Botanical Drawing I Materials and Methods - Second class

For the second class we played with perspective and depth of field.  We learned two point perspective which we will not be using in botanical drawing because plants aren't boxy.  But it takes little time to have the "A-ha" and it is essential for drawing many things (other than plants.) 

Then we were each given a a black and white copy of a photograph of leaves and told to draw the leaves light to dark to indicate depth and to keep the drawing from looking totally flat.  I did this in class.  Lots of leaves, lots of overlap.  Yikes. 

For our homework we were to obtain some flat leaves, create a composition with the leaves overlapping, and then draw them lighter and darker.  I bought turnip leaves.  I photographed them and printed the image.  We were not to use any shading, only lines.  This forces a focus on line intensity.  I had fun with this exercise.  I did have to darken or lighten some areas--overdrawing or erasing.  I did not have a clear plan when I started this so it took a while to evolve.  I enjoyed the process and learned a lot by doing this.  And I haven't even started googling what-to-do-with-turnip-leaves…  

Botanical Drawing I - materials and methods - First class

The first class was all about getting to know the pencils and the lines they draw.  We are working only with HB, 2B and 2H.  We practiced drawing straight lines.  Lines that start with pressure and ease up and lines that start light and end up with pressure.  

And then we drew an onion to practice contour lines.  Onions naturally have contour lines so they were a good choice.  

We have homework:  draw an object that has contour lines, like a beach ball, an onion, a melon, and then draw a spherical object that does not have contour lines, like an egg or unmarked ball.  We are to draw the longitudinal and latitudinal lines.  I drew a squash, an egg, a lime and a lemon.   While I still draw too fast, I like this exercise and will keep practicing (on cheaper paper, not the $1 a sheet stuff that they assigned for class.)