Beginning in mid-October, I will be teaching botanical drawing again,
this time with autumn harvest and fall colors as our inspirations.
Please join us!
Contact The Sawtooth Center to sign up.
With the goal of creating accurate, yet vibrant depictions of living plants.
Approaches to botanical drawing we will explore:
Gesture – searching for the life force inherent in the subject. A quick study in which the artist looks to record what the subject is doing, to capture the essence, the verb within. Without this, the drawing will remain lifeless, inert.
Structure – searching for the basic shapes of the different elements of the subject, determining the arrangement of shapes, as well as its overall form and direction.
Layout – determining the composition of the drawing. May use a viewfinder to decide arrangement of spaces around the subject.
Observation –looking carefully, to learn how the plant is put together, to bring it to life on paper through two methods: Contour – slow, deeply observed lines which connect edges of surfaces. Looking for details which will help define the particular characteristics of the subject. Value – using cross hatching or stippling to enhance the sense of volume and form to a two-dimensional drawing.
Value – using cross hatching or stippling to enhance the sense of volume and form to a two-dimensional drawing.
Some Botanical Art Web Sources:
botanicalartandandartists.com
asba-art.org
mymodernmet.com/history-of-botanical-illustration
kew.org/read-and-watch/what-is-botanic-art
kew.org/read-and-watch/what-is-botanic-art
Some famous botanical artists through history:
Maria Sibylla Merian, German (1647 – 1717)
Pierre-Joseph Redouté, French (1766 – 1854)
Marianne North, English, (1830 – 1890)
Ernst Haeckel, German (1834 – 1919)
KARA HAMMOND: OPEN STUDIO 