NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

A Spring Clean for Education of Botanical Artists!

12/4/2021

This weekend I gave the Education Section of the Botanical Art and Artists website a much needed "Spring Clean". My aim was to make

navigation of the education section a lot easier
increase awareness of the full range of information available in this section - for FREE.

To that end I've "made over" / revamped / revised two key "entry" pages on the topic of education on the website, namely:

Education - the entry page / portal for the topic as a whole
The Best Instruction Books about Botanical Art and Illustration - the entry page for all my information about botanical art instruction books for beginners and improvers.

The Education Page

The new layout of the Education Page makes it much easier to see:

the main topics covered by the Education Section
the range - breadth and depth - of the information on offer - for FREE!

CLICK THE BLUE LINKS (generally titles of pages) to go to each of the pages in the section

LEARNING OPTIONS are divided into:

self-directed learning - for those who like to learn on their own at their own pace
more formal instruction opportunities - in terms of structured courses, classes and workshops - both face to face and online .

SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING

This section covers tuition and learning opportunities around the world and online for those who prefer to "go it alone".

BELOW is an image of part of the new Education Page and an example of two of the pages devoted to those wanting to learn on their own - where beginners and improvers have access to the internet.

Tips and Techniques is one of the most popular parts of the website - and hopefully now more people may appreciate bits they maybe "missed" before.

Two of the pages for self-directed learning

FORMAL INSTRUCTION

This section is for those who want to access formal / structured learning opportunities by:
* travelling to classes, courses and workshops where they live, in their own country or around the world
* OR access formal tuition either online - for those who can use digital technology - or via correspondence.

The next image covers an example of two of the pages related to formal instruction opportunities to learn more about how to create botanical art and illustration. There are more!

Two of the pages relating to more formal instruction opportunities - online and around the world

At the bottom of the EDUCATION page there is:

links to more resources to aid education
forms for eligible teachers to notify
- new courses in 2021-22
- updates to existing courses in 2021.

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The Best Instruction Books
about Botanical Art and Illustration

One of the more important topics in Education is about the instruction books I recommend.

Some of my botanical art instruction books

I've adopted the same approach for the section about The Best Instruction Books about Botanical Art and Illustration.

After a short introduction, the page now has a set of QUICK LINKS to the various pages in this very important sub-section of the main Education topic. This summary lists the contributors to the books recommended on each page.

For example here's a SUMMARY of two of the pages in this section. Click the blue title below the image to go to those pages.

The Best Instruction Books by Botanical Artists and botanical art societies

COMMENTS WELCOME

I trust you find this new arrangement makes it easier to see what information is available on the website - and that you find something new and interesting to view/read!

If you have any suggestions for any other improvements, please let me know via comments on this post or contacting me direct

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UPDATED: Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses

29/9/2020

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I've UPDATED my page which provides a Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses - to take account of the many developments since the Pandemic started.

It's clear that face to face workshops and classes are going to be very few and far between for some time to come - and I hope all those that are running them have got adequate insurance!

In the meantime there has been a bit of an explosion of botanical art instruction on Zoom and Facebook Live and other platforms where it is possible to have interactive experiences between tutor and student.

I felt very challenged as to how make it simpler for people to understand the different - and proliferating - options on offer. At one point I thought a separate Zoom page was the answer - and then realised that Zoom is a vehicle and platform rather than a category in its own right.

So the page has now been revised, edited and re-categorised as follows.
Plus I've pushed it up the Education Menu as I think it's going to be used rather more often over the next year or so.

Content

This is what you can find on the page - and I make no apologies for providing a lot of explanation about how it all works at the beginning.

SUMMARIES of:

WHAT Online Botanical Art Instruction is
WHO benefits from online instruction
WHERE you can learn about botanical art online
WHO PROVIDES online botanical art instruction
HOW Botanical Art is taught online

+ FAQS CHECKLIST about Online Learning Options
This is based on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) by prospective students (from my Facebook Survey). I recommend students use this as a basis for evaluating alternative options 

OVERVIEW of Online Botanical Art Courses / Videos

This indicates the different types of provision.
While researching "who offers what" in relation to botanical art instruction online, I found that instruction, courses, tutors and fees payable are described in VERY different ways - hence the need to sort and categorise!

DETAIL

I then provide a detailed summary of every provider I know that is providing botanical art instruction online, with:

some detail about the provider
course offering
links to relevant websites
fees or subscriptions payable

Which means that if I've got the categories right, you can compare "like with like".

Who gets on - and stays on - depends on whether I am confident in their abilities and capability in terms of teaching online. That might be the next thing up for review

Keep up to date with Botanical Art Learning Opportunities
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Let me know.....

If you are a teacher
with a developed BOTANICAL ART instruction offering online and you are NOT on the list, then you can contact me.

PLEASE USE MY ADD my ONLINE course (for tutors) FORM - AFTER you have reviewed the information I need from you

If you are a botanical art student
PLEASE COMPLETE the Review of Online Botanical Art Courses form
It would help me greatly if you could:

EITHER Tell me what sort of course you'd ideally like to do online
AND/OR Tell me what you "need to know" before you choose an online course and decide to pay a fee or subscription.
AND/OR Provide feedback about any online courses you have paid for and taken. e.g. Why did you opt for online learning? Who provided the course? Did course delivery meet your expectations - based on information provided? What did you have access to and do? Did you find it helpful? What did you like/not like? Was any aspect disappointing?

PLEASE NOTE COMMENTS ARE NOT PUBLISHED ONLINE - unless you indicate permission to use them for testimonials.

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ASBA's Botanical Art Techniques: first impressions + who contributed?

19/8/2020

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This is an overview of Botanical Art Techniques - the new comprehensive instruction guide for botanical artists by the American Society of Botanical Artists, edited by Carol Woodin and Robin A Jess and published next month (29th September 2020) by Timber Press.

I only got it yesterday so this is

very much first impressions - from a quick flick through which took nearly 3 hours! I'll be doing a more detailed proper book review later.
PLUS I wanted to highlight the botanical artists who have contributed to the book - from the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Japan and Netherlands - and demonstrate the scope and breadth of the book.

Initial Impressions - a summary

I'll be doing a detailed book review in due course - but it took me nearly 3 hours just to look at every page, so it will take a little longer to review the content properly!

Here's a summary of my initial impressions
- based on comments I jotted down as I looked through it this morning.

This is a "Best Botanical Art Instruction Book" and, in my opinion, the BRAND NEW STANDARD REFERENCE book for botanical art instruction - soon to be found on the bookshelf of everybody who wants to learn more about botanical art. It sets a very high standard - which means I either need a new recommendation grade or need to revise some of my previous recommendations - within the context of current publications!
Comprehensive in its scope - without question
- most frequent media get comprehensive attention (graphite, pen and ink, watercolour - on both paper and vellum)
- good coverage of media also used for botanical art (mixed media, egg tempera, gouache, casein, acrylics, metalpoint)
- includes good coverage of the topic of composition - which is so often omitted or receives cursory attention from so many botanical art instruction books (see my review of instruction books covering composition in botanical art on my Design and Composition - tips and techniques page on my website)
Great structure (see below) and well written content
- basics for each main medium followed by applied tutorials ("how to") and advanced tutorials (stepping up a level) - plus double page spreads for one topic features
- the narrative by authors of different sections have been edited together to create a book which flows very well and in places is extremely well written.
Emphatically not a "one size fits all" book. There is a strong emphasis on alternative perspectives and approaches to creating botanical art
- A major emphasis on process and how this varies for different plants and in different contexts - and how individual artists prefer to work i.e. the notion that there is "only one right way to work" is confounded by the techniques and approaches found within these pages.
- Only a botanical art society could draw on the expertise of so many leading artists and instructors
A strong emphasis on plants and botany - with accurate and precise descriptions of plant features
Provides something for everybody - no matter how accomplished they may be as artists already
- accessible for those new to botanical art - with excellent attention to "the basics" that all need to know
- advanced techniques for improvers
- new media for those who are already leading artists
- plus the number of hours are identified for every artwork which is displayed - which is a FIRST in any book of botanical art instruction I've seen
REQUIRED READING for EVERY instructor in botanical art and illustration - because your students are going to be reading it!
This is VERY BIG authoritative book with a quality feel which is going to last! It has 416 pages in total in a hard binding which feels very good quality. It avoids being too thick and too heavy due to the pages being printed on very thin high quality paper with a nice finish which means the colour reproduction is excellent. I've noted of late that not every publisher pays as much attention to colour reproduction as botanical artists do - so this book jumped my first production quality hurdle with ease!

In addition, words on the page kept jumping out at me as quotations I will want to add into my website. Here's an example - which introduces the book....

Botanical artists love plants. This is a simple, obvious truth, but one that explains the hours, days and weeks and often months spent taking an artwork from research sketch to completion. Botanical artists are fascinated by details and relish the exploration and accurate depiction of the intricacies of those details. This passion for detail is primarily what separate botanical artists from floral artists, or artists who depict plants in an impressionistic or expressionistic manner
Introduction page 10

List of Contents and Contributors

Foreword - with botanical watercolour painting of Rhubarb 'Rheum rhabarbarum "Glaskin's Perpetual" by Elaine Searle

What follows is "the contents" - everything after the Foreword (above) and Introduction to the book.

Contributors are highlighted by name (One point I'd like to highlight that each contributor has a brief bio at the end of the book.)
a link to their websites / reference page is embedded in first reference to their name.

Where there are no names then it's a joint effort by the Editors.

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Best Botanical Art Instruction Books - major reboot!

16/4/2020

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My page about The Best Botanical Art and Illustration Instruction Books on this webite has been completely redesigned to make it more accessible and informative.

The Page (in the Education Section) was getting very, very long. I was concerned people were missing really useful books towards the bottom. In the end I decided that it needed a completely new approach - to accommodate all the new books that need a proper listing. So it's had a REBOOT!

It now has four NEW pages which comprise the following sub-sections (see below):

Best Books by Botanical Art Societies - currently covering books by SBA and ASBA
Best Books about Botanical Drawing Instruction - for all those using graphite and coloured pencils for botanical drawing
Best Botanical Illustration Instruction Books - about the professional standards and techniques of those concerned with scientific botanical illustration
Best Books by Top Botanical Artists / Teachers - for those that deserve to be highlighted and don't fit in the other categories

This page introduces this section and

how the books are organised
who the authors are
how book reviews and ratings work
what I focus on when sorting the "wheat from the chaff"
how you can help support my website when you buy a book - at no cost to you
PLUS an introduction for each new sub-section and NEW PAGE. These are identified below.

The Best Instruction Books by Botanical Art Societies

The Best Instruction Books by Botanical Art Societies is a brand new section for books by botanical art societies. At present this is:

the Society of Botanical Artists (in the UK)
the American Society of Botanical Artists

However it could also include instruction books by other botanical art societies if these are developed in the future.....

The biggest major new book in 2020 will be the 400 page / 900 images "Botanical Art Techniques" book by ASBA - edited by Robin Jess and Carol Woodin - which is being published in September. This leads this new section.

It's followed by summaries of four of the five books written by Margaret Stevens the Past President of the SBA and the first Director of its Distance Learning Diploma Course. Three of these have deailed book reviews which can be accessed via the "buttons" on this page.

I'm beginning to think the SBA may well want to ponder on whether the existing books need a second edition going forward.

The Best Instruction Books
about Botanical Drawing (for Pencil Artists)

The Best Instruction Books about Botanical Drawing (for Pencil Artists) page is dedicated to all pencil artists!

Books featured and summarised on this page include:

Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils by Ann Swan
Botanical Drawing in Colour by Wendy Hollender
NEW BOOK in 2020: The Joy of Botanical Drawing by Wendy Hollender
Botanical Drawing using Graphite and Coloured Pencils by Sue Vize
Fundamental Graphc Techniques by Katie Lee
Botanical Drawing by Penny Brown.

I'm expecting in due course to add in books about drawing in pen and ink (unless they are scientifically biased - in which case they will go in the next section!)

The Best Instruction Books
about Botanical Illustration

The Best Instruction Books about Botanical Illustration focuses on books written by
those who have worked as professional botanical illustrators and/or worked closely with botanists.

Books featured and summarised on this page include:

How to Draw Plants: The Techniques of Botanical Illustration by Keith West - an old and authoritative handbook
Botanical Illustration from Life: A Visual Guide to Observing, Drawing and Painting Plants by Işık Güner - a very new and contemporary handbook. One of the best I've seen in terms of standards required and making content accessible
Botanical Illustration Books by Bobbi Angell (separate dedicated page) - two books published 30 years apart
The Kew Book of Botanical Illustration by Christabel King
Botanical Illustration by Valerie Oxley
The Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration (2nd Edition) edited by Elaine R. S. Hodges

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The Best Instruction Books
by Top Botanical Artists / Teachers

The Best Botanical Instructions by Top Botanical Artists / Teachers are associated with notable botanical artists and/or leading botanical art teachers - and not otherwise listed elsewhere.

Books featured and summarised on this page include:

An Approach to Botanical Painting by Anne-Marie and Donn Evans
Painting Flowers in Watercolour: A Naturalistic Approach by Coral Guest
Botanical Painting Books by Billy Showell (separate dedicated page)
Botanical Illustration Books with the Eden Project (separate dedicated page)
Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide by Leigh Ann Gale
Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey
Botanical Painting in Gouache by Simon Williams (Author)
Drawing and Painting Plants by Christina Brodie

NOTE: Very many thanks to Polly O'Leary who reviewed the pages for me before I went "public". She spotted a number of small typos and duplicate words! Thanks Polly - I owe you!

What do you want to know?

My advice and information on the Online Botanical Art Courses page was very much driven by what you needed to know. It's generally helped improve the information available about onine courses.

We can do the same thing for books.

After you've had a look at the new pages I'd be interested to hear your views on what aspects of this part of the website might be improved to provide better value to you as both a reader and a consumer.

EXAMPLE: I'm thinking of introducing some symbols to indicate if a book is more suited to: beginners | improvers | advanced artists.

Leave a comment below or contact me with your thoughts

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Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses

23/3/2020

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Many of you will be unable to attend botanical art classes, courses and workshops during the Coronavirus Crisis.

However there are a couple of alternatives for learning more techniques about how to draw and paint plants to botanical standards away from a physical face to face class. These are:

online instruction
art instruction books

Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses

For those wanting to learn more about botanical art and illustration at home, there was nowhere on the web offering a comparative analysis and evaluation of the available online instruction and tutorials in botanical art and illustration - until I published my Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses.

My webpage providing advice and information on how to choose and lists of those providing online instruction in botanical art and illustration

This web page includes:

RECOMMENDED READING

a SUMMARY of what Online Botanical Art Instruction is
a SUMMARY of who benefits from online instruction
OVERVIEW of providers of Online Botanical Art Courses - this indicates the different types and providers, namely
- Recognised Institutions (e.g. Botanic Gardens) - providing distance learning courses using web-based instruction
- Online Instruction via Video Tutorials
- Online Instruction via individual Teachers (written guides and/or ebooks plus typically minor use of videos. Plus some teachers also provide one on one masterclasses, critiques and/or tutorials)
- Corporate Providers of Online Instruction Platforms - where botanical art (and art too) is just one of very many topics taught.
CHECKLIST of questions for prospective students - to be used by students who want to evaluate the alternative options on offer

BOTANICAL ART ONLINE COURSE PROVIDERS

LIST of Online Providers of Botanical Art Instruction - more information
REVIEW of Online Botanical Art Courses - if you'd like to say what you want from online courses or what you think about online course provision there is a form. No comments are published but may inform the future content of this page.

It's essential that BEFORE parting with any money
you are clear about:
- what type of instruction or course you are buying
- what you are paying for i.e. what the instruction comprises
- whether it works on ALL your online devices(desktop/tablet/smartphone etc) i.e. the website must be designed for and accessible by all mobile devices
- how the payment scheme works - whether it is one-off or a subscription scheme and whether any subscription is automated (i.e. payments renew automatically until you stop them)
- whether you can get a refund if you realise you've made a mistake
- whether you are dealing with a tutor who knows about all the Regulatory Requirements of eCommerce which should provide you with protection in the event of a concern (e.g. data privacy) or dispute (e.g. re your consumer contract)

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Providers of Online Botanical art Instruction include:

Recognised Institutions
- providing distance learning courses using web-based instruction

UK: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - 3 year Diploma Course and 6 month Certificate Course - with a team of tutors
UK: London Art College - Botanical Painting Online Art Course (D9) (Tutor: Polly O' Leary ) Botanical Coloured Pencil Online (D12) (Tutor: Ida Mitrani)
USA: Cornell University - Online Botanical Illustration series

Online Instruction via Video Tutorials
by Botanical Artists/Tutors

Anna Mason - Learn botanical painting online
Billy Showell - Online Tutorials
Wendy Hollender - Botanical Basics and Draw Botanical's Complete Course
Jarnie Godwin - Online Botanical Watercolour Tutorials

Online Tuition via individual tutors
- using written guides / ebooks and videos + feedback / Private Facebook Groups i.e. it varies

Dianne Sutherland - Botanical Art Online
Elaine Searle - Paint Botanical Online Shorts
Gaynor Dickson - Gaynor's Flora - Online Botanical Art Course
Julia Trickey - Botanical Art Tutorials
Ann Swan - Pencil Potential - Online Tuition Programme
Shevaun Doherty - Botanical Elements
Sarah Morrish - Illustrating Nature's Details - Online Courses

Corporate Instruction Providers - Online Instruction
- the platform is owned by a company which elects to provide teaching as a business. It can change the business model at any time (e.g. as happened with Craftsy).

Udemy - Paint Realistic Watercolours and Botanicals - with Heidi Elliis
Bluprint / Craftsy - Botanical Illustration With Watercolor & Colored Pencils with Adele Rossetti

I do NOT include those are providing video tutorials or other online instruction which is design oriented i.e. not observing the essential characteristics of botanical art and illustration.

I hope you find this Guide useful during the Coronavirus Crisis.

CLICK the image to go to this page on this website

Teach Botanical Art Online

I'm also going to try and provide a Guide to all those thinking about switching their workshop teaching to online instruction - hopefully this week. Although I expect this may be a work in progress for a while.

If you're interested, please use comments below (or contact me) to tell me what you want to know about.

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