Many botanical artists simply spend their whole life devoted to drawing and painting flowers. It takes several years for them to learn the science of and to develop this specialization of making exact specimens of actual flowers through 2-dimensional botanical art. It shows just how difficult it is to portray a flower in all its scientific accuracy through botanical art and illustration.
On the other hand, if you see from the point of view of Botany, a flower is only a small part of a plant that is important for its reproduction. It is one that appears only for a miniscule period of a plant's existence. Even so, a botanical artist needs to learn about the morphology of a flower and its subsequent transformation into a fruit.
The reason is that unless he pays due attention to this most important scientific aspect, his art cannot be considered of the requisite scientific merit in the record of a botanical museum. At best it will be able to hang only in one of the art gallery exhibitions.
The stem and other parts of a plant such as the stem, the bracts, and the leaves are even harder to portray with scientific accuracy. Therefore, knowledge of Botany through a foundation course is very much necessary for a candidate who takes up drawing and painting botanical art and illustration work as a career vocation.
If a botanical artist is to capture a plant's existence in all its vivid glory, he/she needs to learn as much about scientific drawing technique as he does about art painting. For the rendition of botanical art with emphasis on the structural accuracy of roots, stems, and leaves requires that systematic and proportional drawing work is learnt first by a botanical artist.
Besides these skills, a botanical artist also needs to learn how to display the effect of shadows, wind, rain, and sunlight on a plant or any of its components. Without such vividness of expression, a botanical illustration loses half of its appeal in terms of scientifically accurate rendition.
Botanical art that fits the requirements of a scientific catalog of rare plants needs to be of high level of scientific accuracy. Therefore, a botanical artist who caters to this field needs to be as much a master in illustrating the stems, leaves, trunk, branches, and roots of a plant with as much scientific accuracy as he does a flower.
Finally, a botanical artist has his roots firmly ensconced in the science of Botany. Compare this to a painter who produces solely art by giving vent to his own creative self-expression. Both study in their own fields for years and years.
However, because of the extra requirement of scientific accuracy required for it, the job of a botanical artist is that much more difficult. He has to balance his creative urge to do justice to the requirement of scientific accuracy and vividness in botanical art and illustration.
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