Tag: Tips
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Understanding Flowers
Check out some of the helpful drawing tips taught in our course, The Practice of Botanical Drawing! A flower is the reproductive part or seed-bearing portion of a plant. The main function of a flower is attraction. The enticing form, color, smell and the promise of sweet nectar makes resistance difficult for any pollinator or … Continued
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Practice Makes Progress
If you learned to ride a bike, you most likely didn’t learn it all at once. You probably learned by riding your bike over and over and over. In the beginning, you may have struggled to maintain balance and survived a few falls along the way, but after getting back on your bike again and … Continued
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Set For Success
We want to set you up for success as you begin the botanical drawing process! Here are some of our best tips to prepare your workspace to help before you even put your pencil to paper: Prepare Your Workspace Ready your supplies. Gather and arrange any paper, pencils, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, paintbrushes, palettes, water, … Continued
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Practicing Composition
Check out some of our helpful drawing tips regarding composition that we teach in our course, The Practice of Botanical Drawing! How do you plan compositions? Wendy sometimes lays the actual elements directly on the page! Another useful technique is to sketch the elements on tracing paper, cut them out, and play with different arrangements … Continued
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Practicing Roots
Check out some of our helpful drawing tips regarding roots that we teach in our course, The Practice of Botanical Drawing! Drawing roots is an important component of botanical drawing. Roots may seem complicated, but when you analyze their characteristics, drawing them becomes a simpler step-by-step process. The patterns in roots are similar to those … Continued
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Practice Sketching Seasons: Winter
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 one or two trees and or … Continued
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Practicing Color Theory
You’ve heard primary colors are Red, Yellow, and Blue and secondary colors are Orange, Violet, and Green, but have you heard of tertiary colors? Tertiary colors are the colors that exist between the primary and secondary colors. For example, Yellow Orange is the tertiary color between primary Yellow and secondary Orange. Instead of the … Continued
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Listen... with your eyes
As artists, we are all familiar with the feeling of overwhelm that arises upon first look at a subject beside the vastness of a blank page. How will we capture the innate beauty that we see before us? Before you start drawing, take a moment to observe, absorb, and process the sensory information you’re receiving … Continued
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Practicing Leaves
Check out some of our helpful drawing tips regarding leaves that we teach in our course, The Practice of Botanical Drawing! Monocots & Dicots The difference between Monocots & Dicots is found in their cotyledons (first leaves). Monocots have one cotyledon, while Dicots have two! Monocot leaves (Monocotyledons) have parallel veining, which means they … Continued
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Practicing Perspective
Check out some of our helpful drawing tips regarding perspective that we teach in our course, The Practice of Botanical Drawing! Choosing a View Look at a flower from various views and draw some practice rough sketches to choose a view that you will draw. It is good practice to measure and draw three … Continued
