Here are the blogs I’ve written over the years.  Subjects range from step by step painting tutorials, to botanical anatomy, to current projects.

They appear in the order they’ve been written.  However, if you scroll down the page you’ll find they have also been organised into categories to make browsing a little more focused.

There are even some guest blogs in amongst.  I hope you enjoy them, and do please feel free to leave a comment.

euglena

Marvellous micro-organisms 3: Euglena

Posted on in Showcase of themed natural history illustrations
This final blog on micro-organisms, features the Euglena.  Like the Ameoba and Paramecium, the euglena is a free-living unicellular organism. Introduction to the Euglena It is found in fresh water (often in puddles or ponds) and differs from ameoba and paramecium in being able to photosynthesize, and so produce its own source of food.  The euglena appears green […] Read more

Marvellous micro-organisms 2: Paramecium

Posted on in Showcase of themed natural history illustrations
Natural history illustration involves painting plants, animals, and other wonders of the natural world.  Micro-organisms fall under this umbrella, and although extremely small they are still deserving of our attention (and illustrations).  Last week I looked at the Ameoba.  This week it’s the turn of the Paramecium. Introduction to the Paramecium Like the amoeba, the Paramecium […] Read more
anoeba

Marvellous micro-organisms 1: Amoeba

Posted on in Showcase of themed natural history illustrations
Scientific illustration involves drawing all sorts of natural history specimens; botanical, animal, and even microscopic.  In this series of three blogs I’ll give a brief introduction to three common (and very cool) micro-organisms.  The first is the Amoeba. Amoeba: an introduction Amoeba are free-living aquatic creatures, and can be seen in any drop of standing […] Read more

The Ovary in Botany

Posted on in botanical terms
Botanical illustrators have to understand the terminology that applies to their subject matter. This includes knowing about the ovary.   All of my illustrations for this blog are taken from The Garden Forager by Adele Nozedar.  (See more on my Pinterest site.) Re-cap of the basic botany of flowers Following on from my blog about Botany terms; this week […] Read more

Illustrating the Amazing Blue Butterfly

Posted on in Showcase of themed natural history illustrations
Scientific illustration involves learning about your subjects, as well as illustrating them.  I’ve always been amazed by  blue butterflies (family Lycaenidae). I love their vivid hues and  their fascinating life-cycles.  Their interactions with ants amaze me. Blue butterflies Most of the information in this blog comes from the website of Butterfly Conservation.  This charity is concerned with recording […] Read more

Pembrokeshire coastal plants

Posted on in Scientific Illustrator out and about
Walking on the Coastal path in Pembrokeshire makes for a wonderful break.  Natural history illustrators go on holiday too.  This is where they find their inspiration.  I was just treated to a glorious weekend of walking, and looking at the coastal flowers. The Pembrokeshire Coastal Path We walk from Manorbier to Barafundle beach.  This stretch is gorgeous, taking in […] Read more

Natural history illustrations of Dragonflies

Posted on in Showcase of themed natural history illustrations
Following on from my natural science entomological illustrations of damselflies last week; this week I’ll be looking at common British dragonflies. I really learnt to love these amazing animals whilst working on a series of postage stamps for Jersey Post (see my blog on this “dream job“); and this affection continues. Identifying dragonflies Dragonflies are glorious insects, […] Read more

Scientific Illustration: Parasites

Posted on in Showcase of themed natural history illustrations
Natural history illustration involves learning about the animals and plants you draw; and recently I drew a parasite.  This got me thinking about parasites in general.   What a  diverse group of plants and animals practice this form of feeding! Looking through my files I can’t find many parasitic plants or animals illustrated.  This interests me. […] Read more

Festival of the Hedgehog

Posted on in Painting workshops
Natural history illustration includes demonstrations of botanical illustration skills, teaching, and loving animals like the humble hedgehog. Artist in residence during The Festival of the Hedgehog I was recently asked to be “artist in residence” and to lead a drop-in workshop at Ross-on-Wye’s central library.  This is to mark Ross’s Celebration of the Hedgehog (the symbol of the […] Read more

Botanical Illustration: the achene

Posted on in botanical terms
Natural science illustration and natural history illustration need you to understand what your subject looks like, and he correct words needed to describe it.  Last week my blog was about fruit type definitions, inspired by some work I did for Rodale’s 21st Century Herbal by Michael Balick.  Whilst getting my head around the terminology of fruit types, I […] Read more

Botanical terms for fruit types

Posted on in botanical terms
Botanical and scientific illustration requires biological knowledge, and this is certainly true when it comes to painting botanical diagrams.  I recently did some illustrations for Rodale’s 21st Century Herbal by Michael Balick.  One of these was a diagram of fruit types.   Sources of information on Fruit type This got me thinking about how little I knew […] Read more

Natural History Illustration: Lansdscape

Posted on in Illustration techniques
Natural History illustration needs landscape painting skills Natural history illustration incorporates a wide range of techniques.  I realised about ten years ago that a desirable type of of natural science illustration was one that incorporated numerous species of plant and animal into one landscape.  This wetland landscape done for Natural England is an example. Working on […] Read more
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