Today I put my watercolour on the wall for the first time, along with its botanical label.
As you can see, I have placed it on the wall next to my pen and ink drawing of Cleyera orbicularis, in order to see how the two finished works look next to each other. This was an invaluable exercise, as not only does it show me how they will look in an exhibition environment, but it also gives me the opportunity to take a step back from my illustrations, and see them in a more objective and ‘overall’ view – rather than purely focusing on creating the level of detail required from a botanical illustration. It has helped me to realise the importance of composition in the illustrations, and how crucial certain pieces of information are to the viewer – for instance, I didn’t paint the cactus in the drawing, which has completely altered people’s perceptions of what the plant is, and how they read and understand it.
I am not too worried about this in this image, as it was merely a practice piece for me to understand how to draw with watercolour and to learn the process, but it is useful and fascinating to discover people’s opinions of the work (everyone has been struck by the detail), and how it is read by the audience.
I am happy with the overall presentation (I still need to frame my illustrations) – especially with the relationship between the botanical label and the illustration, and how they look next to each other. There are definitely things I need to play around with – including the orientation of the pieces and whether they are aligned by the top (as they are here), or centrally, or even at the base of the image. But this is something that I can experiment with at a later date – when I have more work to play with and to display.
The tutorial with Anne-Marie was really helpful. As she didn’t know my work or practice at all, she was able to give an objective and outside opinion and view of my work, which I haven’t gained so far, as I haven’t really shared my illustrations outside my blog of course group. I had to explain my work and practice to her, and I found I was able to do this much more concisely than before, as I now have a bit of a clearer idea of the overall form and outcome of the project, and the fact that it will probably outlive my degree.
Most helpful, for me, in the tutorial, was the artists that she mentioned: the most mentioned of which was Susan Hiller and two more of her works (From the Freud Museum and The Silent Movie) – both of which focus on the archive and endangerment – so are more contextual references than the botanical illustration artists, but will certainly be extremely interesting and valuable to study and learn from. Additionally, she also mentioned Michael Landy’s Weed Drawings, which are undoubtedly focused in a more botanical illustration theme, but in a very different way from my own work – but still uses illustration as a record for the weeds that he found around London. Finally she also mentioned Anya Gallacuio and the installations that she made of live flowers and their process of decay. This is again, of great interest to me, as it brings the natural processes back to the forefront of public consciousness and refocuses people on the importance and life of plants.
Review: 02/11/21: I have done some digging, so that I am able to create a botanical label for this plant, and its name is Echinopsis candicans. It is native to Argentina and is of least concern to conservationists, with a stable population.
The above image shows my completed watercolour illustration of a cactus flower from Kew. Overall, I am very pleased with the illustration, especially the petals, but there is much I can improve on. I am not too disheartened by this however, as this was my first attempt at watercolour botanical illustration, and although there is much room for improvement, there is also much in it which I can be proud of, as it was a real challenge for me to work in a completely new way.
The centre of the flower is probably the area I am least happy with, due to the lack of accuracy and detail that I was able to incorporate into the illustration. The stamen and central parts of the flower were incredibly delicate and extremely difficult for me to represent in watercolour – in spite of the new (much finer) brushes that I purchased and used here. One big thing that I learnt from trying to paint this central section last, was that in fact I should have built it slowly up at the same time I built the detail in the petals up – as it would have allowed for the laying of base colours, which I could have then added the details on top of afterwards, maybe using a white acrylic or similar.
I found the experience of using the watercolours for the illustration much more difficult than one and ink – in part I think, due to the lessened control that you have when you use watercolours – although my second pen and ink drawing was significantly better than my first, having studied professional pen and ink illustrations. I am hoping, therefore, that my experience will be similar with my watercolour illustrations, and that practice will make perfect. I also now have the book Botanical Illustration from Life by Isic Güner, which I am hoping will further aid my progress.
(The reference image and drawing side-by-side)
As I discussed previously, I have come to the conclusion that my project needs an outward identity – one that I can refer to it by to others, and not having to keep adding “degree project” onto the end of.
I have decided on the name: Endangered Plants Index as it is a functional and descriptive name, which allows interested parties to instantly understand the purpose of the project.
In design for the logo, I wanted to echo the other large design element of my work: the botanical labels, and as such, I have chosen to use the Arial typeface (which is the typeface used for my botanical labels), creating a consistency between the design elements of the project.
As you can see here, I have made two versions – one with white text, the other with black. This is again a link to the botanical labels (as black and white are the two colours used in the labels), but also a practical measure, as there are times (such as when I put the label on the ruler which I will display next to the illustrations) when the logo will need to be displayed on a dark/black background.
I haven’t finished my watercolour yet, but I wanted to do an update post about how far I have got with it. I have progressed a lot since I last posted a photo of it, and have come to the point where I think it is time to stop adding details on the petals. This is – as I have said before – something that is very hard to do, as the temptation to just carry on adding detail in indefinitely is very great – especially given the level of texture that is in the petals of the flower. However, if I were to continue adding the details, it would just muddy the final effect, and I would (as I did with my initial pen and ink drawing) completely lose the definition that I was aiming to create in the first place. This has already happened a few times, I feel, but as it is my first watercolour illustration and I am using it purely as a learning experience, I am pleased and proud overall.
I know that there are several elements that aren’t perfect – I need to work on the tones (the white sections aren’t nearly as pure as they are in the photograph, due to my need to create shadow and texture with darker tones), the detailing (again, here I need to buy and use new, finer equipment – namely brushes – that will allow me to achieve much greater levels of detail with much greater accuracy than I am currently achieving) and, as I have already said, not adding too much colour or paint to a section (there were several instances when I wished that I hadn’t added such a dark tone to the painting, but this has helped me to understand why the layering of diluted layers is so crucial).
The only section left now is the centre of the flower, with the stamen, which is the most detailed and fiddly part (which is part of the reason that I have left it until last) due to the small scale.
