This week’s watercolour painting involved an adventure to the Finnerty Gardens on campus. Although many of the plants and flowers are not in bloom during the winter, I wanted to try sketching and painting some of the species I noticed on my walk. Three plants, in particular, caught my eye this time around, including: a rhododendron dauricum, an acer palmatum osakasuki and a hamamelis mollis.
I had done a bit of research prior to my walk to look a bit closer into the art of botanical illustration, which often involves scientifically accurate sketches of plants and their labeled components. Due to my lack of experience with botanical illustrations, my paintings are not scientific in the slightest, but it’s incredible how detail oriented the artists are who specialize in that style of art. In my research, I found a fascinating artist by the name of Julia Trickey, whose Youtube videos did a great job of teaching me basic watercolour techniques for botanical art. I’ll link her video down below.
Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the final products of my botanical illustrations, although I feel they could use a little more detail. I’d love to paint the same three plants in the summer and see how the shapes and colours might change depending on the season.
