How to Draw Plants: The Techniques of Botanical Illustration

by Keith West

• ISBN13: 9780881923506
• ISBN10: 0881923508
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-01-01
• Publisher: Timber Press

Summary

The best introductory book on the subject examines plant structures and the problems they present to illustrators, then discusses the artist's tools and how to use them: pencils, erasers, papers, brushes, watercolors, gouache, and acrylics.

Author Biography

Keith West was formerly Art Lecturer for the Department of Extension Studies, University of Canterbury, Christchurch and, for twenty years, Botanical Artist for the Botany Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, in New Zealand.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 6
Foreword	p. 7
Introduction	p. 9
The past	p. 12
Basic equipment	p. 21
Concepts	p. 25
Plant handling	p. 27
Plants in detail	p. 33
Pencil	p. 64
Ink	p. 78
Scraper board	p. 92
Water-colour and gouache	p. 98
Acrylics	p. 127
Photography	p. 140
Preparing for the printer	p. 144
Glossary	p. 146
Selected bibliography	p. 149
Index	p. 150
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

from the Foreword by Wilfrid Blunt Yet, inexplicably, to the best of my knowledge there has never until now been a really thorough book supplying the answers to all those technical questions that I am still constantly being asked by people wishing to take up botanical illustration, either professionally or as a hobby: 'What pencils, what pens, what inks do you recommend?', 'How do you "fix" a drawing?', 'What papers are best for watercolour painting?', 'How does one handle acrylics?' and a hundred others ... I realized at once that here, at long last, was just what we had all been waiting for. from the author's Introduction I feel confident that most, if not all, botanical artists would join me in saying that all plants can be brought to yield artistic and intellectual pleasure some in great bounty, others sparingly. I have not yet found a plant that completely lacked rewards for the searching mind and eye. This is not to say that the illustrator's life is all sweetness and light some species are so complex in form that they test the resolve of even the lionhearted; and financial gains are modest. Yet the botanical artist may be envied each day is spent absorbingly, skills are challenged, tangible results are produced that are pleasing to most and harmful to none, the work neither pollutes nor guzzles the earth's resources. The aim is to illuminate, in the sense both of to enlighten and to adorn, and success is measured by the extent to which this is achieved.

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Excerpted from How to Draw Plants: The Techniques of Botanical Illustration by Keith West
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.