Botanical Art Courses
with Dianne Sutherland......making learning at a distance easier
Botanical Illustration Case Study Examples
This page shows an overview of the entire the entire process of the production of a botanical illustration, in graphite ink and watercolour. Which means this page complements all parts of the course and provides useful reference to assist your progress.
Whatever medium you are working in - you will need to use the skills that you have developed in each part of the course, in observation, making measured drawings, tonal studies and techniques, colour studies, producing study pages, composition and using the correct watercolour techniques.
Papaver rhoeas Common Field Poppy
Observation and research
The first part of any botanical illustration is to make observations of the plant. Here are some general observations for the Poppy
1. Growth habit - the plant is upright around 45 - 65 cm in height
2. Leaf arrangement - alternate. Also lower larger leaves have a petiole (leaf stem) and upper smaller leaves tend to wrap the stem with no petiole/ pauline leaves.
3. Flower position - terminal and single new stems grow and branch from the leaf nodes
4. Flower: approx 70 mm diameter but varies, has 2 outer hairy sepals that fall away, 4 red petals - 2 smaller inner and two larger outer, some flowers have a dark mark on the petal. Numerous stamens, dark anther and filament, which surround the large pistil which has a flattened stigmatic disc
5. Stem, round, flower stem is thin, lower stems thicker