Course Overview

Module 1: The History of Botanical Art, Plant Structure and Anatomy

• the history of botanical art from ancient times to the 20th century

• cover the materials you'll need for the class, and their properties

• a simple method for drawing plants and flowers from life

• plant studies with sanguine on toned paper

• the dry brush technique (monochromatic studies)

Module 2: Learning Botanical Art from the Old Masters

• cover wet into wet, transparent watercolor techniques - gradated washes, blended washes

• use dry brush and stippling to add details on top of the wash

• glazing with watercolor

• creating your own master copy using the techniques we covered this week

Module 3: Color Theory and Opaque Water Media Techniques

• an introduction to color theory

• an overview of contemporary botanical painting

• creating a ballpoint pen or graphite underdrawing

• creating a painting using a monochromatic palette (a saturated hie, black and white)

• creating a painting using an analogous palette

• using a complementary palette

Module 4: Mixed Media Botanical Painting Techiques and Painting on Vellum

• a herbarium page with local flowers

• a plant sketchbook spread using a combination of abstract painting and texture as background

• creating a botanical painting using vellum

• a final project using any (or all) of the techniques you learned during the class