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Award-winning botanical artist Işık Güner shares her passion for drawing and painting living plants from around the world. Her work is both artistically accomplished and scientifically accurate, and will inspire you to master the skills you need to produce your own botanical illustrations from life.
- Discover how to select, preserve and position your specimens.
- Develop your understanding of perspective and composition.
- Learn the techniques of drawing and watercolour painting.
With the help of Ekin Ozbicer’s striking photography and numerous illustrations by Işık and other renowned botanical artists, this visually stunning book bridges the gap between science and art and will inspire artists, illustrators, botanists and plant lovers in equal measure.
Foreword 8
START 10
- Communication through drawing 12
- Plants for life 14
- Past and present 16
- Different approaches 18
- Different techniques 21
OBSERVE 24
- Learn to see what you’re looking at 26
- Observing plants in their habitat 28
- Plant selection 32
- Pressing specimens 34
- Searching for plants 36
- Preserving plants 41
- Positioning plants 42
- Positioning yourself 47
DRAW 48
- Drawing from life 50
- Starting to draw 53
- How to draw 56
- Measured drawing 61
- Perspective drawing 66
- Aerial perspective 72
- Complex subjects 75
- Let’s draw plants 78
- Composition 80
- Ready to paint 84
PAINT 86
- Watercolour 88
- Starting to paint 90
- How to paint 94
- Colour 98
- Mixing colours 100
- Colour contrast 103
- Colour perspective 104
- Texture 107
- Sketches 108
- Let’s paint 112
- Final touches 118
EXPLORE 120
- Botanical illustration is all about details 122
- Exploring many different types of plant 125
- Identification of species 128
- Roots 131
- Stems 134
- Buds 140
- Leaves 145
- Flowers 159
- Fruits and seeds 174
MASTER 186
- Finding your style 188
- Finding solutions 191
- Inspiration from nature 192
- Inspiration from other artists 196
- Akiko Enekido 198
- Lizzie Sanders 199
- Anne Hayes 200
- Constance Sayas 201
- Jacqui Pestell 202
- Gustavo Surlo 203
- Plant list 204
Born in 1983 in Ankara, Turkey, Işık Güner studied Environmental Engineering at Marmara University in Istanbul. During her undergraduate course, she also began studying Botanical Illustration, attending courses by Christabel King and immediately after graduating in 2006, she began working full time as a botanical artist. Since then, Isik has been working on various international botanical projects around the world. She is a visiting tutor for the Diploma of Botanical Illustration at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, UK,
