One of the better ways to record the history of botany is through pictures and images. Text serves the purpose only partially, but the visual medium impacts us even faster. Moreover, there is a certain beauty associated with the depiction of flowers, plants, and other botanical structures through botanical illustrations and art. It immediately gives the text meaning and enables a layman to better understand the subject.
Botanical art and illustrations in all their myriad forms therefore bring out our interest in the subject and help us to grasp it much faster. Sketching with pencil, watercolor, crayons, oil painting, and now computerized botanical art illustrations have beautifully rendered botanical components as if they were real in all their resplendent glory. Other forms of botanical art include the use of linocuts, acrylics, pastels, etchings, and engravings.
Botanical illustration is both science and the art. It is essentially an art, for not every one of us can master it. Its rendering requires certain qualities that are hard to master even with much learning. It seems to be God-gifted in only few individuals. It is a science too for simply depicting a botanical component beautifully is just not enough. Accuracy of the rendering is equally important.
Without accuracy of the detail, a botanical scientist cannot include a botanical illustration in scientific record, even though it may be beautiful to look at. A symbiosis in the correct proportions of a botanical structure in terms of the scientific accuracy of detail and the aesthetic quality of the depiction is what is ideally required.
Expressing the essentials of a botanical plant or a flower in an artistic manner, without sacrificing its scientific detail is what differentiates botanical art from a purely art gallery rendering of the same plant.
Of course, some people do illustrate plants and flowers purely from an art viewpoint, but such efforts are then suitable for appreciation solely in art galleries. They can have no takers in scientific establishments.
School and college botany books are replete with botanical illustrations that mandatorily need to be scientifically accurate. This is because children need not only to learn botany through the visual medium that helps them grasp the subject faster, but to do that with a scientifically correct interpretation.
You can learn botanical art by joining a reputed coaching school. However, you need to have what it takes to develop your skills at it. The important prerequisites include a scientific temper, an interest in botany, and a good understanding of the nuances of marrying art with science. These are besides your artistic skills, which you need to have in abundance.
Today, computers and graphical creation and depiction software have changed the face of botanical art and illustration. They have made it much easier for budding artists to learn and master this tough vocation. These tools include sophisticated features to help churn out the most beautiful and scientifically accurate botanical art renderings. They have virtually put botanical art creation experts, who used only their skills, out of jobs. However, their place under the Sun cannot be usurped for they were the pioneers.
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