Botanical Drawing

Penny Brown trained and worked as a theatre designer for 10 years before an increasing love of painting and drawing led her to illustration. She works in watercolour, graphite and most recently, cut paper collage. She has illustrated many books on craft, textiles, design, natural history and gardening. She exhibits her botanical paintings and drawings with The Society of Botanical Artists in London, Frankfurt and Spain. She has won several awards including the prestigious President’s Prize at The SBA exhibition in 2015. She is also a member of The South West Society of Botanical Artists and opens her studio regularly for Dorset Art Weeks. She looks forward to continuing her parallel careers in botanical art and illustration.

Summer 2018The artist covers a wide range of subjects, from flowers to fruit, vegetables and more. Penny's material is graphite pencil and her style gentle and sensitive, with plenty of detail while at the same time conveying some of the soft irregularity that characterises natural objects. The book is progressively structured and, after some useful technical discussion, begins with a simple flower that will get your hand and eye in. This leads on to an exercise in tonal drawing and further demonstrations. These are punctuated with field notes, describing the subjects in question and technical notes and exercises. It's nicely and sympathetically done.

• Introduction 6Botanical art: a personal perspective 8Materials and tools 12GETTING STARTED 20Drawing an elliptical flower 28Line and tone exerciseDrawing a mushroom 34Line and tone exerciseProject 1: William Pear 38Step by stepProject 2: Poppy seed head 42Step by stepUnderstanding plant structure 48Examining your subjects 56Gathering information 60Project 3: Peas and pods 70Step by stepComposition 74Project 4: Apple blossom 80Step by stepProject 5: Common grape hyacinth 86Step by stepProject 6: Cape Gooseberry 92Step by stepProject 7: Dutch Iris 96Step by stepProject 8: Freesia 102Step by stepProject 9: Sweet vernal grass 108Step by stepProject 10: Pot marigold 122Step by stepIndex 128