Ann Swan - Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils

Victoria Matthews BSc (Hons), Dip.Tax., FLS

Botanist

∆ FLY AGARIC TRIO

Amanita muscaria

25 x 28 cm (10 x 11 in)

INTRODUCTION

In Spring, when Flow’rs your garden grace,

With Needle or Pencil you can trace

Each curious Form, and various Dye

So represent unto the Eye,

Nobly proportion ev’ry part,

That Nature blushes at your Art.

John Rea, Flora, 1665

Coloured pencil is an ideal medium for botanical painting. It is immediate, portable, easily manipulated and very forgiving, making it useful for both the beginner and the more accomplished artist.

This is a very exciting time to be working in coloured pencils. Since I came to the medium in the late 1980s, many new and extended ranges have been introduced that contain better quality and more lightfast pigments. There is also a great variety of blender pencils, blender pens and battery-operated erasers now available. All these new products make it so much easier to produce vibrant and finely detailed plant portraits.

I started using coloured pencils as a way of introducing areas of colour into my detailed graphite pencil drawings. I tried watercolour, but I could not cope with using brushes – they seemed to have a will of their own – and all my colours turned to mud. At first I used colour only for part of the image, but as I have learned more about coloured pencils and the way they perform I have concentrated on enjoying colour.

∆ ‘JANUARY KING’ CABBAGE

30 x 32 cm (12 x 13 in) Coloured pencil and graphite pencil over underpainting.

Through this book I hope to share with you the techniques, tips and ideas that I have tried and tested. With a clear overview of the materials that are currently available and how to use them, the book shows you how best to get to know your subject and explains how to create interesting and eye-catching compositions. It also looks at ways of finely tuning your work and presenting it well, both on the ‘page’ and in the frame. Finally, there is a gallery showing some beautiful work by other artists and students who use this versatile and increasingly popular medium.

∆ A watercolourist recently described coloured pencil as being of no use for depicting fine detail. Maybe this butterfly, which repeatedly tried to land on my drawing of beetroot at an exhibition, had not read those words!

TRADITIONAL BOTANICAL ART

Traditionally botanical painting has been the realm of the watercolourist, but more and more artists are discovering that coloured pencil can be a very effective alternative to watercolour. If you find painting difficult, then this is the ideal way to achieve colourful and detailed botanical studies. The quality of materials is improving all the time and, with several ranges of pencils being rated as lightfast, work created now in coloured pencil will last as long as paintings executed in watercolour.

People are often dismissive of coloured pencils because they are associated with the poor quality crayons of childhood. Well yes, my pictures are effectively ‘done with crayons’, but with materials of very high specification and quality. Too often coloured-pencil work can appear grainy and too obviously pencil, but this may be because the paper used was not smooth enough, the pencil was not sharp, or the pencil was applied too lightly and not layered or blended. However, by using the techniques I will show you it is possible to achieve brilliant, lively colours and a painterly effect.

The use of coloured pencil as a medium for botanical illustration is a relatively new phenomenon and there is still some resistance against it. I hope to dispel outdated ideas and show that coloured pencil as a medium for botanical painting is very much here to stay. Equally there is some debate in horticultural circles as to the subjects that should be covered by botanical art. My own remit is wide and includes fungi as well as plant material.

I teach my methods around the UK and Europe, and also in the USA and New Zealand, and I am constantly surprised by the wealth of talent already emerging in this medium and the huge enthusiasm to learn this technique.

WATERCOLOUR vs COLOURED PENCIL

If you do not like using brushes, but love drawing, as I do, then coloured pencil could be the medium for you. Unlike watercolour, coloured pencil is a very forgiving medium. It can be lifted off and reapplied, mistakes can be rubbed out and colours can be layered and re-layered to achieve pure, vibrant tones. A major advantage of coloured pencil is that once you have some knowledge of the techniques and the way different colours behave when layered, you can be sure to reproduce exactly the same effect over and over again, whereas watercolour mixes can often be rather hit and miss.

Another advantage is that coloured pencils are very portable, so with a selection of maybe 20 to 25 colours, some paper, an eraser and a sharpener you are ready to hit the road, and there is no washing of brushes and palettes afterwards.

We are all used to handling writing implements, so using pencils comes much more naturally to us. Brushes can be frustratingly difficult to control and sometimes seem to have a life of their own; a stray hair can spring out and ruin a clean line whereas coloured pencil is much easier to control.

I hope this book will introduce you to the wonderful world of coloured pencil for botanical painting and will encourage you to make your own explorations and discover new ways of working in this very versatile and exciting medium. Enjoy!

∆ BEETROOT TRIO

50 x 36 cm (20 x 14 in) Coloured pencil and graphite pencil.

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