Drawing & Painting Flowers

Book excerpt: Learn how to capture the beauty of nature in pencil, pen and watercolour with this inspiring guide from award-winning botanical artist Jill Winch. The first half of the book shows you how to capture the shape, form and texture of a wide range of flowers and their leaves in pencil and in pen and wash. The second part shows how to work in watercolour, the medium of choice for most botanical artists, to create exquisite colour artworks. Drawing and Painting Flowers is packed with examples and exercises across the full floral range, from simple structures, such as tulips, to more complex configurations, such as sunflowers, and compositions involving groups of flowers. It also gives advice on practical considerations such as how best to position flowers when drawing or painting, how to prevent them wilting and how to use a microscope to understand their structure.