Drawing Botanicals

at Montalvo Art Center

Class:3
Pen and Ink
Thursday, 3/27/08
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
 Benefits of Ink

• Convenient: You can easily carry all the materials you

need to create an ink drawing.

• Attractive and Professional: Inked drawings are

aesthetically pleasing as artwork, mementos and gifts.

• Fidelity: Does not loose detail when copied.

• Affordable to publish: Black and white “Line Drawings”

are less expensive to publish than color images,
because it requires only one color of ink.
 Outline with minimal shading
for clarity and ease of identification
 Bi-symmetry

Exercise:1, Stipple shade

Choice of shading technique
Exercise:2, Line shade
 Shading with Pen and Ink

• Line drawing: Drawing with ink, using a single undiluted

color.

• Line shade: Drawing closely spaced lines, dashes, or

dots to create the illusion of shades of grey.

• Types of line: Un-weighted line, Weighted line, Straight

lines, Contour line, Wavy line, Dashed line, Stipple,
Crosshatch, Criss-cross and Scribble.
 Pen and Ink Technique
• Illusion of depth: Diminishing line
weight, diminishing value of shade.
• Other perspective techniques: Line
break, overlap, converging lines,
baselines.
• Illusion of volume: Shadows follow
contour, weighted line.
• Illusion of texture: Crosshatch, or
variable stipple shading technique
and rough, variable weight outline.
 Brush pen grip

Vertical and Horizontal: Press, roll, pull and lift.

Exercise:3, Brush pen strokes
Exercise 4: Brush pen strokes

Chinese painting Techniques by Alison Stilwell Cameron

Brush pen: Line
Exercise:5, Variable line shade
Exercise:6, Line shade
Exercise: 7, Art pen line shade
 Correcting the cactus pattern
Texture contrast: Hard edge and soft edge
Exercise:8, Art pens
E.Rooks
Exercise:9, Stipple
Texture pattern
Value contrast with background
Buds
 Regular
“Actinomorphic” Flower
Radial Symmetry

unweighted Line,
simplified shading,
Radial Symmetry
Bi-symmetry
Bi-symmetrical
Reference books used in Edward Rooks’
presentation on Drawing Botanicals
Books on Botanical Art:
1) “Botanical Illustration in Watercolor” by Eleanor B. Wunderlich
2) "How to Draw Plants: The Techniques of Botanical Illustration" by Keith West
3) “Flowers & Botanicals” by Diane Cardaci
4) "The Art of Botanical Painting" by Margaret Stevens
5) “The Guild Handbook of Scientific illustrators” Edited by Elaine R.S. Hodges
6) “Scientific Illustration”, by Phyllis Wood

Other Reference Books:

1) “Sketching your Favorite Subjects in Pen & Ink” by Claudia Nice.
2) “The Book of Botanical Prints” by Basilius Besler
3) “Native Shrubs of the San Francisco Bay Region” by Roxanne S. Ferris
4) A Guide to Field Identification: “Trees of North America” by C. F. Brockman