Book Description
Acclaimed botanical artist Bente Starcke King shows artists of all levels how to create artful and soulful illustrations of tulips, irises, rose hips, echinacea and more. Taking readers step-by-step through proven techniques for capturing this popular subject matter, Beautiful Botanicals:
*Provides numerous tips and 19 demonstrations for all the most popular mediums, including watercolor, pencil, pen and ink, ink wash and mixed media (watercolor with colored pencil or ink).
*Draws even casual readers in with striking, colorful illustrations set against white backgrounds.
*Appeals to fine artists, decorative painters and even garden enthusiasts with clear instruction and plentiful demonstrations.
The book also covers such practical topics as cleaning, along with signing and framing one's artwork, and it includes interesting stories and facts about the flowers and plants presented. It's a must-have for any nature or art lover!
Customer Reviews:
Would Be Botanical Illustrators: a Must to Have!.......2007-06-02
This gorgeous, well-written "how to" book for drawing and painting
beautiful botanicals is a treasure! It is spiral bound so the book won't flip closed on you. It is written by Bente Starcke King, a Botanical Illustrator who teaches at Cornell University. She covers everything from form and perspective, materials that she uses in her demonstrations, and beautiful illustrations.
She covers, with clear, easy-to-follow instructions, lessons in drawing with graphite pencil, using pen and ink, ink wash, transparent watercolor and mixed media. It's like having an instructor in a book, and you can go at your own pace.
The most fascinating aspect to me is how she layers watercolors to create her luminous color illustrations. Fabulous.
Sharyn from Portland, Oregon.
Wonderful, Step by Step Instructions as a Springboard.......2006-12-31
Whomever thought of the spiral binding inside the traditional binding should be knighted. That was a stroke of genius. If I am trying a new technique, I usually scan and copy a page but with this book, I just leave it open.
Bente's book would be useless (as well constructed as it is,) if it weren't for her terrific explanations. She shows the same painting in different stages, tells the reader where she or he can take short cuts and is over-all a great book for the beginning or advanced student.
Add This One To Your Library........2006-10-24
As someone who is just beginning in botanical illustration, I could not find a better instructional book. The author teaches you what materials to buy, what typse of paper to use, and leads you step-by-step through a number of lessons covering several different types of media.
I could not believe how well my first efforts turned out! I've looked through a lot of drawing books, and this is by far the best I've come across if you are interested in botanical drawing.
Great and Beautiful Manual!.......2006-05-12
It is a beautiful book with easy to follow instructions arranged in a very organized way to help a student progress step by step. The spiral binding inside the traditional binding cover also makes it really easy to actually use this manual. It stays open flat on your table for easy reference while not looking cheap when standing in a bookcase. This book is actually worth buying and keeping. Unlike a lot of others, it doesn't disappoint and is truly informative rather than just being another pretty flower book.
Lean to draw and paint botanicals with an expert.......2006-04-12
What a great book on botanical art and how to create it. The author gives you guidance in a variety of media. Well thoughtout demonstrations in all media covered. Nice illustrations. Purchased her DVD and it is just as wonderful.
Book Description
This is simply the best and most complete course in botanical illustration ever produced, with each chapter a perfectly constructed and self-contained class. Created in conjunction with the internationally renowned Eden Project—home of the only jungle in captivity—it’s put together by two leading figures in the Project’s famed art school, and uses many beautiful works from its students. Artists and plant lovers will find a wealth of practical information, with easy-to-follow exercises and case studies. The priceless advice encompasses everything from honing observational skills and plant dissection procedures to color mixing and applying watercolor. Adding highlights, producing a pleasing composition, and developing a personal style—all the building blocks for achieving excellence are here.
Customer Reviews:
Botanical illustration.......2007-05-12
This is an in depth clear book about the process of botanical illustration. Well written and great pictures. Recommend highly!
Customer Reviews:
Botanical Painting.......2006-11-10
It is a nice book and the explain it good the art of flowers. I recommanded on every the draw with flowers.
Absolutely the best.......2006-04-08
I've bought all sorts of books on botanical painting but this is the best of the best. The illustrations are fabulous, the instructions clear and comprehensive. Have you ever heard of "botanical gray"? This book is something you can't live without.
Possibly the best available book on Botanical Painting.......2004-12-31
What a fabulous book!
If you paint flowers in watercolour or are enrolled on a course of Botanical Illustration, as I am, then this is the book for you.
Written by Margaret Stevens in association with the Society of Botanical Artists, the book takes the reader briefly through the beginnings of Botanical Art to a useful chapter on materials including paper, watercolours and brushes. Whilst it doesn't proscribe a palette of colours, the great majority of the illustrations detail the colours used. The chapter on plant anatomy is useful for the non-botanist as is the one on drawing technique for those new to this aspect of painting.
What gives this book a considerable edge over others of this type is that its other purpose is as the text book for a two-year diploma course in Botanical Illustration run by the SBA. (The author is the course director.) There are up to a dozen examples of work covered from start to finish over several pages produced by members of the SBA, some of whom are tutors on the course. There is excellent detail of watercolour technique and superb coverage of the production of varied coloured leaves and flowers and the colours used in their painting. The chapters on composition, working in the field and painting fruit and vegetables are extremely useful. All chapters are illustrated by high quality botanical paintings, mostly by SBA members.
A beautiful book to own, better as an inspiration to painting but best of all as a reference when painting flowers in watercolours.
Book Description
“International interest in this distinctive art form was renewed by Sherwood, whose personal collection is considered the world’s most comprehensive. Captivating and commanding, this opulent compilation superbly show-cases vivid new interpretations of familiar subjects.” —Booklist. “Equally important for both botanical and art collections.”—Library Journal.
Customer Reviews:
Reference .......2007-01-11
This book is very helpful, especially as a reference for anyone learning botanical illustration or anyone wanting to learn about specific botanical artists.
It's beautiful art work also makes it very nice as a "coffee table" book for others to admire.
Great Contemporary Botanical Art.......2005-05-07
As a rank beginner in watercolor and pen and ink I much appreciate the effort it takes to produce great illustrations of natural objects. Shirley Sherwood has brought together her remarkable collection of modern botanical paintings (and some ink renderings) in "A Passion for Plants: Contemporary Botanical Masterworks" and made them accessible to the public. It is certainly an impressive effort.
Unlike many styles of illustration, botanical art usually involved a finely detailed painting on a white background, occasionally with additional smaller drawings or paintings. Occasionally a background is also provided, but most have no background. The renditions of just about every artist featured are extremely well done and it is hard to pick a favorite. Kate Nessler's watercolor of Rose Hips & Oak Leaves, Mariko Imai's exquisite watercolors of carnivorous plants, Elizabeth Dowle's paintings of fruit, Francesca Anderson's detailed ink renditions of sunflowers and cacti, and John Wilkinson's ultra realistic (complete with insect damage and hover flies!) watercolor of Ligularia, are just a few of the treats in this magnificent book. It sure makes for a tough standard, but a worthy one, for us beginners!
A great book for artists, botanists and anyone interested in plant illustration!
A superb, international collection of botanical art........2002-05-30
This is an excellent collection of botanical illustrations reproduced in very detailed, rich color on quality paper. Artists from all over the world are represented with brief biographies of each one. I think this book is one of the best books to have if you love botanical illustration and would like to see examples done by highly skilled, scientifically accurate illustrators. Just as good or better than the first Shirley Sherwood collection book.
Book Description
A fascinating overview of the golden age of floral art! The Art of Flowers is a magnificent look into the very best in 19th century botanical illustration by such renowned artists as Pierre Joseph Redouté, George Brookshaw, Jane Loudon, Georg Ehret, James Andrews, Rogert Tyas, James Sowergy, and Clarissa Badger. Packed with scores of dazzling, full-color reproductions-many of them rarely seen before-this incredible book displays how the best artists of the era coaxed blossoms to flower on paper. The Art of Flowers begins by exploring how this artistic genre developed, discussing how some simple botany basics came to enhance the art of drawing flowers. It goes on to celebrate the wonderful passion for flowers that flourished in the Victorian era and discusses the beautiful botanical periodicals that swept through England and America. In fact, many of these periodicals are still popular with today's collectors for their dazzling illustrations. Next, readers will discover the intriguing phenomenon of language-of-flower books: charming and hugely popular references that assigned sentimental values to flora . . . and were often accompanied by poetry and delightful dashes of morality. These guides explained to gentle readers how to use flowers to send secret messages to lovers and admirers. Finally, The Art of Flowers provides a fascinating section of rare how-to-draw flower books from the 19th century, complete with ready-to-use templates for copying such flowers as anemone, clematis, dahlias, daisies, lilies, daffodils, pansies, roses, and more. Written by an esteemed authority, The Art of Flowers is a magnificent display of rare art and how-to instruction-the perfect addition to every art lover's library and a delightful gift for anyone who gardens, paints, or simply loves flowers.
Customer Reviews:
Botanical illustrations shine.......2006-03-09
This book is a compilation of several of the masters of botannical illustrations -- and even has a few how-to pointers. I found the stories about the painters interesting the the color plates irresistable. If you seriously like botannical illustration, this one is an excellent addition to your collection
Book Description
Florilegium Imperialis: The Floral Watercolors of Francis I of Austria
H. Walter Lack
Now available for the first time in book form, this collection of exquisitely rendered flowers presents one of the world's great collections of botanical illustrations in a deluxe format.
Francis I of Austria, the last monarch to rule over the Holy Roman Empire, was also obsessed with flowers. His Imperial Gardens, where he realized his passion for flowers, remain one of Vienna's most beloved treasures. In 1791, Francis I commissioned Matthias Schumtzer to paint portraits of every flower in the garden—a project that took more than three decades to complete. Until now, only six of the extant 1,300 paintings have ever been published. This collection features one hundred of the most outstanding of Schmutzer's watercolors. Painted life-size and with extraordinary precision, the flowers range from the exotic to the common. A fascinating text offers biographical information about Francis I, descriptions of the Imperial Gardens in the ruler's time, and photographs of how they appear today. A significant contribution to horticultural history, this unique and beautifully presented book will delight lovers of botanical art and Europhiles alike.
H. Walter Lack is director of the botanical gardens in Berlin-Dahlem and professor at the Free University of Berlin. He is the author of numerous books on botanical history, including Jardin de la Malmaison: Empress Josephine's Garden (Prestel).
Book Description
Christina Brodie draws on her extensive experience as a botanical art teacher in compiling this complete course on drawing and painting plants. Clear step-by-step instructions show how to accurately render a wide range of plants and plant parts — from flowers, fruits, and seeds through leaves, stems, bark, and roots to fungi, ferns, mosses, and seaweeds. Christina Brodie's concise text and beautiful, detailed examples illustrate techniques for various media, including pencil, ink, watercolor, gouache, acrylics, and scraper board. This highly practical manual offers a complete course of instruction in basic and advanced techniques of botanical illustration, and is suitable for beginning artists and journal keepers as well as teachers and professional illustrators.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best resources.......2006-11-10
Not only is the author a super artist, rendering her illustrations with fine, exacting detail, but she's also creative in the way she frames the subject. She also provides excellent and extremely helpful, easy-to-do (inexpensive) instructions on setting up a studio/supplies, etc. I love it.
Great book!.......2001-08-29
I am very pleased with Botanical Illustration in Watercolor
by Eleanor B. Wunderlich. It is a beautifully illustrated book both in presentation and in demos. It combines both worlds of wc and botanical illustration in a clear and precise manor. I would highly recommend this book for both beginner and serious botanical illustrator and/or for a good reference book for your art library. It is a very pleasing book just to browse through.
Absolutely the BEST BOOK on botanical illustration.......2001-04-30
This is the best book on botanical illustration I have found. It is suitable for all levels including complete beginners like myself. Although some artistic talent is certainly an asset, closely following the instructions here will come as close as possible to teaching virtually anyone to paint. From drawing to painting, it offers everything you need to create your own beautiful botanical artwork.
The book starts out by helping you choose a subject with practical advice on fruits, vegetables, flowers, mushrooms, bulbs, roots, trees, ferns, vines and more. Then, creating a space to work in and selecting materials from brushes to paper is covered. I love the many excellent tips on mixing colors.
The next section focuses on the many aspects of drawing including setting up a still life, planning the picture and transferring your drawing to watercolor paper. There are detailed step-by-step instructions for drawing a huge variety of botanical subjects including orchids, tulips and foxgloves. I really liked how the author discusses the various shapes of flowers such as round, teacup and tubular and then shows you how to block them out.
The final section covers the painting process. Along with numerous step-by-step demonstrations on painting botanicals there are hints on correcting mistakes, protecting your paper and tips on painting white flowers. Creating the initial washes, adding shadows, shading, layering and highlighting are included as well. To finish your artwork the author gives advice on matting, framing, exhibiting and selling your artwork.
The finished illustrations throughout the book are so beautiful. Each one has information on the kind of paper they are painted on, size and title.
Best book on the subject and beautiful, too.......2001-03-23
Not only is this a comprehensive guide to painting botanical subjects, but the book is just gorgeous.
Drawings and paintings of wild flowers and fruits bring out their beauty in ways photographs cannot. So this book is a really good resource if you like to sketch and hike, or if you garden and want to make a beautiful record of what you see. This is also a great resource if you are getting into journal writing and want to put in pictures of plants and flowers (many people keep a garden record journal, for example.)
The instructions are very good, from how to draw and sketch plants to choices of color. There are good examples to copy to learn the technique. I don't think there is a better book on this subject, nor a more beautiful book.
This is a book to love and cherish.......1999-10-23
Since I started learning botanical illustrating I have seen many books on the subject but few have held me spellbound like this one. The intelligence, helpfulness and sensitivity of the instructions would make it a book worth having on their own, but the glorious illustrations will keep you referrring to the book again and again. Their complexity and detail will hold you enthralled.
Book Description
The magnificent old, the masterful new, this is the premise in this lush publication with 180 plant portraits that span 1,000 years. These portraits were selected from the unique collection of Dr. Shirley Sherwood and from the rich treasures of Oxford's libraries and museums.
Customer Reviews:
A Not-so-New Flowering.......2006-03-06
Being a big fan of Shirley Sherwood's previous publications Contemporary Botanical Artists (1996) and A Passion for Plants (2001), I have been eagerly awaiting any further publications from this collector. I immediately purchased A New Flowering - 1000 years of Botanical Art when it was released in late 2005, but unfortunately I was quite disappointed. Rather than a whole new collection of wondrous botanical art, A New Flowering is principally an exhibition catalogue emanating from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, in mid 2005 containing many works seen in the previously mentioned books.
The title is somewhat of a misnomer. This is not a history of botanical art. There is one reference and illustration of a herbal dating from 1080 - 1090. From there the text jumps to around the mid 1400s. From there we have chapters covering the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as well as chapters dealing with Ehret, Jacquin, the Bauer brothers, Redoute, and Ruskin. There are examples of the works of these historical figures interspersed with comparable examples of similar plants by contemporary artists.
Unfortunately, of the 107 contemporary illustrations, 72 have already appeared in either Contemporary Botanical Artists (38) or A Passion for Plants (34). Those seeking a new collection of modern botanical works may well be disappointed. There are approximately 60 historical examples, but readers already familiar with Wilfred Blunt's The Art of Botanical Illustration or similar works will find nothing new here.
There is a short chapter dealing with the scientific aspects of botanical illustration, and another with a broad description of the various techniques used, but neither are covered in any depth.
For those who do not own either of Shirley Sherwood's previous publications, A New Flowering would be a pleasant addition to their botanical illustration library, but I would not recommend it to anyone looking for new inspirational material.
Best Book on Botanical art history.......2006-02-20
Shirley Sherwood and her editors have published a magnificent book on botanical art history. The narrative is well written, the art is outstanding. One walks away from reading ths book a better person.
It is a better book than Sherwood's "Contemporary Botanical Masters" hard cover -- which has some wonderful art by contemporary botanic artists, but was printed cheaply, with many pages of compelling artwork by the best watercolorists looking fuzzy.
Never the less, Sherwood has taken time to organize the best collection of botanical art I have seen. She has done us all a public service by promoting great artists like Jean Emmons, Kate Nessler, Carol Woodin here in the US (just a few of many artists from around the world) and educating this reader of botanical art's history, too.
Ms. Sherwood was on the Board of the Kew Botanic Gardens -- may still be. She is part of the aristocracy of elite wealth -- most of whom are hoarders and greedy. But she has given the world a gift that no money can buy in editing and publishing this book on 1000 Years of Botanical Art.
Interesting comparison/presentation of historical perspective and contemporary work.......2006-02-11
*If you're a painter trying to pick up techniques*, "Contemporary Botanical Artists" would be better because 1) the reproductions are larger (better for seeing small details) and 2) most of the art is from the mid-1990s, so the format might be closer to what you'd be producing (for example, a watercolor instead of an illuminated manuscript), and 3) the reproductions are somehow a little higher quality, to my eye. "Contemporary" is organized alphabetically by artists' last name, which is handy if you like to see one person's style applied to several works, shown next to each other. Also, because most of the paintings were done within the past 12-15 years (vs. 200-1000 years ago) the supports and paints are similar to what's available now.
*If you're a painter and considering different styles of presentation*, the concept of "1000 Years" might be more useful. "1000 Years" presents paintings in pairs or groups, for example, contrasting a fritillaria 'sketch' from Ruskin with a watercolor painting from 10 years ago. The book also includes such different formats as an oil painting on glass, or panels, or illuminated manuscripts. So, if you know _how_ to paint what you want but are looking for ideas on themes or surfaces or styling, "1000 Years" would be more useful.
If you have one volume and are considering getting another, keep in mind that several illustrations are in both books, and some of the commentary is also understandably similar. (I wasn't sure what to expect in that regard...) Both are very nice books and, if you know what to expect, worth having.
On the subject of watercolor technique, I would also recommend "Painting Flowers in Watercolour: A Naturalistic Approach" (C. Guest), more so than "Botanical Illustration in Watercolor" (E. Wunderlich), if you aspire to the illustrations in either Sherwood book but feel stuck at a "reasonable but not stunning" level. In my opinion, Guest's book expects you to be an intermediate or advanced watercolorist who wants to paint flowers, not a beginner painter. The life-size illustrations are also more useful. Btw, C. Guest's work in included in "Contemporary", and S. Sherwood supplied a foreword for Guest's book.
Average customer rating:
- A Shaker Sisterês vision on plants
|
A Shaker Sister's Drawings: Wild Plants Illustrated by Cora Helena Sarle
Cora Helena Sarle
Manufacturer: Monacelli
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ASIN: 1885254520 |
Customer Reviews:
A Shaker Sisterês vision on plants.......2000-12-28
Maybe the Shakerês visions of the "spiritual world" shaped Sister Sarleês perception of the "natural world" and therefore influenced her nice, simple, stylized drawings. On stressing the straight stalks and the symmetry of every plant she captures the essence of each species. I like the a little bit naive-looking illustrations very much because of their honesty and purity. The plants are well-arranged on every page, with a certain economy of layout, which fits into the Shaker-philosophy. I think in some way Sister Helenaês spirit lives on in these prettily-drawn illustrations that can please both- flower lovers and botanists.
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