Insights For Artists/Botanical Sketchbook Workshop, Mondays

  • $375

Botanical Sketchbook Workshop, Mondays

  • 6 left
  • Course
  • 106 Lessons
  • Starts Aug 10

This class is for everyone who has ever fallen in love with a flower, been fascinated by the colors of an autumn leaf, held a seedpod in their hand and felt the potential tree within. It’s for everyone who wants to be able to spend more time observing the magic and beauty of the natural worlds, and to be able to capture it within a sketchbook.

This is a month long class. We’ll be beginning with drawing in pen and graphite and learning plant anatomy before switching to color. We’ll be learning from the old masters during the second week of the class, using classical botanical painting techniques. We’ll spend the third week of the class working with color theory and exploring the possibilities of a monochromatic palette, a complementary palette and an analogous palette. During the finalsecond part of the class we’ll be experimenting with a mixed media painting approach that can help us think out of the box, play and explore.

Contents

Welcome to the Botanical Sketchbook Workshop

Course Overview
Reccomended materials list
Frequently Asked Questions
Dates and link to the live classes
Link to the class recordings
Link to the Botanical Sketchbook community
Materials discount codes

Resources and References

Botanical Art Through History
Contemporary Botanical Artists
Rare Books and Where to Find Them

Module 1

What you'll learn:

Day 1

🌼
Inspiration: The Flower Frescoes of Pompei
Exercise: gather inspiration
Video: my botanical sketchbook

Day 2

Inspiration: Drunk Cotton Roses by Li Di
Exercise: study plant anatomy
Video: how to tone paper

Day 3

Inspiration: De Materia Medica and The Vienna Dioscurides
Exercise: create your own Materia Medica page
Video: a modern herbal

Day 4

Inspiration: the plant drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
Exercise: monochromatic drawings on toned paper
Video: sanguine drawing demo

Day 5

Inspirartion: Martin Schongauer's groundbreaking peonies
Exercise: experiment with your materials
Video: play with your materials

Day 6

Inspiration: Albrecht Durer, "the Leonardo of the North"
Exercise: monochromatic dry brush technique
Video: monochromatic dry brush flower demo

Day 7

Inspiration: the long-lost sketchbook of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues
Exercise: dry brush technique using lights and darks
Video: dry brush using darks and lights

Module 2

What you'll learn:

Day 8

Inspiration: Giovanna Garzoni's "Piante Varie"
Exercise: begin your master copy
Video: master copy demo (lily of the valley)
Video master copy demo in real time

Day 9

Inspiration: Jacob Marrel's book of Tulips
Exercise: begin with a graded wash
Video: establish local color with a graded wash

Day 10

Inspiration: the adventures of Maria Sybilla Merian
Exercise: creating a blended wash
Video: creating a blended wash

Day 11

Inspiration: The Monickx Atlas
Exercise: adding detail/drybrush on top of your wash
Video: adding detail with dry brush

Day 12

Inspiration: the botanical superstar, Alida Withoos
Exercise: glazing with watercolor
Video: glazing with watercolor

Day 13

Elizabeth Blackwell's Curious Herbal
Exercise: stippling
Video: stippling to add detail and texture

Day 14

Inspiration: the paper mosaicks of Mary Delaney
What to do today

Module 3

What you'll learn
Video: clematis, petal 1 (opacity through drybrush)
Video: clematis, petal 2: opacity through underdrawing
Video: clematis, petal 3: monochromatic palette
Video: clematis, petal 4: complementary palette
Video: clematis, petal 5: analogous palette
Video: clematis, petal 6: crosshatching technique
Video: painting on vellum

Day 15

Claude Aubriet and the "Velins du Roi"
Exercise: create your underdrawing
Video: creating your underdrawing

Day 16

Inspiration: Francoise Madeline Basseporte, painter to the king
Exercise: complementary palette painting
Video: beginning a complementary palette painting

Day 17

Inspiration: Gerard Van Spaendonck, painter to Napoleon
Exercise: complementary palette painting, glazing and detail
Video: complementary palette painting, part II

Day 18

Inspiration: Pierre-Joseph Redoute, "the Raphael of Flowers"
Exercise: underdrawing for your next painting
Video: ballpoint pen underdrawing

Day 19

Inspiration: George Dyonysius Ehret - artist, scientist, gardener.
Exercise: analogous color palette
Video: analogous palette painting, part I

Day 20

Inspiration: the "popular botanist", Anne Pratt
Exercise: analogous palette painting, part II
Video: analogous palette painting, glazing and detail

Day 21

Inspiration: John Ruskin, polymath and prophet
Exercise: take your sketchbook on a botanical date
Video: a contemporary botanical sketchbook by Dianne Sutherland

Module 4

What you'll learn:

Day 22

Inspiration: Sydney Parkinson, Captain Cook and the Banks Florilegium
Exercise: begin with an abstract background
Video: abstract background and texture

Day 23

Inspiration: the Bauer Brothers, Franz and Ferdinand
Exercise: paint into your abstract page
Video: painting into texture

Day 24

Emily Dickinson's Herbarium
Exercise: a herbarium page with water blooms
Video: create water blooms

Day 25

Inspiration: the diary of Lilias Trotter
Exercise: write and paint into your herbarium page
Video: paint into your herbarium page

Day 26

Inspiration: the nomadic Victorian, Marianne North
Exercise: begin your final project

Day 27

Harriet Isabel Adams and the Flowers of the British Isles
Exercise: work transparently to establish shadows and local color

Day 28

Inspiration: the other life of Beatrix Potter
Exercise: focus on your lights

Day 29

Inspiration: the surrealist flowers of Salvador Dali
Exercise: details and glazing

Day 30

Inspiration: Margaret Mee's quest for the moonflower cactus
Exercise: finish your final project