Drawing Flowers: Botanical Art and Illustration

By its very nature, the world of art spans the spectrum of the human experience. From sculpture to watercolors to performance, art shows us our world in new and sometimes surprising ways. When the two worlds of art and science overlap, however, sometimes, we find the origins of something truly spectacular. Botanical art and illustration are closely linked disciplines that seek to replicate the beauty of nature as accurately as possible while still stimulating the human imagination. Simply drawing or painting flowers has its own artistic appeal, but what sets botanical illustration apart is the devotion to scientific accuracy. Even after the advent of photography, these simple, clean line drawings have often been used to shed new light on plant structures.

What Is Botanical Art and Illustration?

Botanical art and botanical illustration share enough attributes that they are sometimes thought of as the same discipline. Both are combinations of art and science intended to accurately depict the flora of our world. The distinctions between them are worth noting, since they differ more in intent than in practice. Both methods represent plants and flowers as they appear in nature. While the botanical artist also strives for accuracy, the focus is on aesthetics and producing a pleasing image of the flower or plant in question. There's no requirement to make the image complete enough to denote all parts of the plant. Botanical illustration, on the other hand, focuses on the scientific identification of plants. That means that all the parts of the plant must be rendered accurately enough to distinguish the intended plant from any lookalikes. This requires a higher level of attention to detail and scientific precision but no less artistic inspiration.

• What Is Botanical Illustration?
• Botanical Art and Illustration
• Botanical Illustration: Why It's Still Relevant
• A Celebration of Botanical Art Throughout History
• Putting a Timely Focus on Nature
• What Is a Florilegium?

The History of Botanical Illustration

From early cave paintings, we know that ancient people portrayed trees and flowers as part of their natural surroundings. The beauty of plants and flowers has been included in decorations since the days of ancient Egypt, but these illustrations were generally simple and designed only to provide a pleasing image. Turning artistic ability into a record of plant identification likely began in ancient Greece, with surviving records from Pliny the Elder naming Krateuas as the first botanical illustrator. The fifth-century Codex Vindebonensis is thought to be the oldest surviving document containing botanical art. In those early days, accurate depictions of flora could guide people away from potentially hazardous plants. In the years before the invention of photography, botanical art and illustration were the best methods for recording the appearance of plant life. Artists who were fascinated by our natural world pioneered the development of the practice. In the early 1700s, Maria Sibylla Merian traveled to South America in her quest to record all manner of flowers and insects, many of which had never been illustrated previously. Other illustrators have carried the art forward over the years, continuing to advance the practice of line drawing.

• History of Botanical Illustration
• Botanical Art History
• Origins of Botanical Drawing
• Famous Botanical Illustrators
• Codex Vindebonensis
• Maria Sibylla Merian
• Female Botanical Artists

Importance to Plant Science

The importance of botanical illustration goes beyond having clear and accurate plant identification guides. In taxonomy, living things are classified into groups or types. When plants are too difficult to preserve, transport, or photograph well, illustrations can serve as evidence of their traits. Illustrations can also serve as a record of changes over time, such as those due to environmental alterations or the effects of invasive species. When depicting a complex plant, a single illustration can sometimes show all components at once in a way that would be difficult to accomplish with photographs. The botanical illustrator can draw a living plant, complete with buds, roots, and leaves, even if those components span different seasons. In addition, the beauty of these artistic expressions can inspire an interest in botanical science.

• Translating Plant Science Into Beautiful Art
• How to Create a Botanical Journal
• An Educator's Guide to Botanical Illustration
• Botanical Illustration Is a Science All its Own
• Taxonomy: A Combination of Science and Art
• Identification
• Botanical Illustration Is Essential

What Goes Into a Botanical Illustration?

Botanical artists bring a lifelike quality to their illustrations. These artists do more than show how a plant looks: They also manage to explain how plants differ from one another. Their work brings art and science together in a way that fosters appreciation for each. The clear line drawings attract the eye but also tell the scientist all of the necessary details about that plant. Because they often work with dried plant samples, artists also must breathe life back into their subjects. That means they must interpret how the plant should look, but always within the confines of realism.

• Learn Botanical Illustration
• How to Be a Botanical Artist
• Botanical Illustration Tutorial
• Making Botanical Drawings
• How to Make a Botanical Drawing
• Alice Tangerini's Illustration Process
• The Art of Illustrating Flowers
• Adding the Third Dimension

This article was published by Chad Kremp