NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

REVIEW: Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey

8/8/2018

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by botanical artist/illustrator and tutor Sarah Jane Humphrey is PACKED full of content relevant to the artist and illustrator who aspires to a professional career in botanical art and illustration - a lot of which is not covered in other books.

It will be getting a more in-depth review on Botanical Art and Artists in the near future - including a review of the ebook version!

Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey (Published by Crowood Press July 2018)

Overall, I'm impressed with this book. It very much comes across as the work of a full time professional botanical artist/illustrator/tutor who earns her keep from her work. Well worth a look for those who aspire to becoming a professional rather than just painting good botanical paintings.

This book was published on the first day of the RHS Botanical Art Show last month - at which Sarah Jane Humphrey, the author, won an RHS Gold Medal. Not a bad week! ;)

Sarah Jane Humphrey with part of her Gold Medal winning display of Medicinal Plants at the RHS Botanical Art Show (July 2018)

What distinguishes this book is that Sarah Jane has reconfigured the "what do you need to know to be a botanical artist" instruction book.

This is emphatically NOT a "how to paint" step by step book.
This is a book which is more suitable for all those who have acquired some skills and competence in drawing and painting - and now need to move up a gear. It's written in a conversational style which I think a lot of people will find very accessible.

Importantly, much of what she talks about

clearly comes from her academic training (she has a degree in illustration from a good art school) plus practical and in-depth experience and learning she has accumulated in her career to date - working for a wide variety of clients.
includes in-depth comment on topics often only mentioned in passing - or not covered at all - in other books written by people who are good at painting and/or drawing.

This book offers great value for money! It is very dense in terms of content - and will definitely reward more than one read. I'd expect aspiring botanical artists to reference it many times.

Chapters which impressed me included those which talked about matters which sometimes get too little attention. It's not so much she is saying anything completely novel so much as covering all the aspects that people need to think about in more depth than often happens.

Chapter 3: Materials and Equipment - particularly the technical equipment often not emphasised elsewhere
Chapter 4: The collection and choice of specimens - the chapter oddly missing from very many botanical art instruction books
Chapter 5: Drawing and the importance of sketchbooks - includes practical tips for working in the field and drawing strategies for working with specimens in the field
Chapter 6: Observation and perspective - tackles foreshortening and perspective drawing relative to shapes in nature; plus tips relating to anatomy and dissection
Chapter 7: The use of monochrome - included some sub-sections which I rarely see elsewhere - especially that relating to the use of charcoal and large-scale drawing
Chapter 9: Principles of Composition - I've written about composition elsewhere - but enjoyed her explanations of the laws and rules of composition. Again something often not explored in detail in some other books.
Chapter 11: Techniques - includes some very practical and useful advice about making digital records and framing and storing artwork
Chapter 12: Professional Practice - 29 pages, dense with practical tips about how to promote your artwork, develop your professional reputation, find clients for your work and work to a brief, price artwork and commissions, generate products from artwork and develop an online commerce store.

I'd recommend botanical artists wanting to make a career from their art to buy this book on the strength of Chapter 12 alone - about professional practice. I've not yet seen any other book which provides comprehensive cover of contemporary professional BUSINESS practice for the botanical artist and scientific illustrator - including how much time needs to be invested in a multitude of activities and the other knowledge and skills you need to learn - other than drawing and painting - in today's digital world. Success is not all down to being the best painter you can be!

I was really surprised to find that the publisher's description understates the real value of this book - within the context of what else is on offer. I suggest they have a rethink!

Incidentally, I queried with the Crowood Press why they had published two books about botanical art and illustration at more or less the same time (see yesterday's post REVIEW: Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide by Leigh Ann Gale) - and they said they were very different books - and they were absolutely correct! Both are packed full of information and both are good but for different reasons.

I've taken a look at the ebook version - and read it using Adobe Digital Editions. I've not yet seen the Kindle version. I can confirm it's constructed as a proper ebook with the ability to navigate via the table of contents. My personal preference is for the paperback - but then I like 'proper' books!

Publication date: 11 Jun. 2018 (Launched at the RHS Botanical Art Show!)
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd; Illustrated edition
Format: Paperback: 176 pages | 429 colour illustrations
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1785004190
Retail Price: £18.99
E-Book Edition: £14.99 (incl. VAT)
Price on Amazon UK: various - around c.£14 for both paperback and Kindle
Price on Amazon.com: c.$38; Kindle $19

Note: I was sent a copy to review by the publishers, having talked to Sarah Jane about the book at the RHS Botanical Art Exhibition.

About the author

Sarah Jane Humphrey is a botanical artist, a natural science illustrator, an author and a tutor. Graduated from Falmouth University with an Honours Degree in Illustration. In 2018 she was awarded a Gold Medal by the RHS for Medicinal Fruits and their symbiosis with Pollinators. She delivers workshops on Botanical Illustration in Cornwall . She is represented by the Wildlife Art Company for illustration work and has had a wide variety of clients for her illustration work.
Website: https://www.sarahjanehumphrey.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahjane.illustration/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahgalerie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahgalerie/

The Best Botanical Art Instruction Books

You can read more of my book reviews and find out which are the books I recommend in The Best Botanical Art & Illustration Instruction Books which covers:

The Society of Botanical Art Books developed for the SBA Diploma Course
Books about Botanical Art & Illustration - using Graphite and Coloured Pencils
Books about Scientific Botanical Illustration - and using pen and ink
Books by Leading British Botanical Artists & Illustrators and Educators

plus

in-depth reviews of various individual books
and seperate pages devoted to books by Billy Showell, Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan (Eden Project) and Bobbi Angell

a very small part of my book stacks!

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REVIEW: Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide by Leigh Ann Gale

7/8/2018

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This week I'm doing brief book reviews of three recent publications about botanical art / illustration / painting.

Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide by Leigh Ann Gale (see below)
Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey (tomorrow)
Botanical Painting by Margaret Stevens (with the SBA) (Thursday)

While you might expect them to be fairly similar, you'll note as you read the reviews that they are in fact three very different books.

Three recent publications - providing instruction in botanical art

In general, with new books, I tend to decide which gets an in-depth review or makes it on to the main page of RECOMMENDED BOOKS on my website The Best Botanical Art and Illustration Instruction Books after 6-12 months - which gives time for:

me to get hold of a copy and read it - and
you to all express your views on social media and in your own book reviews. I do take notice of what you say too!

In this instance, I've been doing a lot of reading in the last 24 hours!

Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide

RECOMMENDED
Botanical Illustration - the Complete Guide by Leigh Ann Gale is a very thorough and well-structured manual of information about the process for producing botanical illustrations of a high quality.

It is possibly the most traditional of the books I'm reviewing. However it's also very traditional in being very thorough and well thought out. Methodical is a word which sprang to my mind - in a positive sense!

A large part of the book focuses on painting - preparing, developing and completing a watercolour painting - but it also includes sections on basic botany, other media and what follows on after a painting is completed - and also how guidance on to continue to develop your skills.

The botanical illustrations in this book are of the type found in a Florilegia rather than in the pages of scientific publications. I'd suggest this is a very relevant book for those who aspire to produce botanical paintings and illustrations for a Florilegium, given Leigh Anne's familiarity with the sort of expectations of the standards required.

Leigh Ann Gale with her painting in the RBG Sydney Florilegium Exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew (April 2018)

It's a very apt title - this is a comprehensive and COMPLETE Guide! In fact, the book is almost overflowing with content - which is the way I like books to be!

In my very firmly held view, books which are simplified too much and filled with oversized images do not impart as much knowledge or help develop learning and skills development. I'm all for those who want to dot 'i's and cross 't's when it comes to getting things right! However one of the consequences of having a lot of content in this instance is that the font size is quite small - which may not suit everybody.

The book also includes a lot of visual information / images covering different aspects of the process. The book is packed full of images - 391 in total! The illustrations are also of a very high standard and also include some by her students.

To be honest I think some of the process pics could have done with being a tad larger. This maybe suggests that a more ruthless edit might have improved the overall presentation in terms of upscaling the size of a few through the loss of some which were maybe of more minor importance. However it's not a major issue.

Speaking as an author myself, I well know the difficulties of balancing out words, images and white space on a double page spread. It's always REALLY difficult to get it right.

Writing and creating images is the easy bit.
Getting the book's structure and flow right and then editing to improve communication is the really difficult bit!
I particularly liked Leigh Ann's use of Checklists to punctuate the book and to remind people in a coherent way of "this is what I've just told you!"

What I also liked was the sense of who the author is - and of her not being hide-bound by publishers who tried to limit her too much in terms of what she was trying to achieve.

It serves to create a book which, while treading some "extremely well trod" ground, still manages to deliver a LOT of content which, in turn, I am sure will add a LOT of value to the experience of those who buy it. Not least because of the scope and extent of the content.

UK Publication date: 26th June 2018
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd; Illustrated edition
Format: Paperback: 208 pages | 391 colour images
Size: 280 x 220 mm (the largest of the three books)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1785004271
ISBN-13: 978-1785004278
Retail Price: £25
E-Book Edition: £20.00 (incl. VAT)
Amazon price (UK): various c. £18 for hardback; and £13 for Kindle
Amazon.com price (USA): $45; and $16.90 for Kindle (publication November 2018)

Note: I was sent a copy to review by the publishers.
I'm also a MAJOR fan of the Crowood Press publications which I think set a very high standard in terms of content and a refusal to "dumb down".

NOTE: I'll also be reviewing the ebook version in due course - along with the ebook version of tomorrow's instruction book from the same publishers. I'd be very interested to receive any comments from those who prefer buying their books this way.

About the author

Leigh Ann Gale has an honours degree in Graphic Design. She completed the diploma in botanical illustration at the English Gardening School, (now the Chelsea School of Botanical Art). She is a member of the Florilegium Societies for Hampton Court Palace, the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney and Nymans. Her work is held in the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation. She mentors students on botanical illustration diploma and certificate courses.

The Best Botanical Art Instruction Books

You can read more of my book reviews and find out which are the books I recommend in The Best Botanical Art & Illustration Instruction Books which covers:

The Society of Botanical Art Books developed for the SBA Diploma Course
Books about Botanical Art & Illustration - using Graphite and Coloured Pencils
Books about Scientific Botanical Illustration - and using pen and ink
Books by Leading British Botanical Artists & Illustrators and Educators

A while back - before the stacks grew....

The main problem for students of botanical art is that there is a considerable range in the quality of the content in books about botanical art.

What I'm trying to do with this website is guide readers/artists/students towards those books that I consider are written by those who:

have experience in both botanical art and teaching and
understand how best to communicate what students of botanical art 'need to know'

This section also includes In-Depth Reviews of the following books (with more to come!)

SBA Books - in-depth reviews

Books by popular botanical art tutors

Botany books for botanical artists

Botany for the Artist

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Diploma and Certificate Courses in Botanical Art and Illustration

1/8/2018

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This morning I updated the page on my website devoted to Diploma and Certificate Courses in Botanical Art and Illustration. This covers:

Guidelines on how to assess and choose a course from available options; and
Listings of Diploma and Certificate courses

This year I've developed the listings and am now including information relating to:

scope of the course - in terms of topics covered - with links to where more information is supplied by the course provider
teaching staff / tutors - with links to the course page about teaching staff and/or their personal websites PLUS mentions for any prestigious awards they have received
method of assessment
course fees - which is, of course, a topic of much interest to prospective students.

BELOW you can find out about:

info. about the course listings - and how to help me update them
what Diploma and Certificate Courses cost in the UK
what sort of guidance is available e.g. what questions you should ask before handing over the money! Ideally - this is available on the website or via downloads provided!

Course Listings

The course listings currently cover the UK and USA - but the listings can easily be extended to other continents and countries if such courses exist elsewhere - and have a website which allows me to check the content and the tutors. (I use Chrome's translate function to check listings in other languages)

There is a form at the bottom of the page to notify me of any Diploma or Certificate Courses (i.e. NOT short courses - which are on other pages)

I also note that more and more education providers are looking to provide tuition suitable for those who would like to pursue a diploma course but do not have the knowledge or basic skills required.

For example, the Society of Botanical Artists will be delivering a Distance Learning Foundation Certificate as from March 2019 - with information available about content, tuition and course fees from this September.

SBA DLDC student work at the Annual Exhibition in 2012

How much do Courses cost - in the UK?

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Trade Stand Exhibitors at the RHS Plant and Art Fair (July 2018)

2/7/2018

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The Trade Stand Exhibitors at the 2018 RHS Plant and Art Fair in the two Horticultural Halls in Westminster, London are listed below.

Note that

There are a significant number of NEW exhibitors
the vast majority of the trade stands will be in the RHS Lawrence Hall i.e. NOT the Lindley Hall where the Botanical Art Show will be held. (see UPDATE)
a number of regular exhibitors of recent years are NOT exhibiting this year. Examples include: various botanical art societies - including the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA), the Diploma Courses (i.e. Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh and SBA) and Susan Christopher-Coulson.
The website links are not live as Google is not a big fan of lots of commercial links! However copy and insert the url into your browser and the website should come up.

UPDATE: I understand the serious dislocation of botanical art exhibition and botanical artists/organisations has now been remedied by the Show management.

Consequently I've revised the listing below and the exhibitors closely related to botanical art who have been relocated back to the Lindley Hall are now marked with an asterisk * e.g. Ann Swan is back in her usual place!

You can find a PDF Exhibitors List on the RHS webpage However this may well need updating to agree with the revised trade stand plan.

RHS Lindley Hall

This is the Hall where the Botanical Art Show is to be held.

Chelsea Botanical Art School at the 2017 Show: Helen Allen and Mary Ellen Taylor

ART: Botanical Artists / Tutors / Education

The Chelsea School of Botanical Art (CSBA) http://www.chelseaschoolofbotanicalart.co.uk - The CSBA classroom will pop up at the show with a free Botanical Art workshop, see Workshops for details
* Julia Trickey www.juliatrickey.co.uk - professional botanical artist / tutor with an online tuition website and classes
* Ann Swan www.annswan.co.uk - professional botanical artist / tutor with an online tuition website and botanical art holidays

Ann Swan - providing guidance on coloured pencils at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2017

Botanical Art Organisations

* Association of British Botanical Artists - ABBA www.abba2018.wordpress.com - the new body that organised the Botanical Art Worldwide exhibition for England and Wales.

The Association of British Botanical Artists at the 2017 Botanical Art Show

Botanical Organisations

* South London Botanical Institute www.slbi.org.uk - botanical garden in Tulse Hillwhich with wide range of courses, workshops, school visits and events for all ages.

RHS Lawrence Hall

Other contemporary artists / designers with garden/botanical themes

Susan Entwistle Art www.susanentwistle.com - acrylic paintings of gardens in pointillist style
Brie Harrison www.brieharrison.com - designer and illustrator with botanical artworld themes
Hannah McVicar www.hannahmcvicar.com - illustrator, printmaker and mural painter using botanical themes and multi-media printmaking
Zoe Zoe www.annemckenzie.com - paints botanical themes in acrylic paint on unbleached Japanese Kozo paper

Botanical Art and Plant Publications

Addison Publications Ltd www.addisonpublications.com - publishers of the Highgrove and Transylvania Florilegium
RHS Bookshop - A selection of RHS books and gifts, book signings will also be taking place
Two Rivers Press Ltd www.tworiverspress.com - varied list of individually designed books

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Worldwide Day of Botanical Art in UK & Ireland on 18 May 2018

13/5/2018

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This is a summary of the various exhibitions, educational events and activities around the UK and Ireland for the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art on Friday 18 May at:

Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens
The Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
RHS Lindley Library
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Art Workers' Guild
John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
National Botanic Garden, Dublin.

You'll find more information about events and personnel involved in the links.

England

Kew Gardens

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art - Events on 18th May at Kew

Venue: Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Time: 11am - 4pm - To be opened by Shirley Sherwood at 11am.
Admission: FREE - but normal admission charges to the garden apply
Activities:

Digital slideshow of the artwork in the UK exhibition at Lancaster and in botanical art worldwide exhibitions around the world
Botanical artists currently commissioned by Kew will present their work in a series of informal talks and demonstrations

Talks are as follows

11:30 – 12pm – Dr Andrew Brown - From Plant to Plate – how to prepare a complete scientific illustration through meticulous observation, planning and execution.
12:15 – 12:45pm – Lucy T Smith - Largest, Smallest, Oldest – the challenges of working with Kew’s greenhouse collections of giant waterlilies and rare cycads including Encephalartos woodii, one of the Temperate House’s rarest plants.
1:30 – 2:00pm – Hazel Wilks - Dogwoods to Dandelions – the range of work a Kew illustrator undertakes: depicting new plant species, explaining plant anatomy and drawing world floras
2:15 – 2:45pm – Georita Harriot - For the Love of Lavender – the work behind illustrating a botanical monograph in colour, including research into how to mix 1000 different shades of Green.

Work and demonstrations will also be shown by Christabel King GM FSBA, FLS, Anita Barley Recipient of the 2016 Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration from the Linnaean Society Penny Price and Dr Judi Stone.

Sarah Oldridge, Adult Education Co-ordinator, will provide information about courses at Kew.

Lancaster University

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art - Events on 18th May at Lancaster

Title: In Ruskin's Footsteps
Venue: The Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
Time: 12.00pm - 5.00pm
Admission: FREE

Exhibition opens on 18th May
You can see the digital gallery of artwork now on the ABBA website
a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including the 40 images from In Ruskin’s Footsteps.

Special Event Open Days on 19th May and 9th June 2018

Venue: Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University

19th May and 9th June: Exhibition Tours by Martin Allen. His main role in supporting the exhibition has been to check botanical accuracy in terms of depiction of plants and the nomenclature of the plant species. He is an expert botanist, who regularly works in the field completing botanical surveys and habitat assessments. As well as this he is also a highly skilled botanical artist and tutor, having won many awards. including three RHS Gold Medals (1995, 97, 99)
19th May: Mally Francis, ( see her o=image below) Sandra Doyle and Jackie Copeman will be demonstrating in the exhibition space.
9th June (2pm – 3pm) Talk on ‘Fieldwork and Research Techniques for Botanical Art by Sarah Morrish who has a working background in ecology and conservation and is an experienced botanical and natural science artist and tutor. This will give an overview of how best work to in the field and how you can then research your subject further, through direct investigation of the subject and additional research techniques - from botany to paper.

Chelsea Physic Garden

Art Exhibition celebrating Worldwide Day of Botanical Art

Venue: Education Room at Chelsea Physic Garden
Time: 11.00am - 4.00pm
Admission: FREE with price of admission to garden
Activities:

a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including the 40 images from In Ruskin’s Footsteps.
view works from the Physic Garden’s collection of paintings with special emphasis on plants from and native to the United Kingdom. Members of the Society will be on hand to welcome visitors to the exhibition and discuss the paintings.

RHS Lindley Library

Slideshow and Tours: Botanical Art Worldwide

Venue: RHS Lindley Library, 80 Vincent Square, LONDON SW1P 2PE
Time:

Slideshow: 10am - 5pm;
Tours: 11am and 2pm

Admission: FREE
Activities:

a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including the 40 images from In Ruskin’s Footsteps.
a curated tour of artworks from the RHS Lindley Library Art Collection on this day. Tour places are limited - please call the library on 020 7821 3050 or email library.london@rhs.org.uk to reserve a place.
View the Lindley Library’s most recent acquisition, Dahlia Twynings After Eight.. a watercolour painting by Heidi Venamore. This will be on display alongside the preliminary sketches for this piece.

The Art Workers' Guild

‘Botany and Painting techniques: a day of talks and demonstrations by SBA artists on painting some of Britain’s indigenous species’.

The Society of Botanical Artists is supporting the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art with two half day events

Venue: The Art Workers' Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT
Time:

10:45 -13:00 - Morning event is 2 hours, with refreshments
14:15 -16:30 - Afternoon event is 2 hours with refreshments

Admission: PRICED ticketed events - tickets from this site
Activities: talks and demonstrations by:

Morning event: Gael Sellwood GM, SBA, Angeline de MeesterBA(Hons), GM, FLS, SBA, Jarnie Godwin MTcg, BSc(Hons), DipSBA(Dist) SBA and Pamela Taylor PhD, BSc, SBA
Afternoon Event: Sue J Williams SBA FCPFS, Dianne Sutherland Ball SBA BSc Hons (Biology), Jennifer Jenkins SBA, Billy Showell BA PSBA

Scotland

Here's what's happening in Scotland

Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art in Edinburgh

Venue: John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
Time: 12 noon - 4.00pm
Admission: FREE (no booking required)
Activities: for adults and children throughout the afternoon - organised by the Scottish Botanical Art Collective (SBAC)

Exhibition: Flora Scotia exhibition - runs until 3 June 2018. See also my blog post Selected Scottish artists for 'Flora Scotia' (Botanical Art Worldwide #5)
a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including images from Flora Scotia
Meet the artists - Watch demonstrations and try your hand at painting techniques to help make a giant botanical mural
Meet the plants - Enjoy a walk with an expert botanist to a corner of the Garden brimming with native plants.

Ireland

Part of the exhibition - Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art in Dublin and ISBA Open Day

Venue: Visitors’ Centre at the National Botanic Gardens
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Admission: FREE (entry to the garden is free also)
Activities:

Exhibition: Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland - continues until 27th May. See also my blog post Selected Irish Artists for Éireannach Exhibition (Botanical Art Worldwide #7)
digital slideshow of images from 24 other Botanical Art Worldwide exhibitions plus images from Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland
tour of the exhibition by Zoe Devlin wildflower expert and mentor to the Irish project
botanical painting demonstrations by members of ISBA
cards, prints and merchandise by ISBA artists

The book Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland will also be for sale (I've now my copy and it's STUNNING! Review coming up later this week)

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Botanical Illustration - Books by Bobbi Angell

18/4/2018

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Bobbi Angell is a name which is well known to the botanical art and illustration community in the USA - but is maybe less well known further afield.

My contribution to highlighting her contribution to scientific botanical illustration has been to create a new page about two books she co-authored which I think are particularly noteworthy. They were also published 30 years apart in 1986 and 2016. Both are very valued books in my botanical art bookcase.

Botanical Illustration - Books by Bobbi Angell is a NEW page among the group of pages which form a subset of The Best Botanical Art and Illustration Instruction Books

It focuses on:

Botanical Illustration: Preparation for Publication (1986) by Noel H. Holmgren and Bobbi Angell
A Botanist's Vocabulary: 1300 Terms Explained and Illustrated (2016) by Susan K. Pell and Bobbi Angell

The first book is 30 years old but contains an absolute wealth of information and how to prepare botanical illustrations for production and the approaches and materials used for this task

The second book is a book for a wider audience - but also has particular relevance to the student of botanical art, who needs to both understand technical botanical terms - and terms used by gardeners - and appreciate the standards in technical monochrome botanical illustration achieved by those who do it for a living.

READ MORE about them on Botanical Illustration - Books by Bobbi Angell

You'll also find the above books listed on The Best Botany Books for Botanical Artist and Illustrators.

READ MORE about Bobbi Angell on her website or on my page about the top botanical artists in the USA

Bobbi Angell in Vermont

In-depth Reviews of botanical art instruction books ad authors

Certain instruction books or authors receive in-depth reviews - and get a page all to themselves. CLICK the links below to go to those pages.

SBA Books - in-depth reviews

Books by popular botanical art tutors

Technical books about Botanical Illustration

Botanical Illustration - Books by Bobbi Angell

Botany books for botanical artists

Botany for the Artist

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Guide to Botanical Illustration using Pen and Ink - in Portuguese

23/2/2018

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Rogério Lupo has produced another Guide to Botanical Illustration - this time using pen and ink. The Portuguese title is Apostila Bico de Pena. (© Rogério Lupo 2018 - All rights reserved. Sale prohibited. Free distribution.) The title contains the link to the page where you view it and download it.

His scientific illustration guide to equipment and materials comments on the use of a dip pen nib - which Google translate insists on calling a "feather beak" - but basically a nib which flexes when pressure is used so as to produce fine lines of different thickness and character.

HOWEVER it is not yet translated into English. I think he's hoping to get this done later this tear

So if you can read Portuguese you're fine.

If you're prepared to use Google Translate to read a bit at a time it's also fine (you can see what I made of it below!). It's a bit odd - but you can get the gist of what he's saying.

Apostila Bico de Pena de Rogério Lupo

Below are the two descriptions of the Guide in Portuguse and Google Translate English.

Guia de curso com informações completas sobre os bicos de pena mais especializados para traços precisos usados na ilustração científica. São tratados assuntos como marcas de bicos, de tintas e papéis, procedimentos para seleção do material na hora da compra, restauração, cuidados, exercícios e tudo que se precisa saber para começar a conhecer e praticar.

Course guide with complete information on the most specialized pen nozzles for precise strokes used in scientific illustration. Subjects such as nozzle marks, paints and papers, procedures for material selection at the time of purchase, restoration, care, exercise and all that one needs to know to get to know and practice are treated. (according to Google Translate)

Note that Google Translate takes the portuguese he uses and translates the word as

"nozzle" which is a term we more usually associate with a technical pen
or "beak" - it comes up sometimes a "feather beak"

rather than a specialist nib which is typically used with a dip pen holder. This is just Google Translate rather than Rogério!

20 of the 40 practice strokes using pen and ink recommended by Rogerio Lupo and provided as examples at the end of his Guide ( © Rogério Lupo 2018 )

What I like about the Guide

Note - this was all identified using Google Translate!)

What I like about this Guide is that he discusses:

buying a pen nib and very precise detail about what to look out for to get a good nib which will behave well
different brands by name and how he finds them
the best brands of paper to use for pen and ink illustration - and he comments on Bristol (plate) paper he likes and those he does not (the ones which are too abrasive on the end of the nib).
the best quality ink to use - and his recommendations plus how to keep the ink hydrated
how to protect the point of the nib
how to preserve the nib on good condition - and the use of alcohol for cleaning and the purpose of a pen wiper
how to test nibs before purchasing them - including how to test for blade crossing - this is the truly fastidious bit for the real pen and ink fan. There's a nice bit where he displays how to detect splay in the end of the nib and whether the cut is central or not.
how to sand and polish nibs to improve the flow or restore their use
what to do when the ink won't flow (the "departure problem")

He then moves on to the use of the pen

how to train yourself to deliver parallel strokes - which includes tips on breathing!
he provides some examples of pen strokes to practice. His list of 40 pen strokes is precisely explained as to what each demonstrates

All in all it's a lot more information than is often available - written by somebody who is fastidious about the use of the kit he uses for illustration. I'm a huge fan of those who really care about the quality of the materials they use - and want to share what they know with others.

You can obtain the Guide from Slideshare (as with his Graphite for Scientific Illustration Guide) - just click the link in the title. As before to access the free download you will need to be logged in to an account with Slideshare or a Linked In account also gives you access to download

You can also follow his announcements about new classes and guides on Facebook by following his Facebook Page Rogério Lupo - Ilustração Científica.

Read more about Botanical Illustration Tips: Pen and Ink on this website

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