Botanical Illustration from Life by Isik Guner

AA0356

Botanical Illustration from Life

A visual guide to observing, drawing and painting plants by Işik Güner

Observe, draw, paint, explore and master the art of botanical illustration.

Award-winning botanical artist Isik Guner shares her passion for drawing and painting living plants from around the world. Her work is both artistically accomplished and scientifically accurate, and will inspire you to master the skills you need to produce your own botanical illustrations from life.

Discover how to select, preserve and position your specimens.

Develop your understanding of perspective and composition.

Learn the techniques of drawing and watercolour painting.

With the help of Ekin Ozbicer’s striking photography and numerous illustrations by Isik and other renowned botanical artists, this visually stunning book bridges the gap between science and art and will inspire artists, illustrators, botanists and plant lovers in equal measure.

Table of Contents

Foreword 8

START 10

Communication through drawing 12

Plants for life 14

Past and present 16

Different approaches 18

Different techniques 21

OBSERVE 24

Learn to see what you’re looking at 26

Observing plants in their habitat 28

Plant selection 32

Pressing specimens 34

Searching for plants 36

Preserving plants 41

Positioning plants 42

Positioning yourself 47

DRAW 48

Drawing from life 50

Starting to draw 53

How to draw 56

Measured drawing 61

Perspective drawing 66

Aerial perspective 72

Complex subjects 75

Let’s draw plants 78

Composition 80

Ready to paint 84

PAINT 86

Watercolour 88

Starting to paint 90

How to paint 94

Colour 98

Mixing colours 100

Colour contrast 103

Colour perspective 104

Texture 107

Sketches 108

Let’s paint 112

Final touches 118

EXPLORE 120

Botanical illustration is all about details 122

Exploring many different types of plant 125

Identification of species 128

Roots 131

Stems 134

Buds 140

Leaves 145

Flowers 159

Fruits and seeds 174

MASTER 186

Finding your style 188

Finding solutions 191

Inspiration from nature 192

Inspiration from other artists 196

Akiko Enekido 198

Lizzie Sanders 199

Anne Hayes 200

Constance Sayas 201

Jacqui Pestell 202

Gustavo Surlo 203

Plant list 204

About Işik Güner

Born in 1983 in Ankara, Turkey, Isik Guner studied Environmental Engineering at Marmara University in Istanbul. During her undergraduate course, she also began studying Botanical Illustration, attending courses by Christabel King and immediately after graduating in 2006, she began working full time as a botanical artist.

Since then, Isik has been working on various international botanical projects around the world. She is a visiting tutor for the Diploma of Botanical Illustration at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, UK,

Press

The Artist

The regularity with which flower painting books appear is a testament to their popularity as well as the almost infinite variety of ways in which they can be painted. Do you want the impressionism that portrays Wordsworth's daffodils, or the precise but still informal flower portrait? Do your thoughts perhaps turn to the rigid discipline of botanical illustration? If the last, how scientific do you want to be?

You might as well ask, "if not from life, how else?" and it's a reasonable question. Botanical portraits are supposed to represent a species rather than a specific example and a photograph won't give you that. Whatever your quibble, this is an original approach that teaches ways to capture details in stems, petals, leaves and fruit. It's a thorough course, with plenty of examples and demonstrations and the amount of instruction you'd consider necessary at this level. Clear and engaging, it's a delight.