Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils

I came across Ann Swan's YouTube channel earlier this week and was pleased to find a botanical artist who only uses colored pencil in her botanical drawings. Usually colored pencil is only used as a final highlight after pen, ink and watercolor have been used. I immediately ordered her book from Amazon and it arrived yesterday.

This book is not for beginners.  The author assumes that you know how to draw as well as how to use colored pencils.  You need to be a high achieving intermediate colored pencil artist or an advanced one before taking on botanicals. The first thing the author teaches the reader is the need to know the scientific structure of the plant that you are drawing. How does it grow? How is it constructed? How are the leaves on the stem arranged? You need to study the pattern of the veins on the leaves, all of them, as no two leaves are alike. In addition, the artist needs to study the life cycle of the plant, making measurements of each part of the plant as it changes.  It seems like the artist needs to buy a botany book on the plant before getting started as there is so much scientific information needed before you can start your drawing.

The author recommends using a small sketchbook to record details about the plant's growing habits as well as making a series a thumbnail sketches of the flowers, stems, roots, leaves, and buds.  She also recommends taking a series of photographs to use as a reference for your drawing.

One fact I learned is that botanical paintings are always lifesize. That was why you needed to take measurements of the plant in the planning stages of your drawing. Also, Ms. Swan shows the reader how to use the Divine Proportion, which occurs in nature everywhere, when planning the composition of the drawing so that it is aesthetically pleasing. I also learned that there are 3 styles in botanical illustration. There is the traditional style which was the only style I was aware of, the contemporary style where the focus is on just one part of the plant and the abstract style where one part of a plant is enlarged and it's the only part of the plant that is drawn.

The author also includes great tips on which colors to use when shading leaves in the foreground versus shading them in the background as well as how to develop a critical eye toward the style and elements in your drawing.

The latter half if the book consists of how-to demonstrations of various plant subjects.  Ms. Swan primarily uses Polychromos pencils but will also use Prismacolor and Luminance pencils for blending. I was surprised that she didn't use the Luminance pencils more often since they are 100% lightfast but the colors they come in are not suited for botanicals. In fact, they are not very vibrant for other types of drawings and I wish Caran d'Ache would create more colors for us.

Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils is a wonderful addition to the colored pencil instruction books. It is quite unique from the rest since botanical art requires a different skillset.

This book is a must-read.