Endangered Plants Index Degree Project

When learning botanical illustration, my first (and main) port of call is researching the works of other illustrators and attempting to emulate the detail and precision that they achieve in their works. This is a very different way of studying artworks to what I am used to – as I am usually in an analytical state of mind – looking to analyse meaning and contextual influences to a work, artist or movement – but as a botanical illustration of a flower/plant is just as it ‘says on the tin’ (an illustration of a plant/flower in scientific detail), I must instead analyse the way in which the piece was created – the materials, processes and level of detail.

One of the first artists I found when researching botanical illustration was Lucy T Smith – an artist employed by Kew as one of their botanical illustrators ‘in-house’. Like myself (and I think this is one of the things that draws me to her practice particularly), Smith creates watercolour and pen-and-ink illustrations which, while having very different properties, are both used for scientific purposes. I am choosing to focus on her watercolour paintings here however.

The above watercolour is of Nepenthes attenboroughii completed in 2016, and the level of detail achieved is just astounding. For me, the most life-like areas are the leaves, which although clear that it is an illustration, also have the very clear structure and three-dimensionality that can only be achieved by a real, 3D object. Although I am used to shading and creating the illusion of three-dimensionality in my work (portraiture requires that you create the illusion of the human form on a flat page), doing so without overwhelming the overall work with colour will be challenging. I fear that the biggest challenge will be learning (as I did with pen and ink illustration) that less is more with shading – although the multitude of colours will no doubt aid the portrayal of structure on the page. It is very clear to see how the colour has been built up in ever darker layers – this allows you to build up the areas of light and dark very carefully and deliberately – slowly building the shadows and detail of the structure over time, and not overwhelming the painting the vibrant colours instantly. The head of the flower is also a key example of this – as the structures here are tiny – with each tiny flower having to be recorded and their structure and three-dimensionality conveyed to the audience – without it being a clouded and bland mess. This could only be achieved through the application of several, progressively less dilute, layers of paint – allowing areas of light (the ‘base’, flat areas where the structures of the flowers are not) to remain pale, while the flowers themselves having colour slowly built around them – delineating their structure and allowing the viewer to take in every single one, if they so desired.

The brush work and brush-strokes here are also exquisite – the minute details are recorded accurately and without mistake on the page – and where you are able to see the brush strokes (as they explain the shape, texture and structure of an element of the plant – for instance the surface of the leaves), they are absolutely tiny and do not confuse the surface – rather are placed with absolute precision. This is also a key area for me to work on – to start with, purchasing new, much smaller and finer brushes, but to practice painting the minutia with absolute precision, and being able to convey texture and shape with my brush strokes much more effectively. In my work currently, I am attempting to achieve this, but it unfortunately looks a little heavy-handed, due to the size of the brush and my inexperience.

It is important to note that this painting was a commission and to used for scientific purposes – as this allowed Smith more licence with the background detail (the imagery in the background would never be included in a scientific illustration as it confuses the clarity of the illustration – although I like that you are able to see where the plant comes from in the painting – it allows the viewer greater understanding of the plant than could be achieved without).

So, in summary – my two main take-aways of technique from this painting are:

1. Shading and building structure with colour – this is something that will come with practice, as building layers of dilute colour is not a watercolour technique that I am used to using (in the past, when using watercolour, I have always just added the colour and vibrancy that I wanted to the page, and then added smaller details in darker colours – as can be seen in the two images below), but is one that I will have to get to grips with in order to be a successful botanical illustrator.
2. Brushes and brush technique – I desperately need to purchase smaller and finer brushes, that I am able to control with greater accuracy and create much finer detail with in my work – in order to accurately and faithfully record the minutia of detail in an endangered plant.

It was always my plan to learn watercolour botanical illustration in addition to pen and ink illustration – as it has the advantage of conveying the living majesty and details of a plant – for example, it’s colours and small anatomical details that get lost in a herbarium specimen.

In order to do this, I am using the Beginner’s Guide to Botanical Flower Painting by Michael Lakin, as a starting point for how to build up the colours (rather than launching in with vibrant ones), how to draw flowers from sight accurately etc. I have also ordered a range of other books via Interlibrary Loans, but as of yet, none have come in.

As a reference image for my learning watercolour botanical illustration, I have chosen this image of a cactus flower that I took when I visited Kew in September. Unfortunately, as with my first pen and ink drawing, I forgot to capture the name of the cactus in particular – however, it is a good plant to practice on – particularly due to the variety of textures and colours (particularly the whites) visible.

For this drawing, I haven’t attempted to draw to scale – as I have no way of measuring the original size of the flower – therefore I focussed purely on the accuracy of my drawing instead – attempting to capture every detail of importance (of the flower only) – no matter how small. I have since learnt (from watching the start of this video by Lucy Smith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=3No8SaxkxL8 ), that drawing the outline directly onto the paper is not the best idea – as this means that you will be left the pencil outline once paint is applied. It is instead a much better idea to do your drawing on a different piece of paper, trace that onto the watercolour paper, and then carefully outline your drawing with a very small amount of dilute paint oil a very fine brush, removing the pencil outlines as you do so, so that no pencil lines remain.

I then (following the guidance of the book) started to mix the colours that I would need – starting with the outer petals. This meant finding a base colour (which, fortunately for me was the same shade of Crimson Hue that I had in my watercolour palette), and then diluting it several times over, to provide the dilute paint from which to build the layers of colour up from.

Finally I was able to start painting – which first involved glazing each individual section and petal with clean water – thus creating a kind of barrier for the paint (when applied) to sit within, and hopefully to prevent bleeding of colours from one area to another, which would obviously ruin the accuracy of the image. The following images show the process of my adding and building the colour:

The final image shows the stage of the painting which I am currently at – trying to build shadow, texture and structure through the application of steadily darker hues. This is also now where I am finding the short-comings of the brushes that I have currently – they are not nearly fine enough to allow me to create the level of detail needed in the illustration, and really, to continue, I will need to purchase some more, much smaller ones. In spite of this, however, I am pleased with the progress that I have made so far – although it is far from perfect, it is much more detailed than anything I have painted before and much more accurate too.

From 15th – 21st October, I had residency of the Project Space in the R206 studios – which gave me a space to exhibit my now complete illustration of Cleyera orbicularis. I was slightly apprehensive of the idea of exhibiting my work, as there is so little of it – each illustration taking days to complete – but I put a positive spin on it, by deciding to see it as an opportunity to experiment with how I would want to exhibit and display my work (for example in the degree show).

As previously discussed, I had had some thoughts on certain elements of the display – for instance, I knew that I definitely wanted my design of a botanical label to be central in the exhibition – so it had to be central in display as well. (I did try it with the label to the left, however, it didn’t look even or visually correct – the idea of the botanical label is to reinforce the semantics that this is a living plant – rather than just an illustration or piece of art, and botanical labels are always displayed centrally to the plant.) I didn’t have time (or the funds at this stage) to frame my work – so I fixed it to the wall with blu-tack – however, this was a valuable exercise, as it proved that the works did in fact need framing – the whiteness of the page and the whiteness of the wall just blended together, confusing the distinction between the work and the room. I do not, however, want overpowering frames (this is something that I will come back to later, once I have proceeded further with my project) – rather frames with a narrow border, or either black or dark green (an idea of a friend: to use the green to reinforce the connection between the art and plants), which just create a separation between the work and the structure of the room – and bring the focus of the audience securely back to the work and the object of the project – rather than letting their attention wander.

The two images above show how I decided to display my work: the piece to the left is a photocopy of the drawing before I filled the leaves in, the central piece is the ‘final’ completed piece, and the piece to the right in a copy which I worked into. I decided not to add botanical labels to these, as these show working – and are not what I would want to exhibit for the completion of the project – but as this was an exhibition of my work so far – rather than an exhibition of my project – it seemed appropriate to exhibit them here. I am going to look further at the work Monument by Susan Hiller, not for the work itself – but the fact that it is made up of archive materials (which effectively, is what my project is going to be – an archive of the most endangered plants in the world), and I want to investigate the way in which she exhibited them, whilst retaining the key fact that they are an archive. 

In addition to Cleyera orbicularis, I also exhibited two photocopies of my original illustration practices – which were crucial for developing my techniques and mastering the minimalism in detail that botanical illustration with pen and ink requires. These took less prominence than Cleyera orbicularis, as unfortunately, when I went to Kew Gardens and took the photo which I used as reference to draw these two images, I forgot to note the name of the flower, and I have been unable to identify it since. They were however key to my completion of Cleyera, so I chose to exhibit them alongside it.

Overall, I was extremely happy with my residency and exhibition of work – it was an invaluable experience of what it is like to have a space that is purely your own (something that I shall need for when I share my project with the world) to exhibit in and curate. The feedback I got from talking my peers through my work, and letting them explore the ideas that I have incorporated into it was fascinating and invaluable also. (For some, the semantics of the botanical label hadn’t even occurred – which is interesting, when I have invested much into the idea of people instantly understanding the semantics! However – I will stick with it, as I am also pleased with how the botanical label reacts with the work visually, and it would be a missing piece – I feel – if it were removed.)

Review: 27/10/21: I am still incredibly proud of this drawing – I think particularly because I have accepted the ink blot as part of the work. Although it removes some of the accuracy from the drawing, it doesn’t detract from the image itself, and it shows an acceptance on my part, of something that I was unable to control – which is a big step in my art and shows my progression as an artist and a person. I still need to investigate more pens for drawing, as my current one is too unreliable for my needs – but I don’t want to change the medium, as it has been very successful overall, and has the level of accuracy, detail and adaptability of line and mark making whilst remaining precise which is crucial to botanical illustration.

The above image is my completed drawing of Cleyera Orbicularis (1), which is a plant that I found on the Kew Plants of the World Website. I’m extremely pleased with the final result of this drawing, as it is full of achievements for me: it was my first drawing using a photograph of a herbarium specimen, it was my first attempt at drawing true to scale (using the ruler at the side of the reference image) and it was my first ‘full’ section of a plant that I drew, incorporating a large number of leaves and structural details.

The whole process was very long and laborious – drawing to scale took a long time, as I first had to measure the features (which I did on my iPad for ease), and then translate that into an actual drawing on paper – trying to replicate the reference image as faithfully as possible. It wasn’t possible for me to be 100% accurate without tracing the image, as I only had a limited set of tools (pencil and a ruler), but I am happy that the final outcome is as true to life and accurate as possible. I then traced around my pencil outline with pen and ink, before starting to fill it in.

I then started to fill in the leaves and stem – choosing to fill the stem in first, before moving onto the much more detailed and time-consuming leaves. I made sure to keep in mind that less is more when adding in the shading and detail – something which I learnt in the first drawing I completed. This was a difficult balance in this drawing however, as I wanted to create definition between the ‘front’ and ‘backs’ of leaves – which had completely different textures and colours. However, I feel that I have achieved an equal balance – managing to make the leaves distinct, without compromising the overall clarity of the image.

As you can see from the above image, an unhappy accident befell my drawing – in the form of the large ink-droplet which landed on my drawing whilst I was packing my pen away. I cleaned it up the best I could, but I couldn’t remove it entirely from the paper. This was extremely frustrating for me, as I had spent such a long amount of time working on the drawing to this point, and I had wanted it to be my first ‘perfect’ drawing which I could display on the wall of the project space when I take it over this week. I considered trying to cover the blot up, however, I decided that in the long-run, this would actually look worse rather than better, and to just keep it as a part of the drawing. Although I am disappointed by the fact that it is there, I have come to peace with it, and finished the drawing regardless.

I am still very pleased with the final result of the drawing, and I am looking forward to experimenting with displaying it on the wall in the project space this coming week.

1. Reference image was taken from the Kew Herbarium, via the Kew Plants of the World Online Website. Kew Gardens. (N.D) Cleyera orbicularis Herbarium Specimen. Available at: http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60751-2 (Accessed: 12/10/2021)

Review: 27/10/21: The botanical label (which I used in my exhibition Botanica during my residency in the project space) is a big success. Although not everyone understood or made the connection between the semantics of the botanical label and my drawing of the endangered plant, the information it provided (especially the addition of the QR Code – although not everyone’s code read the same – I need to investigate this!) was a big attention draw, and it helped people understand the connection between the drawing and the information on the label – even if everyone didn’t understand the connection between the label’s use in a botanical garden for live plants, and my drawing of an endangered one. It was a success overall – I now need to experiment with different papers, inks, etc. for printing, as I want the process to be as environmentally impact-less as possible.

Following on from my post last week…

I have finished my first ‘proper’ drawing – although it isn’t one of the plants off my final list, the drawing is the first that I have completed based on a herbarium specimen (more on this later).

The plant that I chose to draw was Cleyera Orbicularis (a plant that I found on the Kew Plants of the World Website), and I have viewed it as a full practice for my work – including creating a botanical label for it.

I have decided (after a tutorial last week) to create my labels using biodegradable materials, such as paper and cardboard (the cardboard I have used here is actually recycled packaging), which have a much lesser environmental impact than the plastic that is the standard material for botanical labels (as they have to withstand the elements). I would like to research recycled paper, etc. for creating the labels with.

Overall, I am very pleased with the final outcome of the labels – they need some perfecting, but they look fairly professional (something which will increase with better printing and materials) and the information conveyed and the final design I am 100% happy with, as it keeps the style of the botanical label, whilst also telling the audience about the plant in detail and is much more interactive (and hopefully accessible) than a standard botanical label.

Source: Reference image was taken from the Kew Herbarium, via the Kew Plants of the World Online Website. Kew Gardens. (N.D) Cleyera orbicularis Herbarium Specimen. Available at: http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60751-2 (Accessed: 12/10/2021)