Creating a drawing for a colouring book

To be honest, these illustrations are probably the swiftest and easiest that I get ask to complete.

You start, as always, by researching your subject and coming up with a composition that works.  Next, draw up a pencil rough and submit it to your client.

Bridge over a stream pencil rough

In most cases, this gets approval.  Once approved, I draw over the pencil lines using an 0.1mm nib Uni pin pen, with fade resistant and waterproof ink.  When I rub out the underlying pencil lines, the ink doesn’t shift.

Because the drawings are atonal, simple lines without shade, they are very quick to complete.

When pen and ink illustrations need tonality, it takes hours as this is built up with thousands of tiny dots.

Apple and half completed for Fernway

The flip side of this is that every line has to be perfect.  There is no room for wobbles, and errors are pretty much impossible to fix (although white gouache paint has saved the day on a few occasions).

Art for Mindfulness: Winter wonderland

The biggest colouring-in project I’ve worked on was completing 62 illustrations for HarperCollins’ Art for Mindfulness: Winter wonderland.

Cover of Winter wonderland

The elephant in the room was snow.  Unless you want to do some really subtle work with a pale blue coloured pencil, there’s not a great deal of colour in snow.  But time and again I’d have my roughs returned with the hopeful comment, “can we add more snow”?

It was a challenge to come up with 62 wintery subjects.  I drew up mammals and birds from Europe and the Americas.  There were landscapes, snowy trees, cityscapes, and a few cosy illustrations of fireplaces and Christmas trees.

Squirrel from Winter wonderland

Michael Peres graciously allowed me to work closely from his gorgeous snowflake photos, and those are amongst my favourite pages of the book.

Snowflakes from Winter wonderland

HarperCollins needed one of the pages to be half coloured in, and chose a Robin in a snowy garden as the subject.  Deciding what to colour and what to leave as a line drawing was tricky.  It also made my realise coloured pencil is not my preferred medium!

Part coloured robin from Winter wonderland

Despite being published back in 2015, the book still seems to be selling well.  For more on this project, check out my blog.

HarperCollins test illustrations

I also completed some test images for colouring-in books which ended up not getting commissioned.  These were fun.

Hibiscus with bumble bee

As with the Winter wonderland, these needed to be half coloured-in, so it was back to the coloured pencil box.  There was also some talk of a cat colouring in book, but again, this didn’t materialize.

American lady butterfly on Margeurite daisies

Foraging with kids

Another book I illustrated with colouring-in illustrations is Foraging with Kids by Adele Nozedar.

These images are botanical illustrations, reduced to line drawings.  It sounds simple, but trying to represent blackberries and shiny conkers with pen and ink, atonally, is a challenge.

Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum from Foraging with Kids by Adele Nozedar

Equally problematic was the puff-ball, such a big space with no details to break it up!  However, I enjoyed showing the cloud of spores by stippling the lines of the blades of grass behind it.

Giant puffball Calvatia gigantea

The conceit of the book appeals enormously.  Go out and forage for these wild foods with kids.  When you get home, get the children to colour-in the plates in the book, referring to what they gathered out of doors.

Raspberry Rubus idaeus from Foraging with Kids

I had already illustrated some of the featured species, so sometimes I’d simply trace the illustration using an ink pen.  There’s always room for improvement though, and I tend to make alterations as I draw.  You can see this in the dandelion below.

Dandelion Taxacum officinale watercolour and pen and ink from Foraging with Kids

For more on this project, read my blog.

Montserrat National Trust

The last client I’ve done lots of colouring-in drawings for is Montserrat National Trust and the UKOTCF.

Bush tea or Quickstick Gliricidia sepium

This is a lovely project.  My full colour watercolour illustrations of plants are also provided as line drawings for teachers and educators to use with their primary school classes.  It helps raise awareness of the unique ecosystems on the island, and gives the children an easy introduction to drawing their native flora.

Soursop Annona muricata

Not only have they provided these common edible and medicinal plants as colouring-in drawings, but they have done the same for the ten species of Montserrat grasses I’ve illustrated (for more on this see my blog).

Crab grass Digitaria ciliaris

I very much enjoyed working on these, possibly because I’m a bit obsessed with grasses, but also because I think they make great subjects for colouring-in.

Sour grass Digitaria insularis

Animals of Montserrat

There’s also a whole batch of animals of Montserrat, also for colouring-in.  It was such a treat to have lots of non European animals to research and draw!

Antillean crested hummingbird (male & female) Orthorhyncus cristatus

Montserrat ameiva (ground lizard) Pholidoscelis pluvianotatusn

Latest illustrations for HarperCollins

So what are these latest images?  Well, they’re all of butterflies.  Wing patterns are tricky at the best of times.  But trying to keep track of them as you flip from wing to wing and reduce areas of tonality to simpler shapes?  That was a massive challenge, but in such a good way.  I loved working on all three.

We left the wings blank on a couple of the blue butterflies.  That way people can try their hand at drawing, as well as adding colour.

Red admiral Vanessa atalanta & Spring azure Celastrina ladon

I like that the art editor added variety by asking for one of the images to show the top and underside of a butterfly, almost like a pinned museum specimen.

Painted lady top and underside Vanessa cardui

Conclusion

I am surprised at just how many of these line drawings I’ve completed, and for such a range of clients, both years ago and right up to the present day.  Creating pen and ink line drawings is something I really enjoy, so it’s great that there are clients out there who want to commission them!

It’s also worth remembering that fully tonal pen and ink illustrations, like those I’ve done for Fred Hageneder’s Living wisdom of Trees, can be great for colouring too.

Cherry Prunus avium

During lockdown I agreed with publishers to share some of my illustrations as colouring-in sheets.  It’s a resource that’s still available: Pinterest quarantine colouring in pages.  So if you want to get the coloured pencils out, be my guest!

The post Illustrating colouring-in books appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

When I illustrate an animal, I like to learn about it as well as about the way it looks.  I always spend a little time online getting to know my subject before I begin, and when I make my films, this allows me to talk about what I’m illustrating as well as how I’m illustrating it.

Researching your subject

Before putting pencil top page, you need to have some knowledge of the species you’re illustrating.  I tend to take a look at the RSPB and Woodland trust page when it comes to birds, along with reference books such as Birds of Britain and Europe by Peterson & Mountford.  I check out illustrations, and photos on iNaturalist.  I’m also lucky enough to have been given permission from Pete Walkden, incredible wildlife photographer, to work with his photos.

Bullfinch illustration with reference materials

In some cases, I’m lucky enough to have a specimen of the bird available to draw (as with this Bullfinch).  This always makes colour-matching a doddle.  This time no-one had bought me a flycatcher, killed by a cat or found on the road verge, for the freezer.  Alas.

Drawing up the Flycatcher

Referring to the reference, and bearing in mind that I need to make the identifying features obvious, I combine my visual and written reference and draw up the bird in pencil, direct onto hot press watercolour paper.

Pencil rough of the Spotted Flycatcher

Equipment

It’s worth name-checking the equipment I use.  Pencils are Pentel P205 mechanical pencils. Watercolour paper is Fluid 100 by Global arts (for more on hot press paper choice please look at my series of blogs and films).

My favourite pencil – the Pentel P205

My paints tend to be Winsor and Newton watercolours, although other brands are good too.  In this step by step, the colours we’ll use are Purple, Naples yellow, Burnt umber, Cobalt blue, Cadmium yellow, Cadmium orange, Alizarin crimson, and a dark blue such as Phthalo or Winsor blue.

My Winsor and Newton paintbox (which I wash clean before each new species)

Brushes are invariably Winsor and Newton Series & sable, size 1.  I’m still on the lookout for good synthetic alternatives; feel free to check out my blog and films to see how far I’ve got with my quest!)  Factis Tri-24 erasers are my go-to, and they remove pencil line from painted surfaces without damaging the paper too much.

Painting the Spotted Flycatcher: Wing outlines

The first step is outlining the edges of the wing feathers.  Some of the flight feathers have pale margins, so this needs to be respected.  Leave the white of the page for pale areas, in watercolour it’s always easy to make an area darker but very hard to make it lighter.  Use the white page for highlights and pale colours.

Outlining feathers and barbs

The wing colour is a brownish grey.  This is a mix of Purple, Naples yellow, and Burnt umber.  I simply outline the edge of each wing, then add the barbs of the feather in the same colour, putting thin lines parallel to one another.  I keep the barbs on one side of the rachis closer together (and therefore darker) than on the opposite side.  Swiftly painted, pale drop shadows help show the difference between feathers.

Further down, the lower flight feathers and the tail have no pale margins and are a darker colour.  Alter the ratio of the colours in your mix to reflect this.  Take your paint marks up to the edge of each feather, but leave a hairline of white paper so you can see where one feather ends and the next beings.

Lower flight feathers

As these are closely aligned, in some cases you may simply want to show one feather with a thick, dark line instead of with the network of feather barbs.  This works well, but remember to leave space between feathers.

Plotting in the Body colour and texture

It’s important to keep the colour consistent across the bird, so there are no stark colour changes (unless the bird has these).  This means the back is plotted in using the exact same colour as the wings.  Brush strokes vary a little, fanning out to show feathers, and make it clear the texture on this part of the Flycatcher differs from the smoother flight feathers.

Laying down colour and texture on the back

Painting the Flycatcher head

When you’ve worked up the body, you reach the head.  It’s important to concentrate here as too many dark lines, or lines which are too thick can really compromise an illustration.  Follow the edges of patterns you’ll have included in pencil when you drew up the bird.  Check your reference.  Even though you’re “colouring-in”, you need to be drawing with the brush the whole time, and transferring your observations to the page.

Head of the flycatcher

For areas which are noticeably darker (around the eye, at the nape) put your brush marks closer together, or layer them.  Always follow the line of growth, in this case the way the feathers lie on the head of the bird.

Tail feathers

As discussed above, the tail feathers are a little darker than the wings and have no distinct margin.  We continue with the same colours in the mix though, and the darker tones build up more  when we add washes on top of this initial layer.

You can see how the brush marks are carried right to the tail feather edges as there are no pale margins.

Tail feathers plotted in

Painting the flanks, rump, and throat

Finally, we get to use new colours!  This mix is going on the belly of the bird, under the wings, and up the throat.  An initial glance might suggest these areas are white.  However, there is some cream in there, and a stark white against the browns and greys would be much too fierce of a contrast.

Mix up Naples yellow with plenty of water (to dilute it and make a paler tint of the colour).  Add the tiniest smidgen of Cadmium orange.

With a very delicate touch, paint the colour onto the bird. You may not be able to see the brush strokes clearly – this is a good sign and suggests you’re keeping the paint nice and pale.

Laying down the cream colour

Observe your reference again.  Where are the darkest areas on the pale parts of the Flycatcher’s body?  More strokes and colour in these regions helps give shape to the bird, and depth to the colour.  Be sure not to swallow up your white areas, remember, the page is your white colour.

In amongst doing this, I also painted in the gravestone.  Lots of blues, greens, and browns.  And a lot of waiting for colours to dry.  I won’t bore you with the details, in all likelihood the last place you’d be illustrating your Flycatcher would be on a lichen-encrusted gravestone!

The bird with cream flanks, rump, and throat.

As before, we don’t want any jarring colour transitions, so carry the cream on up into the head area, and across the back.  Use tiny light brush strokes.  Focus more of these in the darker areas, like the circle round the eye and the back of the neck.

Lots of tiny cream brush strokes in amongst the darker browns of the head

First top wash on the feathers

Now we begin to work on adding depth and colour.  Mix up a watery colour made from Cobalt blue, Burnt umber, and Naples yellow.  Lay this on the feathers, but only on one side, on the darker side, where you placed your parallel feather barb lines closer together.

Allow the paint to dry completely.  (If you get bored waiting for paint to dry, you might want to try using a fan heater or a hair dryer. It can speed things up!)

Flycatcher with wash drying on one half on wing feathers

Add the same mix to the other side of the feathers, making sure to put a second layer on top of the (dry) areas you’ve just worked on.  This layering means one side of the flight feathers looks marginally darker than the other which gives the bird texture and depth.

Use that same watery colour mix, and paint it over the back and body of the bird.  In fact, put it everywhere except for the pale belly, rump, flanks, and head markings.  Suddenly the bird is starting to look more lifelike.

Flycatcher with second colour wash on body and wings

Tackling the edges of the feathers

Remember those pale feather margins?  Well, these are now coming back to haunt us.  I put several layers of different colour on these areas, knocking them back but keeping them paler than the rest of the wings.  Yellow ochre in an extremely pale concentric circle (also applied to the rachis), a very very dilute version of the top wash, and a separate extremely dilute wash of Naples yellow were all involved.  In all cases, washes were allowed to dry fully between stages.

Detail of the feather edges

I know suggesting that you keep working on these until they feel right is unhelpful, it’s the best I can do.  I returned to them so many times I forgot what I did at what point!  Just remember they have to blend in with the main body of each feather, and also be distinctly paler.  Don’t try to add a white or pale top colour, this would just muddy the bird.

Adding colour to the body of the bird

Apply a second wash of the exact same colour mix, and let it dry.  The colour is now building up, but is transparent enough to prevent the details from disappearing.

Spotted flycatcher after the second all-over top wash is applied

Adding definition and shade

Once dry, you can work into the feathers a little more.  Judicious use of a mix of Burnt umber and Cobalt blue, used carefully, can crisp up edges between feathers.  Mix a colour for shadows, I like to use Cobalt blue and Purple.  Using this quite watery (dilute), I drop in a shadow below each feather,  and another onto the flank.  This always makes me feel very nervous, but usually works out ok.

Adding shadows

At this point we’re really nearly finished with the main part of our Spotted flycatcher.  There are details to complete – so far the bird has no eye, beak, or insect to eat!  But the bulk of the work is done.

Painting the details: Beak

The first detail I focus on is that beak.  It’s black, but I avoid using black paint.  I prefer to mix purple and burnt umber.  Not only does this make for a more interesting colour, it also echoes the browns in the flycatcher’s plumage. We’re forever trying to unite colours across the subject so the eye doesn’t feel jarred, or stuck, in one area of the illustration.

Detail of the Flycatcher beak

Keep the paint darker at the tip, and leave a margin at the edge of the beak.  Remember the highlight along the length of the beak.  The open mouth is a mix of purple, brown, and Alizarin crimson.  Keep this light, reds attract the eye, so we have to balance it across the painting by adding touches in the legs, the bird’s eye, tiny areas in the flight feathers.

The insect is painted in Yellow Ochre, Burnt umber, and Purple.  I was thinking of a fat beetle, wing cases already removed by this feisty arial hunter.  As an aside, di you know that flycatchers not only capture their prey in flight, but will deal with wasp and bee stings by rubbing the insect against a stone or branch to disarm it.  How cool?

Painting the Details: Eye

The eye is, for me, the scariest part of any illustration.  Some illustrators do them first so they don’t risk messing them up and having to start over.  I don’t like the vindictive stare I get from my subjects as I paint them into being, so only add their “soul” and accusing eyes at the very end.

For this one, I used Cadmium yellow, browns, and a mix of Alizarin crimson and purple in the dark areas.  The pupil is painted in black, overlaid on the iris.  It’s vital to leave the white page as a highlight, and to try and have bright areas within the iris, so the eye seems to glow.

Working into the iris of the eye

Getting this balance right is always difficult, as is painting near perfect circles in the centre of the eye, on such a tiny scale.  If the worst comes to the worst, you can add to the highlight on the pupil with a dab of white gouache, but it’s best to try and avoid this as it slightly dulls the highlight.

Finished eye

Finishing up: Last shadows

The very last step is to go around sharpening up those shadows one more time.  Use a careful touch and a really dark mix of Burnt umber and purple, or Purple and Cobalt blue.  For me, this last step is when the bird springs to life.  It’s high risk though, as if you overdo the shadows you can lose detail, so please be careful.

Completed illustration showing the colour mixes used

In the photo above, you can see the dark colour I used for the final shadows in the paintbox, along with the greys for the feathers, and a dark maroon which we used for the open mouth, areas of the legs, and to add vibrancy to the eye.

Conclusion

So there you have it.  Lots of tiny brush strokes followed by lots of layers of top washes, and completed with shadows to add crispness.

The original watercolour worked on here is available for sale for £75, email lizzie on info@lizzieharper.co.uk for more.

To see this all happening in more detail, and at a more leisurely pace, please feel free to watch the film below:

Any bird can be illustrated using this approach.  For more of my step-by-step bird illustrations please see my blogs on illustrating a Robin, a Pied Wagtail, a Swallow, a Goshawk, and a Puffin (amongst others).

Completed Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata

The post Spotted Flycatcher step by step appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Here are a few techniques to try which should help mitigate this.

Yellow Flowers 1: Pen and ink

An easy way to bypass a lot of the struggles with darkening a yellow is to use ink.  If you draw your flower in permanent waterproof pen, then when you add colour the ink won’t bleed into the watercolour.  The ink lines “hold” the shape of the flower, and you don’t need to waste time worrying about shadows.

Daffodil delineated with pen and ink

This approach is probably more appropriate for quick sketches than for highly polished pieces, but it creates the desired effect with minimal time and very little heartache.

Primrose delineated with pen and ink

Yellow flowers 2: Pencil

In a similar vein, using pencil to add shadows can work really well.  I’ve used this not only in demonstrations, but also on finished illustrations for clients.  It’s a similar approach to the pen and ink, but has far softer results.  I find it particularly useful if you’re painting yellow composite flowers which have lots of tiny florets.  In the White mustard Sinapis alba detail below I’ve only used the pencil to outline the petals.  It keeps the yellows pale and clean.

White mustard Sinapis alba detail

Pencil can also be really useful if you’re working into accurate details where you want to suggest colour, but where colour is not the focus of the image.  In these cross sections of the Siberian stonecrop, the illustration is pencil, then a very pale colour wash covers this.

Flower details and cross section of the Siberian stonecrop Phedimus hybridus

You can go for a bolder approach with the pencil, adding shadows.  This works because the graphite is a neutral colour.  It doesn’t add any green or orange hues to the flower as you use it to show darker areas of tone.

Daffodil with shadows shown using pencil

As with all pencil drawings, the harder you press with your pencil the darker the line.  I favour HB or 2B pencils for this tonal work as you can get some darker regions without too much trouble.

Primrose with shadows shown using pencil

I like to put the pencil over the top of a completed watercolour.  However, it works equally well to put a yellow watercolour wash on top of the pencil, which in effect is what I do with areas of my sketchbook illustrations.

Canadian Goldenrod Solidago canadensis

Here’s a close up of some individual flowers of the Wild parsnip Pastinaca sativa sylvestris.  you can see clearly that almost all the tonality is provided by the graphite.  And, in fact, there was no need to provide any mroe pencil than the outline,  The tiny flowers allowed this minimal approach to still convey something of the tonality of the plant.

Wild parsnip Pastinaca sativa sylvestris

Yellow flowers 3: Neutral tint

Ass hinted at before, the best way to avoid making your yellow flowers go the wrong colour is to use a neutral colour for the shadows.  In general, you can mix these using colours opposite one another on the colour wheel.  For example, try mixing a purple and a yellow, or a blue green and an orange red.  For more on mixing and using neutrals, have a look at my blog.

Primroses with shadows provided by neutral tints

You can buy pre-mixed tints too, which do the job.  I really like to take my “go-to” neutral a little to the purple side as the interaction between the yellows and the purple pleases me.  If the yellow is a little darker, I’ll tweak the mixing of the neutral tint accordingly.  In the Yellow waterlily below, I added a touch of orange to warm up the flower.

Yellow waterlily Nuphar luteum

Yellow flowers 4: Put some green behind it!

As with my blogs and films on illustrating white flowers, one of the easiest ways to show the edges of pale white (or yellow) flowers is to put foliage behind them.

This is easy in instances where the growth habit allows (as with the primrose, above).

In the example below, I tweaked the position of the leaves and sepals to help give structure to the flowers.  Even so, it’s rather heavy and overworked, and I have made the flowers too orange by darkening them internally with too orange of a colour.

Water primrose Ludwigia grandiflora

Christina Hart-Davies has demonstrated this trick somewhat more elegantly with her posy of Beltane flowers.  The majority of the blooms are held against the large central green leaf.  You don’t notice you’ve been tricked, but that’s what’s happened.  You simply register a beautifully illustrated posy.  But it’s been carefully constructed to make sure the edges of the yellow and white flowers are delineated with minimal effort.

Christina Hart-Davies‘s Beltane posy showing how putting leaves behind flowers helps.

You can exploit this further.  Backgrounds of any sort will help keep your yellows nice and light.  If you’re illustrating elements on a landscape, then what’s going on behind the flower (or in this case butterfly) will throw the illustration forward.  And you won’t have to worry about delineating the edges.  In fact, in the detail below there are two layers of this going on.  the very pale butterfly is backed by the darker evening primrose flowers.  And they are backed by the suggestion of grass.  Again, there’s that neutral tint at play, casting a shadow from the butterfly wings onto the flowers.

Clouded Yellow butterfly Colias croceus on Evening primrose (detail of larger landscape)

In another example, I used a shingle beach to throw the illustration of a Yellow horned poppy into sharp relief.  This was for Jersey stamps (for more on this project check out my blog).  Note that I put a purple-blue tint over the pebbles.  Again, a cheeky way to throw the yellow petals into sharp relief.

Yellow horned Poppy Glaucium flavum (copyright Jersey Post 2021)

Yellow flowers 5: Use orange and greener yellows…with care!

Writing this blog, I’ve realised that I do, in fact, often darken my yellows with reds or greens.  As long as you’re really careful this can work fine.  it doesn’t necessarily swallow up the yellows.  if you keep an eye on your highlights and allow that white paper to remain clean and clear, then  these coloured shadows can work well.

Yellow rose for Jersey Post (copyright Jersey post 2014)

The rose above has shadows picked out in oranges and dark browns.  An isolated detail below shows more.  In fact, the orange has added warmth to the pale yellow petals.

Detail of the rose above

In the illustration of the Globe flower below, the darker areas have been picked out with a green-yellow rather than an orange-yellow.  Again, enough of the main petal has been left untouched to allow it to continue to register as a clean, yellow flower.

Globe flower Trollius europaeus

But if you take a good look at the close up detail, you’ll see how much green was used to provide the darks where the petals overlap.

Globe flower detail

I would also suggest that the yellows in these illustrations are passable, but not as clean as they would have been if I’d used one o the other techniques mentioned above.

Conclusion

I think it’s important to experiment with different approaches, and to find what works best for you as an individual.  For soem people the idea of layering graphite over watercolour would be abhorrent.  For others it might be a god-send.  I like my neutral tints to be a little purple, others may like them entirely neutral, or veering toward a different hue,  Pen and ink with top wash may not be for everyone, but it’s a great way to start, or to get quick sketches down.

You may also find you’re less heavy handed than me with the green-yellows and orange-yellows.  Perhaps you can use them without any loss of vibrant colour.

Or, the way you paint allows you to move foliage around every time, or maybe you always have backgrounds to your work so don’t need to pull leaves about.

Hopefully, whatever you find you do or prefer, there’ll be a couple of ideas in this blog on painting yellow flowers that might work for you.

Yellow horned poppy Glaucium flavum

The post Illustrating Yellow flowers: Five approaches appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Paintbrushes

As with all of these posts, it’s vital to stress that what equipment one uses is a very personal choice, and we often finesse our techniques according to the equipment and brands we use and like most.  I’d love people to add their own favourites in the “Comments” section at the end of this blog, then the post would serve as a much more balanced resource for artists starting out, or for established practitioners looking for new ideas.

There’s also a section where I test several synthetic sable brushes, looking for an alternative to real sable ones.  There’s a film of these trials on Youtube.

Since writing this I’ve done a second comparison blog which you can find here, and associated film here.

Illustrating Rowan Sorbus aucuparia

Paintbrushes

I absolutely love, and have always used, Winsor and Newton series 7 sable paintbrushes.  They’re expensive, yes, but I’m yet to find another brush that comes close to their quality.  They hold plenty of paint.  Their points stay true and tiny.  They rarely shed, and when they do it’s a discrete one hair at a time.  The paint on the handle doesn’t peel or crack off and fall onto whatever you’re doing.  The metal part (the ferrule) never rusts.

Series 7 brushes with another vital tool of the trade, a hand lens

You can get them in “Miniature Painting” and “Round”; I’ve tried both and tend to go for the round ones, simply because that’s what I’m used to.

Size of paintbrush

Size-wise, I do almost all my illustrating with a number 1.  I have a stash of about 10 ready to go at any given time, and work through something like one every 6 weeks.  As I say, they don’t shed much, but inevitably they do suffer from the wear and tear of daily hard use.  There’s no need to dispose of these worn brushes, just use them for more detailed work.  After all, in effect they’ve turned into a smaller size 0!

Comparison of two Number 1 paintbrushes; above is a new one, below is one I’ve been using for 4 weeks

I use the larger number 2 size for looser washes, and have a number 4 and a number 6 for when I do big washy backgrounds (in my landscapes).  These bigger brushes still have good points, and can hold loads of paint, so doing a big area of sky, forest, grass, or fields is possible.

Using a number 4 brush for background washes

As well as my worn and thinned number 1 brushes, I also use the tiny 000 and 00 sizes for painting in almost invisible hairs, and details within flowers.  The tips of these are the ones that make people think you’re almost mad to use them, but they’re vital when getting the minutae down.  I used 00 brushes a lot when illustrating a series of mosses.

A 00 size brush alongside a pencil for scale, and illustration of Woolly fringe moss Racomitrium lanuginosum

Other brands

I know there are other brush brands out there, some of which I’ve tried and some which I haven’t.  A lot of other botanical illustrators really like Rosemary brushes – they didn’t work brilliantly for me, but they’re probably worth trying.  They certainly are good quality, and are significantly cheaper than  Series 7.

I once had a comment questioning the ethics of using sable brushes, and it is true that these brushes are made of sable hair, a species similar to a pine marten.  As a vegetarian committed to all sorts of ecological and environmental causes, I would certainly appreciate having a top-quality, animal-free alternative brush, so if anyone knows of one, please leave a comment.

Completed sketchbook study of hawthorn berries Craetegus monogyna, completed with a well-worn Series 7 no. 1 brush

Synthetic alternatives to Sable

Having written this blog, and following very useful feedback from other illustrators, I decided to try out a handful of high quality synthetic sable brushes.  Not only are these more ethical for a vegetarian such as myself, but they’re also a darned site cheaper!  I filmed these trials, here’s a link.

All the brushes were round number 1 size.

Comparing the points of the three new synthetic watercolour brushes.

The three brands I compared were Winsor & Newton synthetic sable, Rosemary and Co. Spotter Red Dot, and Princeton Aqua elite.  None were appalling, and one came close to equalling my beloved Series 7 brushes.

Synthetics: Winsor & Newton synthetic sable

I was surprised that this brush looked scruffy on removal from its’ tubing.  Working with it, although it did have a point and did hold paint, the brush was too long.  This meant I couldn’t achieve the tight control I require.  The stray hairs didn’t help sell the brush to me.  The handle was comfortable.  Price wise, I found them selling at £5.80 each, or on sale for £4.06.

Close up of the Winsor & Newton synthetic sable brush, with the leaves I painted using it

The very tip of the brush also had a noticeable “hook” which made it hard to get that sharp point.  With the Series 7 brushes, if I roll them into a tip in the wet paint, the point is exquisite.  With this dowdier cousin, I couldn’t get the frighteningly crisp point I look for.

Synthetics: Rosemary and Co. Spotter Red Dot

This brush was definitely my favourite of the synthetics I trialled.  The brush shape didn’t appeal at first – the point of the brush looks short and dumpy.  However, the point was very sharp, and it worked well in wet and dry paint.  it was only when using the brush with extremely wet and pale washes that the point held less well.

Close up of the Rosemary and Co Red Dot synthetic sable brush, with the leaves I painted using it

I was really impressed by this brush, and at a price point of £3.40 each they would be excellent alternatives to a Series 7 brush for those on a budget.

Were I to commit to getting sable out of my life, this is certainly a contender for a replacement.

Synthetics: Princeton Aqua elite

The Princeton Aqua elite had a decent point.  Again, it was absolutely serviceable.  However, the brush felt like it had lateral compression.  It felt flattened, with the associated slight splaying of the point that a flattening brings.   I almost felt that the nib was too long.

Close up of the Princeton Aqua elite synthetic sable brush, with the leaves I painted using it

This feeling of the brush being too long also made me feel uncomfortable using it.  I had to focus and concentrate to ensure I got the crisp lines I was after.  I felt slightly less control that I wanted.

However, as with all things, this could be because I’m used to a shorter-shaped brush.  These things are so very personal.

The price for this brush is £5.80; exactly the same as the Winsor & Newton synthetic sable.

Synthetics: Conclusion

Having tried all three brushes, I attempted finishing the test illustration with them.  It shows how very set in my ways I am that within half an hour I had reverted to the Series 7 brush.

Completed illustration (initially used as a synthetics brush comparison test piece)

These synthetic alternatives are all good.  the Rosemary & Co. brush is excellent.  If I were to commit to sable-free illustration, I’d certainly be investing in some of these Red dot brushes.

Comparison of synthetics and Series 7

Price wise, for anyone on a budget I will heartily reccommend these brushes.  One of my Series 7 brushes costs up to three times the price of one of these – a cool £17.10 cost price (2021 prices).  They can be got on sale for £11, but even at discount that’s a much bigger outlay than for the £3.80 Rosemary one.

For much more detail on this comparison, do check out my Youtube film.

Zen Art Fineline Minature brushes: Trying out a freebie

I was recently sent a set of  ZenART fineline minature paintbrushes to try and review by the manafacturers.   Obviously, the company sent them to me for free, looking for a good review, and some decent social media feedback. I’m a little cynical, so I tried them without a great deal of conviction. It’s important to have full disclosure about these things, I think…

They came in a cardboard box, and inside is a lovely canvas carrying thingy, all bound in red ribbon. There’s a great assortment; riggers, filberts, and angled brush, and several round ones. I only use round ones, so those are the ones I can speak for.

I’m surprised to say they were really good, and potentially a welcome alternative to my beloved Winsor & Newton series 7 brushes. They held their points, didn’t splay, had decent wells to hold paint, and produced consistent tiny lines. The number 2 was good for pale top washes, holding lots of paint and having the required sharp point. Accuracy was good with the number 1 and the 5/0.

They are also synthetic, which is an excellent thing in terms of my feelings about using animal hair to make brushes.

However, by the third of fourth day of use, the tips had become slightly blunted and weren’t holding the crisp point I require.  In every other respect they remained really good; they didn’t shed any hairs, rust, nor discolour.  The paint on the handle remained in place and didn’t peel or crack.  For me, the loss of tip is a deal breaker.  I would suggest folks who don’t need such a precision-perfect tip could do a lot worse than go for these (very reasonably priced) brushes, but if you need a very crisp point then for me, they haven’t made the cut.  But definitely worth a try.#

Synthetic brushes: A hint to help fix hooked tips

This tip has come in from Rebecca, who left this suggestion in the comments section.  Many thanks for sharing it with us.  “Hooks that develop on synthetic bristles can often be remedied by dipping the bristles about half way into a cup of water taken off the boil. Take care not to get the ferrule or upper bristles wet with water this hot or it may affect the glue. The timing varies from 10-30 seconds based on the brand and size. Gently reshape the tip on your thumbnail after heating. While I don’t expect that is an annoyance one would want to deal with during a long painting session, it will at least restore the brush to a usable condition for lighter tasks.”

Conclusion

So there you are.  The easiest of all these equipment blogs.  What paintbrush do I use?  A Winsor and Newton Series 7, size 1.  And no, they don’t pay me or give me free brushes to say this (however, if someone working for the company is out there and has a whole load of brushes they want to get rid of….?)

Mulberry Morus nigra with paintbox and Series 7 brush

Other alternatives are the Rosemary brushes (which some people adore) and the Zen art minature fineliner brushes reviewed above, both of which are a lot cheaper that W&N.  But thus far I’m still to find a real potential replacement for my Series 7s.

You can order these brushes direct from Winsor and Newton, or from your local art shop.  If that’s not possible, look for good online art suppliers like Jackson’s, Cass Art, London Graphics Centre, or Ken Bromley.  In the US I believe Dick Blick  to be a good art store.

The post Equipment: Paintbrushes appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

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 process.

Drawing bracken and Pencil roughs

Bracken is a large plant, some plants stretch to over 2m tall.  The leaves or fronds are sub divided, and each division is divided again.  this is called being tri-pinnate.  And it’s beastly to draw!  Reducing this complexity and size to a sheet of A4 paper is a challenge.

I took two approaches, and drew two versions.  One had the bracken in a clump, as it grows in the wild.

Bracken rough 1

The second shows two separate fronds and made more of the root structure.  This meant working from photos as well as filling my studio with bracken.  Photos are mighty useful for reducing a plant to a manageable size.  However, to guarantee getting the botanical detail correct, you need the plant itself, or at least close up photos.  (For more on working form photo reference, check out my blog).  The client chose this second rough, which I think was the right choice.

Bracken rough 2

Adding colour

So you have your pencil drawing ready yo go.  Surely this is where the hard work begins?  Well, no.

The very fact that the drawing of the bracken was so difficult now works in your favour.  there’s an enormous amount of detail in the drawing.  this means that there are very few large expanses of colour.  It’s these areas that end up needing the hard work.  They require attention to show the lights and darks, and to add texture.

With complicated structures like the bracken, you need do far less to get a good result.

First step is to mix the right green.  In this case I’m using Winsor and Newton watercolour paints.  To get the right green, it’s a mix of Cadmium yellow light, purple, Yellow ochre, Sap green, Cobalt green, and some greenish blue like Pthalo.   Keep mixing until it matches the frond in your hand.

Then all you do is go over your pencil lines with a thin and confident paintbrush line.  Brushes that hold their tips well, like my beloved Winsor & Newton series 7 (number 1) are ideal.  To make sure your lines are crisp, work on a smooth, hot-press paper.  Currently, I’m loving Fluid 100.

Bracken illustration with leaf edges outlined in green. Areas remaining to be outlined will be done in a slightly lighter shade of green.

If you want to add a little extra dimension to the illustration, you can mix two greens.  Make one somewhat lighter than the other.  I do this by adding yellow.  Then choose which side of your frond is the lighter.  Outline these leaves in the same way as before, but this time with the lighter shade. Keep the side of leaf which is lighter consistent across the plant, but be aware it may “flip” as you cross the main stem of the frond.

Tackling stems

You can put in the stems whenever you feel like it.  Sometimes I add them quite early as it ties the illustration together.  Mix a slightly brownish yellow-green.  Outline the stems, with a little more weight to the right side of each stem.  Then dilute your mix with water to make it paler.  Once the stem outlines are dry, paint over the stems with this dilute mix.  You should have stems which look a little darker on the right hand side.  Again, this adds to the feeling of light and shade in the illustration.

Once dry, you may want to add other colours to the stem.  For bracken, this would include the dark brown which appears at the base of the stems.  This needs to be included as it’s species specific.  other ferns may have flaky scales at the base of their stems.  Be sure to include these if they’re present.

Stem completed, returning to the leaves.

Adding body colour to the fronds

Once the outlines are dry, you can add colour.  Mix up a more watery green than before.  Tackling one side of each frond at a time, just paint this on top of your fern.  Allow the paint to be nice and wet.  As it dries, it’ll add its own crisp edges to your outlines and sharpen up the illustration.  Be sure not to do both sides at once.  If the wet paint runs into other areas, it wont look as sharp when it dries.

In the illustration below, the top of the fronds on left hand side have been outlined in a slightly darker green.  The top wash is also been a little darker.  The opposite side of each leaf has a lighter and slightly more yellow colour.  This difference in colour tricks the eye into thinking that the two sides are slightly curled upwards, with one side casting its shadow on the other.  it makes the plant look less flat.

On the other side of the main stem (rachis), flip the pattern of shadows.

I’ve also added some darker green to the areas of the stem which overlap.  Again, this is to add depth to the illustration.

Top washes on the fern are drying

Where the fronds of the bracken leaf overlap, I’ve picked out the shadows in a darker shade of green.  I mix this by adding browns, blues, or purples to the mix.  Be careful with this darker shade, you want it to represent shadow, not to look like the main colour of the plant.

Adding Shadows

Once completely dry, you can add even more definition to the fern by picking out your darkest darks with really quite a deep colour.  I tend to use a mix of purple with cobalt blue.  Be judicious with these dark shades, and remember you’re adding them to add tonality and clarity, not just to muddy and darken the picture.

You can also add the same colour to pick out the darkest shadows on the roots.

Completed Bracken illustration with darkest darks added.

Finished!

And really, that’s it.  If the differences between the sides of the leaves looks too stark, you can add a dilute green top wash to unify them.  If they look too pale, revisit and add another layer of wet green.

Compared to the huffing and puffing involved in getting the leaves of something like a rose or a hazel illustrated, this is a walk in the park.

The drawing is definitely challenging.  But when it comes to the “colouring in”, the intricate details turn our to be your allies.

Bracken Pteridium aquilinum with detail

Other examples

Below are some other examples of ferns done using the exact same approach.

The Hard fern has also had the blunt leaf tips darkened a little with a we-tish mix of cobalt blue.

Hard fern Blechnum spicant

The Male scaly fern (below) has also had a darker shadow laid along the right hand side of the central axis.  This helps draw the eye up the plant.  You can see the same approach we discussed above clearly.  The top of each small frond is darker on one side than the other.  And once you cross the central axis, that pattern flips.

Scaly male fern Dryopteris affinis

With the Maidenhair spleenwort below, a midrib was added to each leaf.  Each leaf was outlined.  It had a midrib painted in.  A flat top-wash of green was added.  And that was it.  In this example I didn’t even need to play about with lighter or darker shades of green.  I just made the leaves at the back of the plant darker by popping a blueish brown shadow on them.

Maidenhair spleenwort Asplenuum trichomanes

Feel free to give it a try.  You might be surprised by how easy it is.  As the for the drawing of any ferns though, I’m afraid that part of the job is just really hard work!

The post Illustrating Bracken and Ferns appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Plant clamp

These clamps are really helpful.  They clamp to your desk, and the other clamp holds onto whatever specimens you’re drawing, at whatever angle you choose.  They can hold direct to a stem, of to a small test-tube with water in that hold the plant.  They’re also useful if you ever want to film yourself at work.

Get a decent light

The older I get, the mrore important this has become.  I now have a really good daylight LED lamp.  It’s adjustable, and the light can be rotated.  This means you can get the light on your subject swiftly and easily.  Mine is a Daylight Lumi Task lamp.  Not cheap, but invaluable.

Scalpels and cutting mats

When you’re illustrating plants, it’s really important to take them apart to see how they work.  This helps you understand the different structures, and how all the flower parts fit together.  It can also help when you’re looking at fruits and seeds.  Cross sections of flowers and fruit are often a requirement with a botanically accurate illustration, so it’s good to have the right kit available.

Cowslip Primula veris with dissected flowers, specimen, and scalpel

Scalpels are crucial, along with a good cutting mat.  I tend to use “self-healing” cutting mats, which close up after being sliced.  These are mostly blue or green, so when I’m busy dissecting I pop a sheet of white printer paper on top so I can see what I’m doing.  RS make a good range of these mats.

Scalpels come in many shapes and sizes.  I have my posh scalpel, a Swordfish with a number 3 handle.  Then my normal everyday Swann-Morton scalpel with replaceable blades.  The blades I favour are size 10A.  These fit both scalpel handles. I also have lots of craft knives scattered across the studio, and these sometimes get used to help in dissections, or to sharpen pencils.

Scalpels: Swordfish, craft knife, Swann-Morton ACM round handle, Swann-Morton handle no.3, curved blade 20, 10A scalpel blades

It’s a good idea to keep your dissecting scalpels just for dissection.  Blades blunt incredibly quickly.  It’s also worth noting that if you’re trying to cut a section across a leaf or flower, to look at under the microscope, a razor blade is your best bet.  DOuble sided ones are the sharpest, and it goes without saying that a great deal of care is needed both when using and when safely storing these.  Wilkinson sword make good ones.

Pins and Prodders

I’m pretty sure “prodder” is not a technical term, but I use it to describe a rear-mounted needed with a wooden handle.  This tool is properly known as a “seeker” (I think) and is invaluable.  I use it all the time to life the edges of leaves, to move things under the microscope, to hold a bit of a plant in place as I draw it.  A variant on the theme is the dissecting or prepping needle, another useful and similar tool. I’m sure you can buy these prodders separately, but you may as well invest in a dissection kit.  That way you get seekers, scalpels, scissors and forceps all in one handy canvas container.  I like the ones sold by NHBS.

Assortment of tools you might find in a dissection kit.  The prodder is at bottom left.

I use a lot of pins and foam or polystyrene.  This allows me to pin specimens into the correct position when I draw them.  I’ve pinned bat and swallow wings, dragonfly bodies, and leaves that seemed intent of curling up.  You could invest in entomological pins.  These are very slender, so can be used for pinning insects too.  They’re also good to use as “prodders” as they have even finer tips than the wooden handled one.

This bat has its right wing pinned into position with an entomological pin

As well as pins, specimens (especially botanical ones) can be held in place with a bit of blu-tak.

Scissors

A fine pair of sharp scissors is great if you want to neatly remove a part of the flower or plant for a closer look.  Dissecting scissors are good, as are embroidery scissors which often have tiny blades and sharp pints,  Do not use these for anything other than your dissections!  They’ll blunt super fast.

Tweezers

You’ll also need a pair of watchmaker’s forceps.  These have pointed tips, and are an integral part of a dissection kit.  You can sharpen these if needs be on a whetstone.

Measuring

You need a ruler when you’re doing botanical illustration,  You may not be working to scale, and that’s fine, but having a good tool at hand which allows you to compare the lengths of different parts of a plant is vital.  Your eyes can really trick you, especially when it comes to under-estimating the length of a stem. I have a whole range of lovely Rabone rulers.  The longer ones are great to tear paper against, and as cutting edges.  Because they’re made from steel, they don’t get nicked or warp like wooden rulers might.

I also use callipers when I’m illustrating insects, it really helps get the proportions correct.  Mine are made by Clarke precision.

Banded jewel beetle Chrysochroa buqueti rugicollis. This beetle was drawn from a specimen using callipers.

Some illustrators like Proportional dividers, however I’ve never used them.  Others use the cunning trick of placing their specimen on graph paper, so you can easily get the sizes right with minimal disturbance.

Magnifying glasses

These are absolutely vital.  If you’re trying to identify specimens in the field, or if you’re getting a closer look at a plant you’re drawing, you’ll be needing magnification.

Hand lenses (also known as loupes) are great, and relatively inexpensive.  I have several.  In the studio, in coat pockets, in my handbag.  The same is true of scalpels, although it’s really important to remember that carrying any blade is technically illegal.  Not so for the hand lens.  These can be hooked onto a finger, or worn around the neck.  They tend to multiply x10, x15, or x20.  I use mine ALL the time.

A few of my trusty hand lenses.  The one on the left belonged to my father when he studied Zoology at college

They’re made by various companies; Opticron, Kite, and Gowllands.  All are good.

Jackdaw Corvus monedula with painting materials…and a hand lens

I have used a desk magnifier, but this broke.  For a while I used the glass lens, but eventually this too broke, or perhaps it was stolen by the children for some paper-burning excersizes.  Anyway, I know it’s no longer around.

Green cellar slug Limacus maculatus with my illustration and my old hand-held magnifier

I replaced it with a rather good hand-held magnifier.  Eventually this was replaced…with glasses!  Now I have decent reading glasses and a good daylight lamp, I can see much clearer.

Microscopes: Dissecting microscope

There comes a time in a botanical illustrator’s life when you just have to bite the bullet and buy a dissecting microscope.  I use mine a lot.  It’s crucial when looking at tiny things like mosses or the flowers of grass.  There’s a big enough space under the lens to see plenty, and the magnification is enough to make a real difference to the level of detail.  I got mine second hand, which really pushed the price down.  A new one from a decent company like Brunel comes in at about £60 – £100.  You can even buy additional eye pieces to double the magnification.

If you do invest, buy one which has a battery-operated in-built light source.

Dissection microscope in use, along with that old broken lens and my sketchbook

Even flowers you initially think are straight forward can reveal secrets when you get them under the dissecting microscope.  Sorting out the fold of the calyx of a thrift flower was a case in point.  I thought I knew exactly what I was drawing, and then when I double-checked under the microscope it turned out I’d invented bits of the flower!  I rely on my microscope to stop mistakes like this before I get caught out by a client…

When working on the Dewberry stamp for Jersey Post, it was so helpful, allowing me to look really closely at the different undeveloped drupelets of a non-ripened berry, and to figure out the thorn shape.

Microscope in use with the Dewberry stamp

Microscopes: Compound microscope

I also have and use a compound microscope which magnifies up to 200x.  This is good for really intricate details, and when I’m illustrating micro-organisms.  It’s left over from my Zoology degree.  I don’t think I would have purchased one for illustration.  Unless you’re about to start drawing diatoms, rotifers, and tardigrades I think you should be ok without one of these.  Saying that, they are a fascinating insight into the surprising details of the natural world.

Diatoms seen through the compound microscope

Microscopes: Digital microscope

A friend has just lent me her digital microscope as I’m currently busy illustrating ants.  One of the species is only 2mm long, so the microscope helps.  I’ve not got used to using it yet, though.  I keep worrying about where the eye-pieces are…

My microscopes: Clockwise are the Digital, Compound, and dissecting microscopes

Other useful things

Photos are helpful for reference, and most phones now come with decent ones.  Make sure you can take close-up shots though.  If you can’t you can buy adapters to help with this.  Mine is a Victising 3-in-1 camera lens.

Microscope slides are useful and cheap.  You can put a piece of sellotape (sticky side up) onto the slide, then have an immobile and perfectly positioned specimen to draw.

Lots of work and drawing equipment on the desk

Conclusion

A lot of the science-based equipment is pretty obvious.  Only a few items cost more than a few pounds (like the microscope) and even these can be found for lower prices second-hand.  It’s not to much a list of what you need, as a list of things that will simplify your illustrating life, and make life easier for you.

If you have any beloved bits of kit I’ve not mentioned, f4eel free to share it in the comments box.  I’m sure I’m missing all sorts of helpful hints and tricks of the trade – let’s share what we know!

The post Equipment: Magnifiers and scalpels appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Illustrating Lilac Syringa vulgaris

First using watercolours

When I first used watercolour, I used my Mum’s paint-box.  She was a fine artist, so had lots of posh art equipment which she always encouraged us children to use.  Her paints (a selection of browns, greys, and ochres as her subject matter tended to be broken industrial landscapes and cemeteries) were Winsor and Newton.

My first paint-box, was bought by my parents for my 10th birthday.  It was a lovely tin full of Winsor and Newton pans and half pans.  I used this until 2015, topping it up and switching in new pans.

My current watercolour paint-box

Finally the white enamel cracked from the palette.  The tiny paint flakes kept getting mixed in with my colours.  I had to replace the box itself, and I really struggled.  The mixing palettes are lovely, deep, and what I was used to!  Eventually I found a stockist of the empty tins, Green and Stone.  My quest was over.

My current paint-box (not in any way cleaned for its photo-op, I’m afraid)

As you can tell from the photo, it’s very much a working tool and is quite often shamefully grubby.  This is important, and should be avoided.  Having dirty pans of colour will effect the colours you paint with.  It’s an ongoing fight to try and keep my yellows clean.  I mostly lose.

Illustrating a Bryony leaf Bryonia dioica for Jersey Post

Watercolour pans

Watercolour comes in tubes or in pans.  I like the pans; it’s so quick to open the box and start painting. Pans come in  full, or half sizes.  When the pans become empty, I fill them up with paint from tubes.  This is frowned on, someone told me the paint is a different composition and the two shouldn’t be mixed.  It’s never been a problem for me, but I am willing to listen to reasons why it’s inadvisable.

Paints in pans from my back-up watercolours box.  Most are Winsor and Newton, many used.

The paint in the pans is dry, and this is a clear difference between the tubes and the pans.  However, the colours seem to be identical.

The main trick with paint mixing is to make notes of the colour mixes that you use, so you can re-create them later.  You can do this as a swatch (as on the side of the painting on the illustration below) or in written form.

Illustrating a rose

Watercolour tubes

I have lots of these tubes.  I tend to buy them up when I’m in an art shop and see them on sale, so have lots of duplicates and different sizes.

Equipment: paints: My watercolour tubes, which nominally fit into an old cigar box (they don’t fit).

Sometimes I’ll use a blob of pure watercolour and paint from it, this is mostly if I’m tackling the sky of a big landscape (Cobalt blue is good for skies).  In general, though, I simply use the tubes to top up the pans in my paint-box.

The brand I favour is Winsor and Newton.  I tend to use their professional watercolours, but their Cotman range is good too.  They’re clean, strong colours, and don’t go grainy.  Some of my W&N tubes date back 30 years or more, and the colours seem as true as the newly purchased tubes.

Some of my Winsor and Netwon tube watercolours

Sometimes I’ll put a spot of tube paint on one of the paint-box dishes, I’ve recently started doing this with Daniel Smith’s Spring Green which is a good base for mixing up realistic green hues.

The ones I use most of are the yellows.  Cadmium yellows, Naples yellow, and Yellow ochre.  This is because these get mixed up into every single green I use, and as they’re weaker colours than the blues and greens in the mix, I need to use proportionally more of them.

Illustrating Mongolian stonecrop Phedimus hybridus . You can see the heavy use of yellows, and that blob of Spring Green in the top right of the palette.

Learning your paints and your paint-box

Sometimes I make the error of filling up a half empty pan with a rather different hue, and this isn’t a great idea.  Topping up a yellowish Sap green with a very blue Phthalo green was a memorable error.  Saying that, it actually made for rather a handy colour, the two worked well together.

I tend to mix, and go on mixing until it looks right.

You learn your way around your paint box.  As the years go by you end up knowing what different colours look like, both in your paint-box and fresh from the pan or tube.

Why I can be vague on my colour mixes…

This somewhat slap-dash approach to my paints is why I sometimes find it difficult to give precise answers if asked what colours I use for a specific illustration.  Often the labels on the pans have rubbed off or are illegible.  Remembering what colour I topped up with a few months ago is often beyond me.  Sometimes (especially if I don’t to take notes) I simply forget.

Long tailed tits in progress.

I am aware this lackadaisical approach might horrify some professional and amateur botanical illustrators, and that’s totally understandable.  But I do think that sometimes people get tangled up in the details of brands and colours when they’re starting out.  Knowing more or less what each colour looks like, and how it mixes is great.  But if choosing the correct exact named hues becomes an obsession, or a barrier to just getting out some paints and experimenting, then I’m not sure how useful it is.  Perhaps I’m speaking from the luxurious position of someone whose been lucky enough to have the time to learn her paint-box and colours inside out; with less time available knowing names and brands could be more important?

Other Brands of Watercolour paint

Alongside Winsor and Newton, I use other brands of paint.  After hearing lots of recommendations, I purchased some Daniel Smith “dot cards”.  I figured they’d be a good way to test the different colours without committing to a whole (pricey) tube of paint.  I ended up painting from them, until I wore through the paper the dots were on, alongside my normal paint-box.  I wish I’d taken a photo of the used cards, they were rather pretty.

Eventually, I decided to buy a few tubes, which I use a lot. My most used is the Spring green.  It’s a brutal colour fresh from the tube, but mixed with purples, ochres, blues and yellows; it makes for a beautiful and adaptable hue.

Daniel Smith tubes

I also use Daler Rowney on occasion, and have become extremely attached to Doctor Martin’s Hydrus inks.  these transparent colours are almost violent in their vividness, and are incredibly useful.  I mix them in with my watercolours and they give an extra punch that helps emulate the bright colours of nature.  The colour I use most is their Quniacridone magenta, perfect for mixing up to capture pink flowers.

Doctor Martin’s inks – perfect for the pink of a cyclamen

Other brands of watercolour paint I’ve heard about from other botanical illustrators include: Sennelier, St. Petersburg White nights, Talens: Rembrandt, Shinhan, Holbein, Schminke, and Old Holland.  I’d love it if anyone who uses and adores these ranges felt like giving a bit of a review in the comments section.

Pink flowers and Opera pink watercolour

When it comes to pink flowers,  along with the Dr. Martin’s magenta, I use plenty of Opera rose.  Now, although this is a fabulous colour, it is notoriously awkward as it’s known to fade.  Artists have tested it’s lightfastness, with varying results (Jane Blundell, and an interesting post on whether or not watercolour paints DO fade from Lee Angold.)

Lots of pigments fade with time, and watercolours are prone to become paler.  Some pigments fade more than others.  The pinks and purples and reds are most fugitive (prone to fading).  You can avoid this by having framed work behind conservation glass (or museum glass), and by keeping original watercolours away from direct sunlight.  It can be a problem though.  I once painted a Purple emperor butterfly, and put it in the window of a gallery.  Within 6 weeks the butterfly had faded to a tawdry (and entirely un-saleable) brown colour.

Greater willowherb Epibolium hirsutum

This is less problematic is you’re creating work for reproduction rather than for exhibition, but it’s worth remembering.  I bought up a batch of Opera rose from different companies recently;  I’m interested to know which brand I end up liking most.  I’m not alone in this. There’s a lot of online chat about opera rose, including rather a nice comparison of different brands video on Youtube.

Opera rose paints from Jackson’s, Winsor and Newton, Holbein, and the W&N in pan form.

One more paint…and it’s Gouache!

This last paint is for fixing mistakes.  I avoid using it on work I plan to sell, but for work that’s going to be reproduced, it can be a life saver.  Permanent white gouache.  You mix it to a thick consistency, then paint over smudges and mistakes.  It’s easy to blend in with the white of the paper.  Avoid touching it until it’s dry, it’ll clump and lift the colour from underneath.  Actually, don’t touch it when it IS dry either, the grease on your hands may dull the white.  It’s also really useful for adding delicate white hairs against a dark leaf, and it’s an important part of my tool kit.

In the plate below, done for HarperCollins Flower Guide, you can see how white gouache was used to remove the upper leaves of the Dune gentian.  This adapted plate went to repro with no quibbles.  (For more on mixing mistakes in watercolour, check out my earlier blog).

Gentian plate with alterations circled in red

I use this paint quite thick, and it’s important to thoroughly rinse the paint-box and brush when you’re finished with it or it’ll make all your watercolours paler and chalky.

Common comfrey Symphytum officinale with hairs on the stem picked out with white gouache

Conclusion

If you’re looking for comparisons of different brands of watercolour paint, there’s a whole lot of really interesting blogs and youtube videos online.  For me, my lifelong relationship with Winsor and Newton continues unabated.  They’re easy to come by, good strong colours, not prohibitively expensive, comparatively lightfast, and I love them.

…and you can easily take a paint-box into a bluebell wood!

Most of the materials and paints mentioned in this blog are readily available from art stores.  I try to shop local, but if that’s not possible, then I buy from UK suppliers such as Jackson’s, Cass Art, London Graphics Centre, and Ken Bromley.  I try to avoid the big online sellers even though they’re sometimes cheaper; it’s my (tiny) way of supporting the art stores that support me.  In the US, I believe Dick Blick is a good shop, and sells online.

The post Equipment: Paints appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Apologies for the grey background on some of the photos.  The final piece (at the end of a blog) shows a truer version of the colours.

Setting up

When you’re about to illustrate a subject that may take a while, like this Sycamore leaf (Acer pseudoplatanus), it’s important to make sure you have everything you need readily available.

Clear a (clean) space for yourself, if you’ve not got a dedicated table or studio.  Get a jar of fresh water.  Give your paint-box a cursory clean.  Have several specimens of the species you’re illustrating available.  Make sure all your equipment is right there; you don’t want to be having to go and find a tube of paint or a pencil in the middle of working, it could break your concentration.  Make a nice cup of tea.  Now you’re ready.

Equipment

I’m currently using Fluid 100 hotpress watercolour paper.  I draw with a mechanical pencil, a Pentel P205 0.5mm, direct onto the watercolour paper.  I like Winsor and Newton watercolours and use pans which I top up with paint from tubes. My trusty brush is always a Winsor and Newton series 7, number 1 size.

Leaf ready for paint

Decisions, decisions

Next, decide how you’ll tackle the subject.  This leaf is yellow with green and brown markings.  Should I paint each area of colour separately, or layer colours on top of one another?  Decide where your light source is (conventionally from the top left) and be sure you stick to this.  This is easy enough if you have a light and are painting from life!  Think about what colours you’ll be using to mix up the greens, yellows, and browns.  For this sketchbook study, I also need to decide how much of the leaf I’m planning on colouring.

I decide to lay down yellow first, then add top washes of greens and browns.  I’ll aim to colour approximately half of the leaf.

Base layer of Yellow

I mix a yellow that matches the yellows on the leaf.  This is Cadmium yellow light, plus a tiny bit of Yellow ochre, and a dab of Cadmium yellow dark.  I’m not brilliant and keeping track of which colour in my paint-box has which name, so apologies if this leads to confusion.

The consistency of the paint matters.  Too wet and there’s not enough colour, too dry and the paint doesn’t move right on the page.  Rather unpleasantly, I like to say aim for paint that’s similar to the thickness of blood.

Looking for darker areas, which mostly lie alongside the veins, plot in your darkest areas of yellow.  These can be hard to see and it’s worth extrapolating.  Use the areas of highest contrast on the leaf as a guide to where your shadows will lie.  If shadows fall below a vein and are darker to the left of a portion of leaf blade, then this may well be the pattern across that whole side of the leaf.

Paint in these areas across the leaf.  Be sure to concentrate the whole time and paint what you see rather than what you assume is there.

Softening the edges of the base layer

Once the yellow is dry, I dilute it into a lighter yellow with lots of clean water.  This makes the colour paler.  With watercolour, you always lighten colours by diluting them rather than muddying them by adding white.

Taking my brush I gently work around the edges of the yellow shapes.  This softens them.  It’s vital to leave plenty of white as the white of the page acts as your highlights.  Once you’ve covered an area of white paper with paint it’s impossible to lift that colour off, nor can you paint anything on top of it to get it good and white again.  Err on the side of caution, you can always make things darker at a later stage.

Adding a yellow background to the leaf

Once these layers are dry, we can add yellow to the surrounding spaces.  I speed up the drying process by using an electric fan heater, or a hair dryer.

A top layer of bright yellow is applied, over what I’ve just painted and most of the rest of the leaf.  This mix is not very watery, but not as thick as the initial yellow.  I apply it to the perimeters of the Sycamore leaf and the edges of the veins.  While it’s still wet I add water to the rest of the leaf and allow the yellow to bleed into these regions, albeit in a paler form.  Again, it’s vital to leave some areas of white and in fact ion this case it’s at this stage that I swallowed up too much of the white of the paper.

I also mix up a brown, Vandyke and Yellow ochre, and put some of this on the edges of the teeth of the leaf.  Again, I allow this to dry fully before going further.

Greens

This Sycamore leaf has big areas of green remaining, and I want to add these.  I repeat the steps I used to apply the yellow, looking all the time at my leaf to make certain I’m painting what I see rather than what I think might be there.  Adding areas of dark, and then softening them with a more dilute mix; I plot in the greens.  The paint mix in this case is Winsor and Newton Sap green, and yellow ochre, mixed with some Daniel Smith Spring green.  I always mix my greens, I’m yet to find a pre-mixed one which is close to the true colour of leaves.

Working into the Green areas

This leaf is proving a headache, and I hope that adding some darker areas to the green patches will help.  I mix a darker green, adding brown and a touch of purple to the mix.  Where the green touches the edges of the veins and the shadow is deepest, I pick out these darks.  It’s rather nerve-wracking as if you go too dark, the whole illustration is compromised.

Delineating the veins and leaf margins

To satisfy the eye, the edges of a leaf need to be crisp.  I use a yellowish brown for this, mixing Yellow ochre, Vandyke brown, and purple.  I pop the paint on the edges of the Sycamore leaf, then dilute it and pull a paler tint back into the leaf body.  This means there’s a gradation between the leaf and the edge, and it helps the illustration look more natural.

I also put some of this colour over the veins.  I am not delighted with the result, although I know I’m applying the right techniques.  Something extra that unifies the leaf is required.

A unifying Yellow top-wash

I go and have a cup of tea, and when I return I decide to whack a bright yellow wash over the whole thing.  It has to be said that this isn’t something I normally do, but I was feeling dissatisfied with the way the illustration was going.

I mix a medium consistency yellow colour, mostly Cadmium yellow.  Using quite a wet brush and working fast, I cover the entire leaf in this yellow.  Immediately it feels better, and is glowing a bit more.

I get a little carried away and mix up a tint of green and repeat the top wash.  It helps, but in doing this I lose more of those precious highlights.

Don’t overwork it!

I’ve reached a point where it’s ok.  If I go on adding layers over the entire leaf, then I’ll swallow up all my highlights and the entire illustration will become muddy and dull.

This is a tough decision, when to stop trying to redeem a painting.  If you get it wrong you end up with something you can’t fix.  Settling for something you know is decent is sometimes the best you can hope for.  I decide to wait for the paint to dry and to mix up browns for the leaf spots.

Leaf spots and detail

This is always the most fun, adding detail.  I mix up a dark brown, using lots of Cobalt blue and purple with a dark green and the Vandyke brown.  The paint is quite thick, and I make sure my brush has a sharp point as I’ll be picking out details.

Sycamore leaves often have these black spots, which are known as Tar Spots.  They don’t seem to do the tree any damage, and are a result of a parasitic fungal infection.  The pathogen is one Rhytisma acerinum

Illustrating these diseased areas requires the same level of concentration as painting the leaf itself.  They’re not the same colour throughout, and there are distinctive lines on some of the bark patches.  Not all the browned regions of the leaf are a result of Tar spot.  Some come from stress, and some are developing as autumn progresses.

I delineate the edges of the Tar spots with a sharp brush tip.  Once dry, I use a wet mix of a yellower brown, and allow the paint to dry and add its own edges to those I’ve illustrated.

With the tip of the brush I add the tiny speckles and spots that populate the leaf.

Final touches

I notice that there are tiny holes at the centre of some of these brown spots, and pick them out with Permanent White gouache.  This paint is also useful for covering up mistakes, and I use it quite thickly.

Finished!

The sketchbook illustration is done.  It’s not quite as good as I want it to be, but it’s serviceable

This leaf was illustrated as I painted it, on film, and I think that trying to paint and explain myself at the same time inevitably has some effect on my work.  However, as a sketchbook study of a Sycamore leaf on the turn, it’s good enough.  It’s one detail of a sheet of information on the Sycamore I’m completing for FOR Sweden, who have commissioned another batch of invasive species studies.  For more of my Sketchbook illustrations, check out my online gallery, or see which of the originals are available to buy.

If you’d like to see the film (be warned, it’s an hour long!) feel free to take a look:

There’s also an accompanying blog which discusses how I drew up the leaf  This too has a film of the process.

The post Botanical Illustration of a Sycamore Leaf appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Choose a subject

I chose to illustrate a Sycamore leaf, in autumn colours.  This really was a case of killing three birds with one stone.  I wanted to think about drawing and make a film, I’d had a separate commission to illustrate an autumn leaf, and FOR Sweden had commissioned me to do sketchbooks studies of, amongst other plants, the Sycamore.

I’m also fond of Sycamore leaves, there’s something very lovely about their palmate shape.  They’re also really easy to get hold of!

Sketch a basic shape

When I draw, I often just pick up a pencil and start making a line.  However, I think this only comes with lots of practise, so wanted to show how I’d tackle the leaf if I wasn’t feeling confident.

First, I plot in a very basic shape.  I use incredibly light pencil, and very little pressure.  This shape shows the form the leaf will fit into, and I find adding the central vein and stalk, even at this preliminary stage, helps.

I’ve increased the contrast in the scan so you can actually see the pencil lines.

Use the veins to guide you

Next I plot in the veins, working hard to get the angles correct.  Again, this is really light pencil as I’ll be redrawing the veins in more detail a bit later on.

Roughly add the outline of the leaf

Finding the edges of the leaf is the next challenge.  Sycamore leaves have 5 lobes, each with a central vein.  Figuring out the basic shape of these, and how they relate to each other means looking really hard at the specimen.

The places where the side lobes join the rest of the leaf line up, this is helpful.

Add Detail to the Leaf Margins

Next, work into this map.  This means looking at the margin of the leaf, and recording each individual tooth as accurately as possible.  Leaf margins vary from species to species, so getting this right matters.  Sometimes teeth are blunt, closely spaced, double-serrated…  Take a close look and record what you see as accurately as possible.  For more on variety in leaf margins check out my blog.

Add More Detail

The shape of the leaf is done, now you can add detail.  Look for lateral veins, and smaller veins coming off them.  Try and remember to fit form to function.  Leaf veins carry vital minerals, water, and nutrients to and from all parts of the leaf blade.  This explains why the network of veins is so thorough, it’s a similar function to our own circulatory system.  Remember this as you draw.

Finishing up

It can be hard to know where to stop with a line drawing.  The more you look, the more you see.  If you’re not careful you can get really lost in amongst the network of tiny, intricate veins.  It’s a pleasant way to spend a few hours but may not tie in with what you want from your drawing.

This Sycamore leaf is a pencil drawing which I’m going to paint up in watercolour, so too much pencil detail isn’t that desirable.  I want enough there as a guide, but not so much that it compromises the paint that’ll be laid on top of it. (It’s worth mentioning that with some smooth watercolour papers, such as this one, you can erase pencil lines once you’ve finished painting.)

Equipment

For this drawing I worked on Fluid 100 hotpress watercolour paper.  This is cause I’m going to add paint at a later stage.  If I were doing a pen or pencil drawing without paint, I’d use Daler Rowney Heavyweight paper. I love mechanical pencils, sometimes called propelling pencils.  They have sharp nibs and you can keep these sharp by simply breaking the lead off as you draw.  This means you don’t need to keep stopping to use a pencil sharpener.  I use Pentel P205 pencils with 0.5mm lead, HB or H.  Factis make great erasers, I love their triangular ones.

Below is a photo of the line drawing once I’d added colour.

Conclusion

The main thing to remember at all times when you’re drawing is to draw what you see rather than what you believe is there.  Drawing is all about looking.  Once you start to see things right, then recording that is simply a matter of practise.  You train your brain to translate what you see into lines on the page.  Like catching a ball, or any other activity requiring co-ordination, it requires practise to get good.  The most wonderful part about it is that the more you do it, the better you get!

Feel free to browse my blog on why drawing is vital , and on doing natural history and botanical illustrations in pencil.  Finally, you may want to have a go at my guest blogger’s seven exersises which help ideas on how to practise your drawing skills.

And, as promised, here’s the film of me drawing this leaf in real time:

The post How to Draw: Sycamore Leaf appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Habit sketch of Lupin, Lupinus polyphyllus

Research: Gathering reference

The first step is to co-ordinate and gather information.  I know that there need to be sketches and notes on leaves, flowers, and seeds.  Along with a habit or growth sketch, there also has to be a comparison between Lupinus polyphyllus and the garden lupin Lupinus x regalis.  Lupins hybridise readily which adds confusion when figuring out differences between species.

My normal reference books don’t cover these species, as neither are common garden escapes in the UK.  (Flora of the British Isles by Clapham, Tutin and Moore (3rd ed) and New Flora of the British Isles by Stace are excellent for information on wild plants.)

Luckily, Collins Flower Guide by Streeter, and The Wildflowers of the British Isles by Streeter and Gerrard include visual and written descriptions.

Online resources are good too.  There’s NatureSpot, the Invasive Species Compedium, and Kew’s Plants of the World online.  In a pinch, you can look at Wikipedia as well, but it’s important to be on the look out for mistakes.

I take notes from lots of sources, then amalgamate them into a list of details to include.

Research: Gathering images

Once the written research is done, I know what specific details I need to get photos or illustrations of.  In an ideal world, the lupin would be in flower and I could draw from life, but at the time of writing (spring) nothing is in bloom, and certainly no lupins.

I use the same visual and online references as before, always cross-referencing photos with written notes and other images of the plant.  It’s so easy to label a photo incorrectly, and I’d hate to perpetuate the error.

Thumbnail sketches

With all the reference sorted, I start plotting how the image will look on the page.

I plan where the central lupin illustration will sit, then add the details around the edges.  I have to leave space for written notes as well as for the images.

Thumbnail sketch with information and images required

Details of the Lupin and materials

I use the same materials I always use.  Winsor & Newton watercolour paints, a propelling P205 Pentel mechanical pencil, Winsor & Newton series 7 brush (size 1), and I’m working on Fluid 100 hotpress paper.

The leaves are made of 10 to 17 leaflets, each being 2.5 – 5cm across.  The petioles are twice as long as the leaflets.  These leaf-facts can easily be added to the main plant.  I add water droplets as one of the things I always notice is how silvery they look in the centre of each leaf.

Finished piece: Leaves of the lupin

The flowers are showy, carried in terminal racemes.  Each one is 12-14 mm long.  The calyx is two-lipped.  The style is curved, the stigma is capitate (shaped with a blob at the top),  Stamens are monadelphous (the filaments are fused into a tube).

Seeds are legumes (like peas and beans), in flattened pods.  Pods are silky and become browner with age, and there may be contractions between the seeds.  Seeds are mottled, with 5 to 9 appearing in each pod.

Finished piece: Seeds and seedpods of the Garden Lupin

Comparison to Lupinus x regalis

L. x regalis has smaller and thinner leaves.  This can easily be shown with two leaflets presented as line drawings, side by side.

Comparison line drawing of the leaflets of two lupin species

The flowering spike looks different, chunkier and more compact.  Flowers are bunched up towards the top.  Each flower has a prominent claw on its keel.  Unlike L. polyphyllus, L. x regalis has 9 to 15 leaflets per leaf.  The petiole is shorter.  Flowers can be orange or yellow; these colours don’t occur in L. polyphyllus.

Pencil rough of flowering spike of L. x regalis

This is pretty straight-forward.  Along with the leaflet comparison, there will need to be a habit illustrations of L. x regalis with orange and yellow blooms.

Deciding where to place different elements

It’s important to help the eye travel around a composition, and to keep similar bits of information near one another.  Heavier illustrations, such as the habit drawing, need to be at the base of the page, to anchor it.  Because of this, I place this at the bottom right.  As a result, the details and illustrations of the seeds and pods fit in the bottom left.

The top left is used for flower cross sections from different views, and notes explaining the fusion of stamens.

The lupin sketch is wider at the base, so there’s room for written notes next to the flowering spike. There’s also room for the comparison notes.  The line drawing of the two leaflets fits in here, as does a study of a Lupinus x. regalis flower.

Pencil rough of the Garden Lupin, awaiting colour

The habit sketch of L. x regalis needed to be changed as the client wasn’t sure it felt right.  I rubbed it out, and the sheet instantly felt far easier to view.

The colours of the L. x regalis are far brighter than the gentle blues of our main lupin, so I decide to do the habit sketch on a separate sheet.  This means the eye won’t be distracted from the blue flowers, and makes the main lupin sketchbook sheet a more attractive finished piece.

Comparison of Lupinus x regalis and Lupinus polyphyllus flowering heads

The two flowering heads can sit alongside one another thanks to pasting them into position with Photoshop.

Applying watercolour

Once drawn up, I decide what medium to use for each part.  These decisions change as I paint.  The cross-sections of flowers were going to be simple line illustrations.  Colours, yes, but without detail or tone.  However, once I got onto them I enjoyed painting them so much that I was loathe to stop.

Lupin flower cross sections and different views

Similarly, I planned to have two of the three leaves in graphite.  I changed my mind at the last minute as I feel the balance between colour and monochrome worked better with two leaves in green.

The green was tricky to mix.  It was based on cobalt green, with yellow ochre and cadmium yellow light.  There was also a touch of Vandyke brown and purple.

Lupin leaf

I adore the blue of the lupin flowers.  It’s a mix of Cobalt blue, a touch of purple, some opera pink and a drop of Doctor Martin’s Hydrous inks.  These inks mix in with watercolour and give a real kick to any colour.  The blue used here was Ultramarine.

The line drawings of the two leaves worked, and showed the differences in size and shape.  I normally do such drawings in pencil, but will use the technique of a coloured line drawing again.  As always, all painting was done with my Winsor & Newton series 7 brush.

Scale drawings

The final step was to provide a scale illustration, showing the size of the lupin plant next to a person.  I hate illustrating people, and am not good at it…  Providing a pen and ink and a full colour version gives some choice to the client.  I prefer the line drawing, and I’ll be interested to see which one the client ends up using.

Scale drawing of Lupin

The finished piece

Finally, it was complete.  All the elements had been researched, laid out, annotated, and illustrated.  I hope this way of conveying a lot of information is as useful to others as it is to me, it’s a helpful combination of written and visual facts.

Finished Garden Lupin sketchbook study page

The clients like the illustrations, and have already shared some of the information boards that they’ll be using at a horticultural conference.

I hope this blog gives an idea of how you go from the name of a plant, to a finished study.  Of course the information you need to include varies from species to species, but the lightness and flexibility of the sketchbook format is something I’m very fond of.

Lupin sketch in situ

The post Garden Lupin Sketchbook study appeared first on Lizzie Harper.