Botany for the Artist: An Inspirational Guide to Drawing Plants

I love to learn new things and with two grand-mothers who painted my husband thinks that I should learn to draw and paint. So far, we hadn't had the time or financial possibilities for me to be guided with a teacher to develop this skill but I am not loosing hope. Since drawing is a craft and I like seeing drawings of plants whenever I can, I opted to review the Botany for the Artist.

This book will allow any artist to grasp a better understanding of the structure of plants when drawing them. It contains numerous illustrations on flowers, trees, and other plants. It will inspire any artist or artist wannabe like me into taking more time to observe and draw the plants that surrounds us.

Fabulous photographs also complement this book along with the numerous illustrations of roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits. The classes included in this book will also guide you through the skills that you will need to capture the plants successfully and realistically. Doing the lessons in this book will allow you to discover how botanical artists from the exploration days were able to portray the plants over the centuries.

Let's explore the table of contents for a minute:

The Art of Botany: Images from the past, drawn from life, the printed truth, private passions, expanding worlds, personal drawing books, voyages of discovery, zen composition, meditations.
Drawings Plants: Working with plants, materials, mixing colors, preparatory drawings, creating a drawing, sources of inspirations
Diversity: Plant classification, algae, fungi, lichens, mosses and liverworts, ferns and horsetails, conifers, flowering plants, monocots, eudicots.
Roots: How roots work, spreading roots, no need for soil, Drawing Class: Hawthorn.
Stems: Strong stems, stem buds, Study: Wild Stems, Drawing Class: Pine Tree, Study: Trees in the landscape, Drawing Class: Composition, Study: Folded fritillary, runners, climbers, wetland plants, underground story, Drawing Class: Kohlrabi, modified stems, skin surfaces.
Leaves: Simple leaves, compound leaves, leaf veins, leaf arrangements, Study: Pine needles, Drawing Class: Leaves in perspective, pitchers, heterophylly, bracts, Study: Fern crosiers, Drawing class: Autumn leaves.
Flowers: Anatomy of a flower, inside a flower, pollination, Study: Cross sections, Study: Opening buds, symmetry in flowers, Drawing Class: Aristolochia, flower forms, Study: Tulips, branching, cymes, racemes, Study: Wild flowers, flower heads, Study: Hippeastrum, Spikes, catkins, and spathes, capitula, capitula variations, Drawing Class: Windflower.
Fruit, Cones, and Seeds: Dispersal, capsules, Drawing Class: Conkers, pods, Study: Herbarium fruits, achenes, Study: Banksias, smalldry fruits, winged fruits, fleshy fruits, Drawing Class: Watermelon, fruit diversity, Study: Cones, Drawing Class: Pine cone, germination.
Going through the pages of this book, I can see that the author has taken the time to present a step-by-step process on how to draw various plants or parts of a plant. Though it could be tempting to simply jump at a specific area in the book, I strongly suggest that you take your time to read and follow the instructions in the book because you wouldn't want to miss some important lessons. I particularly love the fact that included in the book are photos as well as images of plant drawings done through the years as explorers were discovering the world around them.

My maternal grand-mother has painted some fabulous vines and grapes as well as plums in a tree when she was 16 years old on roller blinds (keep in mind that was in the early 1900s). These paintings are not displayed in my dining room and you can see that at some places the age of the painting is showing with cracks. My husband think I could be able to repair them but before I think I will take advantage of this marvelous book and learn much about drawing and painting plants. I seriously need to build my confidence before embarking on the possible restoration of my grand-mother's paintings.

This book could also be used as part of a drawing lesson in your homeschool. It's a fabulous book to learn more about drawing plants and will provide clear instructions in developing this skill.

This is a beautiful book, but I won't read it to learn anything about botany. There is also no women mentioned as early botanical artists. There were many and this seems sexist.

If you like old herbarium books and would like to learn to draw in this style, this book is totally for you. If you'd like to draw botanical objects easier and in more details, this book is for you. If you're looking for inspiration, this book is definitely for you.
Good even for beginners, with basic things explained. Lots of great photos, drawn examples, useful and interesting information and step-to-step explanations.

There isn't much to say about this book other than it is one of the most beautiful books I've seen. The author uses many sources for the images in the book including centuries old drawing, photographs and paintings. Even if I wasn't interested in drawing plants I would have bought this book for it's layout, quality and beauty.

What a nice botanical guide. I do colored pencil work and this is suitable for all mediums. It is not a how to book. It is a more in depth guide to botanical issues.

A beautiful book, any one studying botany will appreciate this book!

Gave it to my artistic friend and she love the prints and has used some of the techniques in her painting

This is a book I will cherish for a long time and revisit often. The photography in this book makes one want to draw the beautiful flaowers.

Not only informative, but a diverse format including 'Master Works', demos, magnificent photos, and accurate drawings. I'm glad I discovered this book. I expected the book to arrive sooner than it did considering I live in Nevada and the seller is located in S. F...four hours away from me.

This book is for people wanting to learn more and practice botanical Artists skills. I like that it includes dissections that explore the physiology of flora and how to illustrate various examples of each plant type.