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    botanical terms

    Botanical terms are very relevant for botanical illustration.  You need to know about the anatomy and structures of the plants you’re drawing and painting!  Botanical terms allow you to do this.  Here are a collection of illustrated blogs which try to explain these terms, and to fit form to function.

    Illustrating Bracken and Ferns

    Posted on in botanical terms, Illustration techniques, Showcase of themed natural history illustrations
    Illustrating bracken and ferns may seem to be a really difficult job.  However, the challenge lies in the drawing, not in adding the colour. I recently completed an illustration of Bracken Pteridium aquilinum for a forthcoming Field Studies Council Guide to the flora of Woodlands.  I thought this was the perfect chance to explain the […] Read more
    halophytes Coastal seaside plant flowers

    Halophytes: Salt Tolerant Plants

    Posted on in Biological terminology: Definitions, botanical terms
    Halophytes: Salt Tolerant Plants Halophytes are plants that tolerate or thrive in salty conditions.  I recently finished the illustrations for a chart of seaside flowers, and got to wondering how these plants can survive in these hostile habitats?  Another job, illustrating stamps for a Seaside flowers issue, added to my interest. This blog had me […] Read more
    flower shapes

    Flower Shapes: Terminology

    Posted on in botanical terms
    There are a whole load of different botanical terms used to describe flower shapes.  In this blog, I’ll go through a few, explaining what the term means.  Ill try to find one of my botanical illustrations to demonstrate each shape.  Could be a challenge! This chart of flowers of walks and the wayside shows a […] Read more

    Japanese Knotweed: Botanical illustrations and diagrams

    Posted on in botanical terms, Current projects and news
    My botanical illustrations and diagrams have recently been published in a book all about Japanese knotweed.  It’s called “Japanese Knotweed: Unearthing the Truth” by Nicolas Seal , and is rather a fascinating tome.  It was a fun job to work on, with a wide range of illustrations needing completing. The author saw a sketchbook study I’d done of […] Read more

    Grass: An introduction

    Posted on in botanical terms
    Grasses (Poaceae) are one of my favourite botanical illustration subjects.  I adore drawing and painting them.  I have written a blog on my passion for this family of plants before.  However, I wanted to take another look at the way grasses are put together.  I also want to introduce beginners to basic grass anatomy and terminology.  This […] 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

    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
    Grass, botanical illustration, sciart, graminaceae, grasses

    Glorious grasses

    Posted on in botanical terms
    I have always loved grasses.  Even as a child I marvelled at their different heights, shapes, and textures.  I love the way fields of grass move and rustle in the wind, and I love the smell of new mown grass (it’s caused by green leaf volatiles (GLVs) and is actually a distress call from the […] Read more
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    Lizzie Harper