berries Archives - Lizzie Harper

Rosaceae Fruit

Posted on 7th February 20257th February 2025 in botanical terms

Rosaceae Fruit Whilst recently researching the wildflower families, I fell down a fruit-shaped rabbit hole. And it is because of the amount of variety shown in the fruit of the Rosaceae, or rose family. Japanese rose Rosa rugosa For more on what makes a plant a member of the Rosaceae, check out my recent blog […] Read more

Wildflower families: Rosaceae, the Rose family

Posted on 10th January 2025 in Wildflower families

Wildflower families: Rosaceae, the Rose family is the latest blog in a series on common wildflower families, thanks to my online Field Studies Council course. Learning about the botany of a plant and its family, and similarities within a family, is very useful when it comes to being a botanical illustrator. This series talks about […] Read more

Autumn fruits

Posted on 24th November 202424th November 2024 in Current projects and news

Autumn fruits is a recent project I’ve worked on with the Field Studies Council, (FSC). I’m lucky enough to do a lot of work with them, for their wonderful fold-our identification guides. I discussed working on a guide to coastal flowers a while back, this time let’s focus on autumn fruits and seeds. (The finished […] Read more

Illustrating the Cannock Chase Berry Vaccinium intermedium

Posted on 8th April 2023 in Botany: Telling species apart

Cannock Chase Berry Vaccinium x intermedium is a really tricky subject to illustrate, because it’s not not only really rare, but also a hybrid. However, it needed illustrating for an identification chart being produced by FSC and Cannock Chase. Cannock chase berry: Parent species Hybrids are, according to Collins dictionary, “A hybrid is an animal or […] Read more

Holly: History, Folklore & Wales

Posted on 10th December 2021 in Trees, Uncategorised

Holly: History & Folklore is a guest blog from the wonderful Stewart Roberts, a local naturalist who shares his knowledge of nature and Welsh folklore on his wonderful Facebook page, where his illustrates his posts with his excellent wildlife photos. It can also be seen as a partner to my blog series on British Trees. […] Read more

Blueberry: step by step Pen and Ink illustration

Posted on 15th October 2021 in Botanical Illustration step by step

I recently completed a blueberry illustration for a packaging job, and thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to give a quick explanation of how I illustrate shiny dark fruit in pen and ink. Drawing blueberries Coming up with the initial drawing was tricky. it had to fit the layout of the product’s box, and the […] Read more

Botanical illustration of hawthorn berries y Lizzie with her paintbox

Equipment: Paintbrushes

Posted on 10th September 20218th May 2023 in Illustration Equipment, Illustration techniques, Testing Synthetic Watercolour brushes

Equipment: Paintbrushes is another in the series about what tools I use when I illustrate; so feel free to check out my earlier blogs on what watercolour paper to use, the guest blog on waterproof inks, watercolour paints, pencils and erasers, and another on what science stuff you might need. Paintbrushes As with all of […] Read more

Trees: Hawthorn

Posted on 25th June 202125th June 2021 in Trees

Trees: Hawthorn is another blog inspired by my illustrations for “The Tree Forager” by Adele Nozedar, recently published by Watkins. It’s inspired me to have a look at a few of my favourite trees. The Hawthorn is another in this series, along side the Sycamore and the Oak. Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna is one of the commonest […] Read more

Step by step: Blackberry

Posted on 4th October 20179th January 2019 in Botanical Illustration step by step

I love doing botanical illustrations of blackberries. So I was thrilled when Jersey Post commissioned an illustration of the Jersey Bramble Rubus caesarius as one of the postage stamps on their “Fruits and Berries” issue. I thought I’d break down the steps involved in painting a ripe juicy blackberry in watercolour, and write a step by step blog. All illustrations […] Read more

Botanical Illustrations of Fruit for Jersey Post

Posted on 22nd September 20179th January 2019 in Current projects and news

I love doing botanical illustrations of fruit, so when Jersey Post commissioned a series of “Fruits and Berries” for a postage stamp issue I was delighted. The fruits and berries that needed illustrating were the Dewberry Rubus caesius, the Elderberry Sambucus nigra, the Wild strawberry Fragaria vesca, the Jersey bramble Rubus caesarius, Sloes Prunus spinosa, and Black bryony Dioscorea communis. All the botanical illustrations in […] Read more

Illustration: Step by step Waxwing

Posted on 29th January 20157th December 2018 in Zoological step by step

Science art, natural history illustration, natural science illustrations, botanical drawing; all these terms cover what I do, But this week’s blog is about creating an ornithological illustration, in this case of the Waxwing Bombycilla garrulus. Drawing the Waxwing First step is always to draw up the bird. I wanted to include background, and hoped scarlet and […] Read more

autumn, fall, harvest, wild flowers, wildflowers, watercolour, botanical illustration,

Autumn fruit and flowers

Posted on 13th September 201322nd November 2018 in Showcase of themed natural history illustrations

I thought this week it might be a good idea to cut down on text, and just pop up some of my illustrations of wildflowers you may still be able to find as autumn comes. All of these species are pretty widespread and common (except for the Somerset Redstreak apple and autumn crocus). Try scouring […] Read more

Step by step Salmonberry watercolour painting

Posted on 18th December 200113th September 2019 in Botanical Illustration step by step

One of the loveliest plants I had to paint for FSC Publications latest chart on invasive species is the Salmonberry, Rubus spectabliis. I’d not seen this plant before, and was amazed by the big pink flowers, and the striking similarity to blackberry and raspberry. Not surprisingly, I tackled painting the berries in a similar way. Pencil […] Read more