#botanical illustration

Blueberries

Blueberries work in progress 

An inktober piece from last year for today. There’s still some prints of this available in my Etsy!

Hawthorn berries 

Blackberries for today’s inktober 

A little experiment in dyeing paper with avocado!

Inktober day 5, St. John’s wort

heaveninawildflower:

Illuminated page with a botanical illustration.

Taken from ‘Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne’ (1505-1510) by Jean Bourdichon (1457?-1521).

A different plant every day with lovely insects. One of my favourite Books of Hours.  

Image and text information courtesy Bibliothèque Nationale de France   - Gallica.

sao-miguel-with-an-iphone:

Last set of São Miguel sketches: more plants, a final dinner at Maria’s, brief exploration of Ponta Delgada, and one single view of the north coast of the island before we headed to the airport.

1. Vaccinium cylindraceum (native Azorean blueberry), and an unidentified but probably native (and definitely adorable) species of bumblebee.
2. The remains of grilled anchovies on the table at Maria’s the last night we stayed with her.
3. A close-up view of my favorite exotic invasive- the tree-sized deadly nightshade! (Solanum mauritianum) It was what we spotted the Priolo on originally, actually.
4. A very strange and very decrepit old house in what I think was the U district of Ponta Delgada. It had such strange victorian-azorean hybrid architecture, and such great colors and weathering that I had to paint it.
5. A lovely view I painted about an hour before we got on a plane to leave. I could see whales spouting right in that bay as I painted it, because without a continental shelf the water was effectively open ocean as little as 30 yards offshore.

sao-miguel-with-an-iphone:

Part 2/3 of my Azores sketchbook: midweek, the accidental mountain climb, and botany fun.

1. The bridge leading into the center of town in Povoação
2. A waterfall in a gorge above the town of Faial da Terra, in a rare patch of native laurel forest
3. Quick drawing of the venation on a leaflet of a Rooting Chainfern (Woodwardia radicans), and an example Solanaceae flower to use as a watercolor technique demonstration for my mother.
4. And a panoramic painting of the view down from about 3/4s of the way up to the highest point on São Miguel, Pico da Vara, shortly after we spotted the (very) endangered Priolo.

The final version of my Rosa rugosa painting. See more work-in-progress shots hereandhere. Get the print here, at my society6 shop!

More work-in-progress shots from this painting.

It’s finals week here at SCAD, and my finals are consumed with botanical illustration! Stay tuned for the finished versions of all the work-in-progress shots I’ve been posting lately.

Some work-in-progress shots of my current pieces: the final rendering of the mushrooms (in colored pencil on mylar), and some media/style tests for my edible plant book (watercolor and ink on hot-press illustration board).

Working on a final rendering of the dogwoods.

Dogwood studies. Black and grey colored pencil on vellum- April 2013. There are several species or cultivars represented here.

Hedera helix, common ivy is a very important plant for the ecosystem: it flowers in late autumn, when only few flowers are in bloom, the bees love it. Also it have berries for almost all the winter, when food is scarce, and many birds, like blackbird, eat them.