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CHAPTER 2

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR SUBJECT

AS BOTANICAL ARTISTS we accurately record the growing habit, structure and colour of the particular plant we are drawing. Even if your work is not for a scientific purpose, if it falls into the botanical category then it should be botanically correct. A looser interpretation, even though still fairly accurate, would qualify as a flower painting.

Most of us are drawn to botanical art because we want to capture the beauty of the plant kingdom rather than study it scientifically. We do, however, need to be keen observers of detail, for plants are not random collections of leaves, flowers and buds, but often grow to a quite rigid pattern. We also need to be able to source photographic and scientific descriptions to check that the specimens we are depicting are representative of their species and that our interpretation is correct.

If your painting is for a strictly scientific purpose you may need to include many phases of the plant’s life cycle. This may necessitate taking over a year to complete a piece of work so as to observe it throughout its growing season, or you may need to take some photos for reference. For decorative purposes a more personal interpretation may be appropriate, or you may choose to depict one particular characteristic of the plant. This chapter looks at key points for examining plant structure, recording plant information and preserving plant material.

∆ AUBERGINES

50 x 30 cm (20 x 12 in)

OBSERVING PLANT STRUCTURE

Observation is the key – use your eyes. The most important part of getting to know your subject is looking, so spend as much time as you can just doing that. If you can bring your subject into the studio and place it on a turntable or lazy susan you can study it from every angle. Explore the way the plant grows and is structured, but also try to get a feel for the character of the plant. Is it strong and thrusting, or delicate and floppy, sophisticated, cheeky, aggressive or even sexy? What is the plant saying to you and what aspect of the plant do you want to depict? Decide what story about your plant you want to tell in your painting.

Once you have a feel for the plant’s character, overall shape and growing habit, start to look closely at how it is constructed. Look at the arrangement of the leaves on the stems: are they paired, alternate or do they spiral round the stem? Study the leaf shapes, their margins, structure and markings. Note the pattern of the veins and how they divide from the midrib. Do they go straight to the margin of the leaf or do they divide and join up with another vein before reaching the edge? Once you have observed this on one leaf do not blindly repeat that exact pattern on every other leaf; even on the most rigidly structured plant every individual leaf is different. Remember, too, to look at the backs of the leaves as the structure of the veins is often easier to observe from this side.

∆ A good way to study leaf structure is to make a pencil rubbing. Place a thin piece of layout paper over the back of a leaf and rub with a soft pencil to see the pattern of the vein structure emerge.

If you have more than one sample of the plant you can deconstruct the flowers to examine the sexual parts of the plant, count the stamens and really see how the plant works. Look closely at all parts of the plant with a magnifying glass to see if there are any small hairs or markings not so easily visible to the naked eye.

SIMPLIFYING THE SHAPES

Often plant structures seem quite complicated and you may find it easier to simplify this by defining the plant through simple geometric shapes and lines in quick sketches before becoming concerned with detail. Stems can be represented by single lines, and flowers become circles, ellipses, cones or cylinders.

∆ Diagram of Orchid flower simplified into triangle and circle shapes.

SETTING UP THE SUBJECT

Wherever possible try to obtain plants growing in pots as they will last longer than cut flowers. Plants will change and move quite rapidly when brought into a warm room, so quickly assess which parts will fade the fastest and draw these first. Usually the leaves and stems will keep fresher for much longer than the buds and flowers. Keep plants and cut flowers away from excessive heat, direct sunlight or draughts to avoid increased transpiration and wilting. If possible collect two specimens, unless they are rare species, and keep one in the fridge or a cool place in case the first one fades.

Pick flowers and fruit at the last possible moment. Flowers should preferably be just opening and are best cut in the morning when their moisture content is at its highest. Place cut flowers immediately in water. When deprived of water for even 30 seconds stems can start to dry out and lose their capacity to draw up water.

Cut the stems diagonally to stop them resting flat on the bottom of the container and cut hardwood stems upwards about 2.5 cm (1 in) to expose the soft inner tissue and assist water uptake. Make sure that no leaves are left on the stems below the waterline as they will quickly decompose. To stop some plants, such as poppies and poinsettias, leaking a milky latex from their stems when cut, either plunge the stems into iced or boiling water for 30 seconds or sear the cut edge with a flame.

Cut flowers keep longer if aspirin, sugar, lemonade, tonic water or flower preservative is added to the water. Renew the water each day and recut the stems about 2.5 cm (1 in) shorter, preferably under water. Misting some flowers can also help to prolong their life. Overnight keep flowers in the fridge or a cool safe place in the garden, either in water, in a plastic box on top of damp tissue or in a polythene bag. ‘Stay fresh’ food bags are excellent for keeping fruit and vegetables.

Position your plant material carefully in a stable glass vase that is weighted at the bottom to prevent it toppling over. Use tissue or Blu Tac in the neck of the vase, or place oasis or pebbles in the water to secure the plant in the position you require. If stems are particularly floppy, such as tulips, you can stabilize them by using florists’ wire.

Model clamps with universal joints can be purchased quite cheaply from hobby shops and are invaluable. They are capable of holding quite strong branches. You can use small florists’ orchid tubes to keep the stems moist.

∆ PUSSY WILLOW

Salix caprea

26 x 10 cm (10 x 4 in)

∆ Prevent vigorous buds, such as tulips, from opening too quickly in a warm atmosphere by tying cotton around them.

TIP

Do not hold your plant material in your other hand while you draw – it is impossible to keep still and you could be there for hours and your arm will drop off! Find another way; be inventive.

∆ To capture the character of your subject draw a quick, free sketch keeping to simple geometric shapes and single lines and avoiding too much detail at this stage. Always work within a frame.

∆ Draw the outline of your plant material as a continuous line or contour line. Do not get sidetracked with details; just draw the outline.

RECORDING INFORMATION

Once you have studied your plant and are sure of its structure make a series of small thumbnail sketches to capture the character of the plant. Keep the sketches small and free and work from your own instinctive response to the plant to capture its character, movement and rhythm. Always work within a frame even when sketching as this will help you to design the whole picture space and create a more unified and dynamic composition. We will be looking at this aspect in more detail in the chapter on Composition and Style here.

Do not be afraid to move the plant around; make the plant work for you rather than always just drawing what is in front of you. Try to maintain the botanical truth of the plant.

It is a good idea to keep a small sketchbook to record all your information about each piece of work. Keep together your initial sketches and layouts, measurements 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.