Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils. Ann Swan

of the various parts of the plant such as the diameter of flowers and stems, length of leaves, stems and buds, and any special idiosyncrasies of the plant. Also make notes about the plant’s growing habit and surroundings, plus close-up sketches of any small details such as the stamens, buds, petal markings and root structure, along with some basic colour notes.

      This sketchbook information, with any photographs you can take of parts of the plant, will give you good references for your current drawing and for any time in the future when you want to draw the same type of plant again.

      TONAL STUDIES

      Now look at the plant as a series of solid shapes and make some tonal studies. Work out which are the darkest areas of the plant and give them a value on a greyscale between black (darkest) value and white (lightest) value. Then try to establish the areas of highlight and whether these are to be left as white paper if they are very shiny or to be given a slight tonal value if they are softer, hazy highlights. Seeing tonal values is so important, but can be difficult as our eyes are usually overwhelmed by colour. Looking at your plant material through half-closed eyes can sometimes make it easier to see the subtle changes in tonal values. Another way that helps is to shield your plant from light and then re-introduce the light, watching exactly where it falls and where shadows are formed. A black and white photograph of your plant material with the correct directional lighting can be very helpful for recording and gauging tonal values too.

      Establishing this range of tonal values helps create contrast in your work and gives depth and form to the subject matter. Once you have evaluated this range then just quickly sketch in the various areas of tone to produce a tonal study of your plant.

      COLOUR MATCHING

      Having observed the structure, shape, size and character of the plant you now need to study the colour of the various parts of the plant. Colour swatches are by far the easiest way of matching all these colours accurately and are invaluable when working in the field.

      To make some colour swatches take a strip of the paper you usually work on and fill in small blocks of each colour you possess in the various ranges and makes. Grade each block of colour from the darkest value, or full saturation, to the lightest value and label each one with the colour name and number. Once you have matched your colours make a note of the name and number of the colours used for future reference. Photographs are no good for colour reference as they rarely reproduce colour accurately, and you will find that computer and printer outputs differ widely too.

      ∆ Various colour swatches on Fabriano Classico 5 paper, each colour graded from full saturation to the lightest value.

      ∆ Make a tonal study of your plant using simple hatching strokes of varying pressure to depict the range of tonal values from dark to light.

       TIP

       A useful exercise is to make a tonal study of a plant using a colour not associated with that plant. For instance, draw the whole plant in values of blue, just varying the pressure of the pencil to increase the tonal value.

      MEASURING

      As botanical artists we combine scientific observation with artistic representation and however we choose to interpret our plant material we must be accurate. Botanical paintings are always life size unless otherwise indicated and for strict scientific purposes if you enlarge a part of the plant, for example the stamens, you must note on the painting what the magnification of that part is, such as ‘x 2’ or ‘x 4’ for instance.