Learning to draw botanical art is different from learning painting from purely an artist's viewpoint. The reason for this is that botanical art is essentially a discipline in which scientific accuracy of the botanical specimens you draw is the most primary requirement.
You may be a very good painting artist. However, you cannot expect to do well in learning to draw botanical art until you have a basic back grounding in botany and morphology. Besides this, you need to have a sense of accurate draftsmanship, and an appreciation of the visual art form.
You therefore need to consider and meet three essential requirements that will enable you forge ahead on the path to become a good botanical artist. These three essential requirements are botanical accuracy, draftsmanship, and artistic sensitivity. They are described below in detail.
Botanical accuracy - This is something that you can only achieve after you have obtained a certain level of knowledge about plant morphology. You will find that botanical artists who have worked in combination with botanists are able to render truer drawings than can those who have no previous knowledge about and observational experience of botanical specimens.
The best botanical artist you will find is one who is a botanist basically who has later taken up painting as a hobby. So, if you are joining a botanical art course you need to check and ensure that the course contains a module on botany and plant morphology in the first month of training itself.
Learning about these scientific subjects will help provide you an insight into developing your drawing skills and honing them to suit the requirements of scientific accuracy in drawing botanical specimens. Even otherwise too, you will also need to observe plant specimens in detail and develop your skills in cultivating a sense of proportion and scientific accuracy.
Draftsmanship - This is more or less a technical discipline, in which scientific methodology is used to achieve accurate shape, size, and proportion. The use of digital tools and drawing instruments is essential in learning to shape the geometry of botanical specimens.
Draftsmanship, even after learning its basics, is a discipline in which experience as a draftsman in botanical art plays a very important role. So, your botanical art course needs to incorporate and include a module in technical draftsmanship. The reason is that the use of technique becomes essential for drawing complex botanical specimens, which you learn by practicing draftsmanship.
Artistic sensitivity - Simply developing scientific accuracy and technique is not enough for learning to draw botanical art. The reason is that botanical art is a visual life-like depiction of living plants or parts thereof.
It must be able to show the effect of shadows and comparative darkness in some areas, while retaining brightness of intensity in others in the painted version of the original botanical specimen. It must be able to retain the effect of the surroundings on the vividness of the painted image. This is essentially what is also required to be paid attention to in developing artistic sensitivity in you in a botanical art learning course.
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