Update: 14/12/21:
I spent a lot of time researching the actual size of the orchid flower, as the images that I have don’t show it. I have decided that I will use this flower as my next project illustration, and I will draw it at an enlarged size, so that knowing the size of the orchids in the photos that I have found online isn’t as crucial as it might otherwise have been. Instead, I will add scale bars to the drawing to let the viewer know that it has been enlarged, and what the original size was.
After I completed my illustration of the Catacol Whitebeam, I started to plan my next drawing. Ideally, I wanted to illustrate another plant from Europe, as this would fit in well with my Re-wilding project and create a cohesive link between my practical work and the organisational side. However, I have had real issues in finding images of the plants that I want to draw – be they herbarium specimens or living ones.
The above image shows the section of the list that I have gone through to check whether there are images available to draw from. I have been using a variety of locations to find them – the Plants of the World website, the Natural history Museum website and the RBG Edinburgh website, but for most of them sadly, I haven’t been able to find images. I therefore decide to pick one that I know there are images of – the Montserrat Orchid – however this also presents problems for me, as I am unable to find an herbarium specimen of it (although I have photos of the living plant), which would provide me with a scale for size reference. As I want all of my illustrations to be as accurate as possible, – including the size that they are drawn at – this is a big issue, and as of yet, I am not sure how to overcome it. I might ask my peers if they think that it’s important that it is drawn to scale – or if I enlarge it – that it has scale/magnification lines next to the illustration to convey the actual scale…
