During a 5 day Botanical Drawing Workshop at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies the students had an opportunity to study botanical drawing techniques on a variety of subjects using colored pencil and watercolor pencil.
Read moreDrawing Your Way to Plant Identification at the New York Botanical Garden
Teaching a three day workshop in the middle of January is a great time to focus on dissecting, studying, and drawing a flowering potted plant. Here is how I approached this recent workshop at the New York Botanical Garden where we had Cyclamen plants as our model.
Day 1: What to draw first?
We started by reading a detailed description of the plant and the characteristics that make this plant unique. In the case of the Cyclamen it has a tuber from which individual flowers, leaves, and roots grow. The leaves and flowers sprout from growing points on top of the tuber. The roots can grow from many places on the tuber depending on the species. The flowers are unusual. The stem of the flower is bent so that the nose of the flower faces downward.
Once we understood what makes this plant unique we were able to start drawing all the components. We had plants with lots of flowers so we were easily able to take apart many flowers to use and study up close.
Day 2: After understanding and drawing plant structure there is more time to focus on the color of the flowers and the patterning on the leaves.
Day 3: Study the complete plant by taking it out of the pot and washing the soil away to reveal the tuber and the roots. We were able to plan and start a complete drawing of the whole plant.
One student focused on a magnification of a dissected flower.
Students were able to take their plants home and continue working to finish after the workshop was finished. Three days goes by very quickly!
Students from this class: Please upload your sketch pages and or completed drawings here for everyone to see!
An insiders view of a Botanical Drawing workshop at Hollengold Farm
If you are curious about a botanical drawing workshop at Hollengold Farm read on. This is a recap of the recent workshop that just took place on Sept. 19 - 21st, 2014.
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Drawing Tomatoes
Here are some tips to use when choosing your colors to draw a tomato.
Drawing red objects such as a shiny tomato can be difficult. You need to get your reds dark enough and the shadow areas very dark but there still needs to be a very subtle transition from the dark tones to the main mid tone color of red. You want to convince the viewer that your tomato is a very round red tomato and that the shadows are still red but very dark. Practicing a color tone bar is a good idea before drawing the tomato. I suggest you start with a tone bar of mid red close to the color of your tomato. Then create the darker tones using a deep red wine color such as #194 red violet. Add the red and orange colors as your tone bar gets lighter. Use hardly any sepia at first.
Color Harmony - Analogous Colors
Colors next to each other on the color wheel (no more than two primary colors) is known as analogous color. It is usually a very beautiful and satisfying color scheme. Check out these pics from our garden's harvest this past week of delicious berries. Featured are raspberries, black berries, and blue berries. A delicious sherbet was made after we made a coulis syrup from the berries. The color scheme is pleasing to look at and refreshing and delicious to eat!
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Distance Learning
I have been working with some students long distance on critiquing their work, either lesson by lesson or for more finished work. Here is a recent example of how this process goes and the success that is exciting for me to see in their work.
This is the work of a student from France Named Sophie. I am proud of her ability to improve and grasp concepts in a foreign language!
Botanical Drawing Workshop at Hollengold Farm June 2014
Hi Everyone,
We are excited to announce another 3 day workshop at Hollengold Farm in September. The weather is usually great and many lovely things will be blooming in the garden for inspiration and of course delicious food to eat! Here are some photos from the recent workshop we had here in June.
Daily drawing demonstrations.
Located in the Hudson Valley of NY State.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Join botanical artist, instructor, and author Wendy Hollender at her home and garden to study the techniques outlined in her book: Botanical Drawing in Color, A Basic Guide to Mastering Realistic Form and Naturalistic Color. Create drawings in colored pencil and watercolor pencil from the plants growing in the gardens at Hollengold Farm. Use a “Grisaille” technique for undertones in a neutral color and then layer color on top to create realistic plant portraits. This technique is very immediate and materials are simple, allowing the artist to work easily in multiple locations, and is especially useful for work in the field.
Where: Hollengold Farm, Accord, NY
Dates: Friday Sept 19th - Sunday Sept 21stTime: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Farm fresh lunch included.
Workshop price: $300.00 includes lunch.
Local Accomadations:
Star-Lite Motel:
www.thestarlitemotel.com
Phone is: 845-626-7350
Chelsea Motel:
www.Chelseamotel.com
Phone is 845-626-3551
Daily demonstrations of botanical drawingThe weather was glorious and we were able to work outside all three days.
Will's lunch included home made ice cream with our fresh strawberries.Our daily salads and herbal infused drinks were also very popular.Students were treated to a visit to Carol Woodin's stuido to hear about painting on vellum.
Sign up for the workshop here.
Hope to see you on the farm!
Regards,
Wendy
Dina Falconi author of Foraging & Feasting; A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook took students on a plant walk to learn about identifying edible weeds.
At each workshop we supply our favorite art supplies to use during the workshop. You can also purchase your own in our store or HERE on line.