Botanical Illustration: The Next Ten Lessons: Colour and Composition PDF
Preview Botanical Illustration: The Next Ten Lessons: Colour and Composition
botanical illustration the next ten lessons: colour and composition botanical illustration the next ten lessons: colour and composition Valerie C. Price Ali & Laurie who give so much HERBERT PRESS Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, HERBERT PRESS and the Herbert Press logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2019 This electronic edition published in 2021 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Copyright © Valerie C. Price, 2019 Valerie C. Price has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data has been applied for. ISBN: PB: 978-1-912217-73-1; eBook: 978-1-912217-74-8; ePDF: 978-1-912217-75-5 Designed for Bloomsbury by Plum5 Limited To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. Contents Introduction 6 Colour 8 How to use watercolour 16 Colours 18 Compostition 28 LESSON 1: Green 32 LESSON 2: White 40 LESSON 3: Yellow 46 LESSON 4: Red 52 LESSON 5: Blue 64 LESSON 6: Pink 76 LESSON 7: Purple 82 LESSON 8: Orange 90 LESSON 9: Brown 112 LESSON 10: Black 124 Conclusion 138 Preservation and presentation 139 Further reading 140 Suppliers 140 Courses 141 Online shopping 141 Glossary 142 Index 144 Introduction In Botanical Illustration the first Ten Lessons I different elements of your subject, be they hope I was able to introduce you to the basics through time; showing the opening of a flower, of Botanical Illustration. The techniques you the life cycle of the plant, with it’s flower, learnt there should be taken forward to help foliage, fruit, and seeds, or the variety of it’s with this, Next Ten Lessons, where I will look at colours, or simply, different views, showing how a well-planned composition can take your more of it’s story. Adding the foliage to a work to the next level. In the Next Ten Lessons, flower,balances, offsets, and enhances the are ten compositions using ten different colours, bringing life to the page. Eventually colours, to help and guide you to using colour you will get bored of just painting single studies and composition with confidence of flowers.Adding other flowers,or foliage, or buds, or seeds, will enhance the story you Remember the lessons from the firstbook, and are trying to tell, about the variations in the take them with you on this new journey. Refer plant, and it’s habitat. Adding dissections, back to it to remind yourself how to measure explosions, enlargements, colour variations, or and draw accurately, how to mix and apply different aspects or views can enhance your washes, and how to use different techniques in composition. The placement of your subject on watercolour to finishyour artwork. Take care, the watercolour paper, allowing space around as always to make sure that observation, the it, can also change the balance and focus of recording of structure, form and detail with the artwork. accuracy is still foremost in your drawings. Homegrown plants will give you access to the In botanical illustration, there are only so many different stages, as well as plenty of available studies of single plants or flowersthat you material. Foraged material has huge scope want to do. Now consider the composition when illustrated with care and thought, of your work. This will allow another level and the natural beauty to be found in the of interest, and enables you to incorporate hedgerows is not to be underestimated. 7 Introduction Allow a climbing plant to sprawl across the Think outside the box, by sometimes, page, or crop the stems of very tall plants, to putting your study in a box. show just the flowerheads grouped together. You can crop out unnecessary stems to make a more compact image, which focuses attention onto the most important parts, like the flower. • 1 Green Foliage You may wish to work to a format or size • 2 White Daisy because you have a mount or frame to fill,or because you have a commission, or even just • 3 Yellow Daffodils to fitthe artwork onto your watercolour paper. • 4 Red Tulip Once you have mastered the basics of botanical illustration, you can move on to • 5 Blue Love in the mist having fun with your subject, illustrating it from an unexpected angle, or just selecting different • 6 Pink Rose leaves or flowersto make the painting more interesting or attractive. As long as you follow • 7 Purple Geranium the rules of botany, ensuring that your plant is botanically correct anything goes. • 8 Orange Tiger lily Having fun with the composition and • 9 Brown Pine cone placement of your artwork on the paper is one of the fun things to do with any botanical • 10 Black Blackberries illustration. Colour We all see colour differently. In different lights, than working from thirty ready made colours colours will appear to change. Always try to which lack depth and travel. Buy extra colours mix your colours in natural light. Mix them at as the need arises. Now that you are addicted full strength, compare them to your subject, to painting, buy the best quality you can afford, and then dilute down to apply. If you have to replacing colours as they are used up, with paint by artificiallight, try to use a daylight professional ranges, as these will give you the bulb, which is kinder to your eyes, and gives best results a better light for colour matching. It is often necessary to begin with a dilute over bright Make a colour chart of each of the colours you version of the colour, changing the mixture as have, showing them at a weak dilution through you paint, or glazing another colour over the to full strength. (Figure: 1a & 1b) top. This is especially so for pinks and reds, and is often the only way to achieve a bright fresh You can also cross this with different colours colour or an iridescent finish. coming down vertically to see how they react as glazes on top of each other, Or paint mixed boxes As a general guide to mixing watercolour, of two colours, at varying amounts to see how the use of a colour straight from the pan or they interact. (Figure: 2, 3 & 4) tube will be bright and vibrant, but lacking in subtlety. Experiment with the colours available to you. Try different combinations, for instance, a heavy, Two colours mixed together should result dirty colour, such as yellow ochre, can balance in a subtle colour, which can be altered and out a very bright one such as cerulean blue, to adjusted as you work, giving you a range of produce something interesting and useable. rich vibrant tones. The mixing of three or more colours will be strong, but may also become When mixing colours, remember to change your muddy, though this may be what is needed. water frequently, or have two water pots for different colours. Ditto for kitchen paper, to avoid Get to know the colours in your paint box, cross contamination. Cover unused sections of as a subtle blending from a set of twelve artwork with clean paper, and have a piece of basic colours can often be more effective paper for under your hand when painting to 9 Colour • Lemon Yellow • Cadmium Yellow • Yellow Ocre • Sap Green • Viridian • Ultramarine • Cobalt Blue • Cerulean Blue • Payne’s Grey • Burnt Umber • Burnt Sienna • Cadmium Orange Figure 1a
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