Description
Clocks have sprung forward, and days are feeling brighter. For artists, longer days mean something wonderful: more time to draw. Early spring is the perfect season to practice the fundamentals of botanical illustration.
When we sit with a leaf, a branch, or any plant, we notice something magical—the way light wraps around form. Highlights sparkle, shadows deepen, and when we seamlessly blend from light to dark, flat shapes transform into convincing three-dimensional forms.
Understanding how light reflects on 3D shapes is one of the most important skills for creating depth in botanical drawings. That’s why we’ve curated a special collection of botanical illustration video lessons focused entirely on light, shadow, and form.
This curated collection includes:
• 3 full Zoom workshop recordings (18 hours total)
• 20 shorter video lessons (5 hours total)
Together, these lessons guide you from basic shading techniques to advanced drawing concepts, helping you understand how to build believable botanical forms. Explore the lessons, practice at your own pace, and see what resonates with your creative process.
Dive Deep with Three Botanical Art Workshops
These recorded workshops explore the illusion of three-dimensional form in botanical illustration, with demonstrations and explanations that reveal how light creates structure and depth.
The Illusion of 3D Form: The Magic of Light Source, Highlights, & Shadows with Pears
Learn how light source, highlights, and shadows work together to create the illusion of 3D form on a 2D surface. Pears are perfect subjects for exploring realistic botanical shading techniques… See full description here
Embrace the Dark Side: Eggplants
This workshop celebrates rich shadows and dramatic contrast. Discover how darker subjects reveal the subtleties of value, tone, and reflective highlights… See full description here
Twists, Rolls, & Folds
Ribbons and folded forms are excellent studies for artists learning how light behaves on complex surfaces and overlapping shapes… See full description here
Each workshop includes:
• A 4-hour recording from day one
• A 2-hour recording from day two
Together, the three workshops provide 18 hours of in-depth botanical art instruction, real-time drawing demonstrations, and discussions about student artwork and how to fix “mistakes.”
Build Your Skills with 20 Short Botanical Drawing Lessons
In addition to the workshops, the collection includes 20 shorter lessons from our online botanical illustration courses, Botanical Basics and The Practice of Botanical Drawing.
These focused tutorials help artists practice specific skills such as:
•Light Source
•Three Tone Values
•Create a Value Scale of 9 Tones
•Create a Value Scale Tool
•Continuous Toning
•Toning an Arc Tone Bar
•Toning a Cylinder
•Cylinder Becomes a Branch
•Toning a Sphere
•Drawing a Sphere with Cast Shadow and Reflective Highlight
•Sphere Becomes a Tomato
•Complex Overlaps
•Ribbons & Rolling Forms
•Advanced Ribbon
•Complex Bark
•Drawing a Branch in Color (Parts 1–3)
•Color Theory (Parts 1–2)
These lessons make it easy to practice botanical drawing techniques step by step, whether you have ten minutes or a whole afternoon to draw.
Normally, the three Zoom workshops alone cost $405, and during this event the 20 additional lessons are included at no extra cost.
Lifetime access will be available through March 31, after which this curated collection will no longer be sold.
If you’ve been wanting to learn botanical illustration online, improve your shading techniques, or better understand light and shadow in drawing, this collection offers a gentle, welcoming place to begin.
So pour a cup of tea, sharpen your pencils, and let the longer days inspire a little creative exploration, while the light lasts. ☀️🌿
