Hello all
This will be my last entry on this blog site. I have a NEW address and blog now. Please check it out at this link: www.laurasbotanicalart.blogspot.com
I will no longer be posting to this blog.
This is my continuous tone pencil study of a cyclamen for assignment.1 with the SBA… I do hope I receive a decent mark. I know I have lots to improve on. But I really like the composition.
Cyclamen study in continuous tone
Well even though I am still finishing up the London Art College Botanical Art Diploma ( I have until March 2013)….. I have decided to take on another challenge. I have been accepted to the Society of Botanical Artists UK
Distance Learning Diploma course. It is a 3 year diploma and much more involved. Rather than just having a certain amount of time to get all the assignment in, there are actual deadlines and many more assignments and exercises. I am VERY excited and am currently finishing up my first assignment… though wonder if I am up to snuff for such a high level group? I guess I will find out soon enough!
The first assignment requires:
A line drawing- showing fluid lines and proper form (doing in pencil)
I have completed this portion and choose a Hyacinth for my subject
A stippled illustration of a small flower with stem and a leaf (doing in ink with a technical pen)
I am down to the wire on this one… my beloved 3×0 pen rolled off my desk and bent the nib! No shops this far north that sell Rapidograph pens so My Grandma has shipped me one from Victoria…. arriving today… get to work!
A continuous tone composition in pencil showing proper range of tones (doing in pencil mostly 2H, H, HB, AND 2B)
Currently working on this portion…. right now. I choose a potted Cyclamen as my subject. Quite excited about it… was intimidated at first but am doing my best.
Practice Cyclamen
Practice Clematis from SBA text book
Hyacinth Line Drawing
This is a page from my sketch book. I am constantly trying to understand plants and how to draw them better. Unlike drawing landscapes detailed drawings of plants and leaves often involve “foreshortening”. Foreshortening is how something such as a petal can appear longer, shorter, thinner or wider depending on the angle it is tilted at. To be able to draw a realistic plant in it’s entirety you need to be practiced at foreshortening. Sometimes it takes a while to get the hang of this as often it is counter intuitive to the message your brain is sending you. For example if a flower is tilted back, some petals will appear shorter. Of course we all know the petal has not physically changed length, but what we can see of the petal has decreased making it appear shorter. That is why the best advice possible for all drawing is DRAW WHAT YOU SEE….. NOT WHAT YOU KNOW IS THERE.
This is a study of a Gerber Daisy, showing the effects of foreshortening
This is a new painting of mine. Impressionistic birch trees in the winter. Its funny because this was the most popular print at the craft fair, and it is by far the quickest painting I have done. I used a scraping technique rather than a brush. It is really fun to try out new colour combinations using this style. I will be teaching this tecnique in my watercolour landscapes class in the new year.
Winter Birch Trees
Thank you so much to everyone for coming by my table at the craft fair! It was a great turnout. I sold prints, cards, glass pendant necklaces with images of my paintings in them, as well magnets and pins in the same style. I had a great time and it was definitely worth the effort. 
This is my table at the craft fair
These are my cute little glass magnets with mini images of my paintings inside them
This is one of my glass pendant necklaces....Holly..... check them out at my Etsy.com shop
The last subject for my tonal drawing assignment! This is a Gerber Daisy Leaf. It took me probably about 5 hours total…and a few different sittings to sketch this leaf. I measured all the veins to make sure it was scientifically accurate. This means it could be called an illustration rather than a portrait. After some adjustments I am pleased with the finished piece and hope to add in a Gerber Daisy flower sometime.
Gerber Daisy Leaf in Graphite
This Apple is part of my 2nd assignment and part of my current show! I thought I would give it the spotlight by posting it on it’s own. :) I believe it is a Gala Apple, I drew it while up at Liard River (which is 20 km south of the Yukon border)….. a camp I was staying at with my boyfriend while he was out working the field this summer. He is a wildlife Ecologist and was tracking grizzly bears all summer! So I helped out at the camp so I could be up there with him as it was a long project. This Apple was in the fruit basket where you build your own lunch. I then set it up with my drawing things on the tail gate of our work truck and got on with it! One things this apple reminds me of now is the hot sunny day it was when i drew it and all the huge Spruce Beetles flying around. They kept landing on my and I had to quickly flick them off with my pencil before they took a chunk out of me with there giant fangs! They are a very large winged beetle that are able to drill into trees! Not the same as a Pine Beetle though.
Gala Apple part of my 2nd assignment
Chinese Lantern Plant..Physalis
This is a work in progress…..I have pretty much finished painting the lanterns and am now mainly focusing on the leaves and stem. I painted this from a combination of a picture, my imagination, and one dried little lantern piece that I kept off a Physalis stem my mom have me last year.
Crab Apple Leaves
These are crab apple tree leaves illustrated in the “pen and wash” style which allows you to have a lot of fun with wet- in- wet washes! I plan to fill the rest of the page with groups of different types of leaves….though I must hurry as many of the trees up here are now barren of all their leaves!
I have tried to take the best pictures I could of my art hanging in the gallery. Though the reflection off the glass proved to be challenging. This is a closer look of what is up at the Mackenzie art gallery right now!
Basil.....Ocimum basilicum
Orange Asiatic Lily....Lilium hybridum
Day Lily.....Hemerocallis fulva
Apple...Malus domestica & Pears.....Pyrus communis
Apple Branch....Malus mutsu
Pears...Pyrus communis
Northern Blue Flag Iris...Iris versicolor
Cosmos..... Cosmos bipinnatus
Echinacea..... Echinacea purpurea
Leave a Comment