Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils. Ann Swan
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Название: Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils
Автор: Ann Swan
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Изобразительное искусство, фотография
isbn: 9780008328252
isbn:
Often plant structures seem quite complicated and you may find it easier to simplify this by defining the plant through simple geometric shapes and lines in quick sketches before becoming concerned with detail. Stems can be represented by single lines, and flowers become circles, ellipses, cones or cylinders.
∆ Diagram of Orchid flower simplified into triangle and circle shapes.
SETTING UP THE SUBJECT
Wherever possible try to obtain plants growing in pots as they will last longer than cut flowers. Plants will change and move quite rapidly when brought into a warm room, so quickly assess which parts will fade the fastest and draw these first. Usually the leaves and stems will keep fresher for much longer than the buds and flowers. Keep plants and cut flowers away from excessive heat, direct sunlight or draughts to avoid increased transpiration and wilting. If possible collect two specimens, unless they are rare species, and keep one in the fridge or a cool place in case the first one fades.
Pick flowers and fruit at the last possible moment. Flowers should preferably be just opening and are best cut in the morning when their moisture content is at its highest. Place cut flowers immediately in water. When deprived of water for even 30 seconds stems can start to dry out and lose their capacity to draw up water.
Cut the stems diagonally to stop them resting flat on the bottom of the container and cut hardwood stems upwards about 2.5 cm (1 in) to expose the soft inner tissue and assist water uptake. Make sure that no leaves are left on the stems below the waterline as they will quickly decompose. To stop some plants, such as poppies and poinsettias, leaking a milky latex from their stems when cut, either plunge the stems into iced or boiling water for 30 seconds or sear the cut edge with a flame.
Cut flowers keep longer if aspirin, sugar, lemonade, tonic water or flower preservative is added to the water. Renew the water each day and recut the stems about 2.5 cm (1 in) shorter, preferably under water. Misting some flowers can also help to prolong their life. Overnight keep flowers in the fridge or a cool safe place in the garden, either in water, in a plastic box on top of damp tissue or in a polythene bag. ‘Stay fresh’ food bags are excellent for keeping fruit and vegetables.
Position your plant material carefully in a stable glass vase that is weighted at the bottom to prevent it toppling over. Use tissue or Blu Tac in the neck of the vase, or place oasis or pebbles in the water to secure the plant in the position you require. If stems are particularly floppy, such as tulips, you can stabilize them by using florists’ wire.
Model clamps with universal joints can be purchased quite cheaply from hobby shops and are invaluable. They are capable of holding quite strong branches. You can use small florists’ orchid tubes to keep the stems moist.
∆ PUSSY WILLOW
Salix caprea
26 x 10 cm (10 x 4 in)
∆ Prevent vigorous buds, such as tulips, from opening too quickly in a warm atmosphere by tying cotton around them.
TIP
Do not hold your plant material in your other hand while you draw – it is impossible to keep still and you could be there for hours and your arm will drop off! Find another way; be inventive.
∆ To capture the character of your subject draw a quick, free sketch keeping to simple geometric shapes and single lines and avoiding too much detail at this stage. Always work within a frame.
∆ Draw the outline of your plant material as a continuous line or contour line. Do not get sidetracked with details; just draw the outline.
RECORDING INFORMATION
Once you have studied your plant and are sure of its structure make a series of small thumbnail sketches to capture the character of the plant. Keep the sketches small and free and work from your own instinctive response to the plant to capture its character, movement and rhythm. Always work within a frame even when sketching as this will help you to design the whole picture space and create a more unified and dynamic composition. We will be looking at this aspect in more detail in the chapter on Composition and Style here.
Do not be afraid to move the plant around; make the plant work for you rather than always just drawing what is in front of you. Try to maintain the botanical truth of the plant.
It is a good idea to keep a small sketchbook to record all your information about each piece of work. Keep together your initial sketches and layouts, measurements of the various parts of the plant such as the diameter of flowers and stems, length of leaves, stems and buds, and any special idiosyncrasies of the plant. Also make notes about the plant’s growing habit and surroundings, plus close-up sketches of any small details such as the stamens, buds, petal markings and root structure, along with some basic colour notes.
This sketchbook information, with any photographs you can take of parts of the plant, will give you good references for your current drawing and for any time in the future when you want to draw the same type of plant again.
TONAL STUDIES
Now look at the plant as a series of solid shapes and make some tonal studies. Work out which are the darkest areas of the plant and give them a value on a greyscale between black (darkest) value and white (lightest) value. Then try to establish the areas of highlight and whether these are to be left as white paper if they are very shiny or to be given a slight tonal value if they are softer, hazy highlights. Seeing tonal values is so important, but can be difficult as our eyes are usually overwhelmed by colour. Looking at your plant material through half-closed eyes can sometimes make it easier to see the subtle changes in tonal values. Another way that helps is to shield your plant from light and then re-introduce the light, watching exactly where it falls and where shadows are formed. A black and white photograph of your plant material with the correct directional lighting can be very helpful for recording and gauging tonal values too.
Establishing this range of tonal values helps create contrast in your work and gives depth and form to the subject matter. Once you have evaluated this range then just quickly sketch in the various areas of tone to produce a tonal study of your plant.
COLOUR MATCHING
Having observed the structure, shape, size and character of the plant you now need to study the colour of the various parts of the plant. Colour swatches are by far the easiest way of matching all these colours accurately and are invaluable when working in the field.
To make some colour swatches take a strip of the paper you usually work on and fill in small blocks of each colour you possess in the various ranges and makes. Grade each block of colour from the darkest value, or full saturation, to the lightest value and label each one with the colour name and number. Once you have matched your colours make a note of the name and number of the colours used for future reference. Photographs are no good for colour reference СКАЧАТЬ