Week 35: Watercolor Botany Identification Chart Illustration

After last week’s adventures in botanical illustration I was excited to paint the inked drawing for my personal Flower Profile chart. I photocopied the image several times and used some colored pencils to determine the desired outcome (seen in video below*).

I decided to avoid a more realistic depiction to eliminate visual confusion between the different reference categories included. This resulted in a rather colorful final work that makes me happy when I look at it – something that will be a delight to pull out when I’m trying to assess a discovered botanical specimen.

The instructions inside that relate to the advice for profiling flowers outlined in “Botany in a Day” provides the central structure of the graphic with the remaining elements pulled from vintage field guides and additional botany resources.

In warmer reds the basic anatomy of various flower structures are outlined. Moving clockwise, these hues transition into cooler greens and blues as different types of leaf divisions and shapes are depicted, with emphasis on bract identification. And lastly, various leaf arrangements (seen below).

In all, I still feel that there is much room for improvement and have ideas for something a little more evolved for a final poster-sized identification chart.

* Sorry for the jumpy nature of the video – I didn’t realize that my table was bouncing as I painted because it was haphazardly straddling the edge of a rug… learning more and more of what not to do with each new video attempt.