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Botanical Illustration: For Spring
Background in Botany
Some of my favorite homework I’ve ever had was for my first year at College where I spent many hours sketching in the woods and meadows. I learnt all about Botany and also scientific illustration and illustrations through microscopes.
As spring blooms again I wanted to share more about this part of my artistry.
For every year that passes I seem to grow more and more fond of the blossoms in Spring. Part of living in the Pacific Northwest is enduring the long rainy and grey months. But I have come to enjoy the bugless fall and winter walks with lush, dripping and happy moss covering the trees.
Spring Excursions
In the spring we went out to sketch from the 1% of prairie lands that still exist in America. With the coming of farming and the end to indigenous practices of burning, the prairies that had come about through glacial movements clearing land and kept managed for such resources as Camus and berries are now threatened. Prairies also attracted large mammals to the grassy stretches of land that native tribes hunted.
My botany class also went to Eastern WA, on the other side of the cascades where the ecosystems were vastly different consisting of high desert, mesas and sage was abundant. The interactions of water and geological formations, creating different habitat such as riparian zones, in which differing types of plants can be found are particularly apparent in desert areas, where water is sparse.
Shared here is a selection of some of my favorite illustrations from woods to prairies and desserts of the PNW. (Prints, cards and originals will be available for sale here soon!) Thanks for reading and following along with me here on my website blog.
Scroll down for Tips and Tricks of the Trade and more images!
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A prairie flower of the PNW
Golden Paintbrush, I loved spending time with the beautiful colors and shapes of the endangered prairie flower.
Equesetum Telmatia, This is a type of Horsetail, commonly found in riparian zones where water collects in the shade.
Cat tails, I chose to add the beautiful mesa into the background, usually I just sketch the plant. Cat tails have edible tops in the spring that turn into puffy tops during summer that are no longer edible. They can be found in swampy riparian zones and are great for filtering and cleaning waterways.
Milk Weed, This stem and root section had lovely pink areas, when choosing whether or not to color in an illustration it is good to think about if there is an interesting coloring such as here with pink in the under side of the leaf and the root area that will make identification easier.
Allium scilloides, A desert plant, in the garlic and onion family that has an interesting bulbous shape, seen here from two different angles.