Category: Botanical Illustration
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Set For Success
Set For Success The Power of Preparation When you cook dinner in your kitchen, how do you prepare? You probably clean the countertop, retrieve ingredients, gather utensils, maybe pre-heat the oven. Just as you prepare your kitchen before you jump into the art of cooking, you must prepare your drawing space before you jump into … Continued
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Fall in Love with Winter Magic
As the days grow too dark and cold to hang around outdoors, we need to keep ourselves occupied and our spirits up. Just because we’re not able to comfortably enjoy much time outside doesn’t mean we can’t still spend our time connecting with nature. I want to share with you my favorite botanical subjects to … Continued
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The Practice of Botanical Drawing: Ideas for Expanding Lessons
The Practice of Botanical Drawing Lessons are a guide to build on. Expand each lesson with new and different subjects! Watch this video to get advice from Wendy. We know that masters aren’t made overnight, and that consistent practice is the key to success. Think of my books as a template. I show you … Continued
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Sketching Summer: Ideas & Botanical Definitions
The Practice of Botanical Drawing started as a year-long Challenge, prompting students to track a tree or woody shrub of their choice through all its stages for a year. The final product becomes a “Sketchbook of the Seasons,” with + color and tonal drawings + herbarium components, and + journal documentation from 1-2 trees … Continued
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Verdant Meditations
Thank you to Taliesin Thomas for this lovely feature on dirt-mag.com, aptly titled, “Verdant Meditations.” The piece explores how I became a botanical artist, the philosophy behind the Draw Botanical Method, and a peek into the magic I’ve been making most recently. (See the full feature here.) Plant Partners I work entirely … Continued
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Embrace Your Style
If you have ever drawn, painted, sculpted, designed, built, written, performed, cooked, snapped a pic, hummed a tune, whistled while you worked, created anything in any way, I have news for you… You are an artist! Embrace Your Style Each of us has our own unique style, something special we can’t help but … Continued
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Perspective & Measuring: Illusions Revealed
What is the “secret” to realistic botanical illustrations? Accurate measuring from your unique viewpoint! As something tilts away from us, its physical form does not change, but our perception of it does. Botanical illustrations convey depth through the illusion we create based on our perception of the subject. If you were doing a technical drawing, … Continued
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De-stress Naturally: A Path of Meditation and Self-expression
Article by Wendy Hollender, featured by the American Institute of Stress in their magazine, Contentment (Volume 12, Number 1, Spring 2023). View this magazine issue as pages or spreads. I have been taking my cue from plants for 25 years now. Before the advent of cameras, botanical illustrations were the only method to … Continued
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Nature Journaling is Love
Your nature journal is a love letter to the universe. Plants turn sunlight into sugar and magically create the air we breathe. We could literally not exist without them! They deserve our gratitude and love. To show someone that we love them, we give our focused attention. We spend intentional time together, laughing, crying, … Continued
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Don't be afraid to be "wrong"
We’re allowed to make mistakes When we are first learning how to be human, we’re allowed to make mistakes. (No one expects a 2 year old’s finger painting to be magnificent enough to deserve an exhibition!) We know that beginners won’t be perfect from the start, so we hold low expectations for their … Continued
