Botany For The Artist

Botany for the Artist is a guide to drawing plants. I found this book at my local public library and thought that it would help me in my botanical colored pencil drawings.  It definitely has helped me, mainly to see and observe the structures of the plants that I am drawing.

The book is divided into sections based on the parts of plants. There are chapters on drawing roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruit.  As is usual with these types of guide books the author has three introductory chapters on materials an artist can use, color theory, drawing from life and from photographs and the basic forms from which plants can be drawn. While there are color plates of completed drawings, there are more black and white drawings and they show the structures in more detail. Much seems to be lost when an artist uses color. Each chapter has a drawing class and a master class that the reader can follow to help them create more authentic drawings. 

I had never given much thought before to the roots of plants. Seeing how they work, develop and spread only enhances the rest of the plants look in a drawing. How the root spreads changes what the rest of the plant looks like.  At the end of the roots chapter there is a drawing class section that shows the artist how to use the negative space and create volume.

I have always thought that the stems and leaves in my drawings were pretty good. However, seeing microscopic photos of them shows that there are underlying colors present in them.  I never noticed this before and I should probably be doing more layering of color to produce an accurate rendition of the plants. There are many forms of leaves shown in black and white drawings that I was not aware of and adding these to my drawings will enhance the diversity of my plant subjects.  Seeing these drawings brings out my creativity and I want to get out my pencils and start drawing. 

Botany For The Artist is a fantastic guide for the botanical artist. 5 out of 5 stars.