saturday she did thumbmails and started working on a larger sketch of what she wants to draw. Both Barb and I decided to do our drawings in Colored Pencil.

I have samples of just about every brand of colored pencil made, as well as several "kits" of the better brands, so we have plenty to choose from.

We also talked about what to draw this on. We have used a variety of supports for colored pencils. Some more successful than others. Neither of us like bristal board, We did like pastel board. Very much. I have tried and like mat board. But most of my students have not yet tried to draw on it. A couple of weeks ago one of the other artists brought in a number of knock outs from mat cuttings. (these are the part of the mat that comes out of the whole made to display the artwork)

So we have some mat board in several colors to try and use.

Starting Botanical Art

Having always loved and admired naturalist artist, I have decided to try my hand at Botanical Art. As usual, I am taking my Wednesday Open Studio students with me. Botanical illustration goes beyond still life. Botanical art has a purpose, to record just what that plant is, and it must be accurate enough to aid in field identification. 

 

After research, Each student will select the plant of their choice to illustrate in the tradition of scientific botanical illustrations. Choice will also include medium, support and size. For this class, photography will be included. Students are encourage to explore multiple technique and medium as well as the history of scientific illustration.  

To prepare for this, I have been doing my homework, researching just what makes a good botanical drawing, some of the history of botanical art, and seeing what modern botanical artists are creating. 

I have included links to some of the sites I found most useful.

botanicalartists Gallery


society of botanical-artists