Applying skills: WATERCOLOUR BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATIONSDrawing and painting from plants can be an incredible tool for encouraging observation skills and exploring and embedding knowledge of the topic. Drawings can also be scientifically labelled. Pencil and watercolour is a good medium to use because of its links to many botanical artists past and present. For watercolour basics see Building Skills: WATERCOLOURS.

Materials needed:

• Pencils

• Watercolour paints plus the tin lids for mixing colours

• Water in pots. Ideally children will only be sharing between two, otherwise the water can get very ‘muddy’

• Brushes ideally soft ones and one large and one small

• Paper towel for dabbing brushes dry and for removing paint from the paper’s surface

• A4 Paper/card - watercolour paper is lovely to use but can also be expensive so card or thick cartridge paper is a good alternative particularly for warm up exercises.

• Plants (one between two) - as observation is key to this exercise having plants to look at is really important. If possible having real examples with buds/flowers and roots is the best option. If time does not allow for this there are some photograph examples available to print on pages 3-6 or you can source your own.

Method:Start by looking! Observe the plant and identify the features you have learnt about on that plant - roots, buds, flowers, stem, leaves etc. (they will look different on every plant). Think about the shape of the plant and decide which way round your paper should be. E.G. if it is short and wide your paper should be landscape, if it is tall and thin it will need to be portrait.

Begin to draw your plant using a pencil, focusing on the outlines not shading. Remember to look as closely possible at your plant, you want to draw what it looks like, not what you think it looks like.

When the drawing is complete you can add colour and tone with watercolour paints. Remember to try not to use the white or black paints in the tin, and to always transfer and dilute or mix colours in the tin lid before putting them on the paper.

Using your knowledge of wet in wet and wet on dry techniques decide when you want colours to blend together to create interesting textures and when you want to let colours dry before putting another colour next to it so they remain crisp and unblended. Remember to keep looking carefully at your plant and trying to mix colours to record it as accurately as possible.

When the whole plant is coloured, let it dry, then using a blue-grey colour add another layer where the shadows are, as shown in the bottom two images on the right.

Artist links:Some botanical artists to look at include:

Elizabeth Blackwell, Lilian Snelling, Pierre Jean François Turpin

Some artists inspired by flowers to look at include:

Georgia O’ Keeffe, Katei Taki, Vincent Van Gogh

Further Ideas:

See our Local Nature Spotting and Plant Life Cycle resources for more ideas.

These resources were created by illustrators Sion Ap Tomos, Merlin Strangeway and Toya Walker as part of a four year project with three Islington primary schools funded by Children and the Arts.

They all addressed a wide range of specific curriculum units using illustration, enabling the children to develop illustration and visual communication skills. With thanks to the pupils and teachers at Copenhagen, Robert Blair and St Andrew’s Primary Schools.

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