Botany Workshop at the Huntington Gardens

Huntington Gardens

Botany with Jim Folsom, the director of the botanical gardens.

What a great day we had at The Huntington.  Jim Folsom is a wonderful instructor and incredibly knowledgeable of Botany.

It was so exciting entering the lab at The Huntington.  There were racks overflowing with  fruits and vegetables.  

Beautiful flowers were brought in for us to dissect and view under the microscopes.

All the microscopes waiting for the students to open up and start playing!  Each student had two different types of scopes to use throughout the day.

Jars of specimens filled the tables.  By the end of the day, plants littered all the tables and Jim's worktable was so filled with specimens, he just kept pushing everything into organized piles.

Beautiful Poppies!  It was such a shame to dissect them.

Alyse and I enjoying learning about the Botany of the plants we draw for our assignments.

What a great day, can't wait to take more Botany classes at the Huntington!

Fun, Fun, Day!

SBA Assignment #3 Leaves

So for this assignment, we were to make a green color chart.  Now remember, I am completing this course solely in colored pencil so my color charts look much different than the water color students.  Much easier to mix my colors and each time I get the same results.  Don't know how the watercolor students duplicate their colors each time.

Composition pages

Composition is one of the hardest thing for me to get right.  I took all my leaves and starting laying them out on the paper, taking pictures of the different compositions.  

Too many leaves all lined up like soldiers

Mixed them up a bit.  That big leaf is too big.  The eye keeps going back to it.

This one is better, but forgot my Monocot leaf.

I did like this composition,, but when I tried to draw the Monocot, I realized I couldn't get it perfect.

Final Composition!

My instructions called for all different varieties of leaves.

Sketchbook pages

One of my sketchbook pages, not complete yet.  I get them started but haven't finished them up.  This assignment required one for each leaf, plus the green color chart and the composition pages.  I will have to go back at a later date and finish them up.  

Final assignment

Tutors Notes - Here is an abbreviated version of my tutors comments: 

You have chosen some very interesting leaves for this Assignment.  My only criticism is that your green leaves are all a similar shade.  A really bright, yellow/green leaf wold have added even more interest.
Some of your leaves are 'touchable', especially the Bougainvillea, but sadly one or two look a little flat.  Just a tiny bit more evidence of a light source would eradicate this.

A selection of leaves offers a wonderful challenge ass far as composition goes, as there are so man;y smaller shapes to fit comfortable together.  This is really well done, with some upright, some hanging down and the ones with the curves placed cleverly so the viewer is led gently through the work.

This has got to be the best example of near perfect labeling I have ever seen!  Please do it every time - you will make me so happy!!

Labeling on back of artwork

I could not be happier with my final mark of 9.49..... not sure how I am going to top this mark:) 

Now to keep working on Assignment #4 Flower Heads

Jenean's Garden

Went to visit my girlfriends garden.  It's like going to a Botanical Garden, complete with Orchard, Koi Pond, and a view of the caboose next door.   I had so much fun taking pictures of all the treasures she has hidden around every corner.  The flowers are all amazing, definitely a Botanists dream :)

Pots overflowing with flowers on the patio

Huge Hibiscus bush with dozens if not hundreds of blooms.

One of Jenean's garden treasures, a glass sphere.

Secret garden leading to the fruit orchard

Bird Feeder in the middle of the flowers.  A birds paradise!

Even a cactus garden, Jenean has everything back here!

Huge Koi pond with dozens of large Koi.  Wooden decking around the front to visit the Koi and waterfalls that delights the ears. 

A baby mouse hidden away on a table.  So many fun things to discover.

Besides visiting Jenean, the reason I went to visit was to find some out of the ordinary flowers to paint for my SBA Flower Assignment.  

The assignment must comprise seven flower heads, life size, each showing a maximum of 6cm of stem but No leaves.  Show examples of different shapes, colours, and sizes.  Try to show each flower to its best advantage with the salient parts of its construction on display. 

I need a blue colored flower, so this Columbine will work perfect. Does anyone know what variety it is?

These are great, love the color, the petals and the stamens.  Though the stamens are not my favorite thing to draw, but I need the practice.  Anyone know the name?

Loved this rose 'Double Delight'.  Great coloring with a pale yellow center deep inside.

My favorite was this thingy.  Never seen it before.  It starts out with a red flower, grows green seeds/fruit(?) and then they turn dark purple.  This one I am definitely going to draw for my assignment.

Anyone know the name of this one?

Fun afternoon at Jenean's.

I've got  

Now I just have to start sketching.

Check back for my progress on this assignment!

SBA Assignment #2

Assignment #2 Coloured Pencil 

Study 1 - Produce a small composition of a leaf, fruit and single flower.

Citrus × meyeri 

Tutors Comment's: (abbreviated)

The lemon leaf is beautifully accurate and I really like the un-ripened fruit.  The shading on your lemon flower is perfect, especially since shite flowers are not easy to depict.

This Meyer Lemon tree is right outside the window of my art room.  It has lemons on it most of the year and I am always leaving a bucket of them for my neighbors to enjoy.

Study 2 - Produce a small study of single flower and its foliage.

Tulipa 'Ronaldo'

Tutor's Comments: (abreviated)  

A good choice of colours.  The Ronaldo tulip is a very dark flower and you have made it look rich and deep but not dirty and black and the leaves are such a pretty shade of green.

I decided to draw a Tulip after my mother said she would like one of my paintings for Mother's Day.

Since these assignments take so much time out of my life, I decided to create greeting cards out of this Tulip and send one to each of my favorite mothers for their special day :)

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers of the world!

My tutor gave me the nicest complement I could have received

"If this is the standard of your work at the beginning of the Diploma Course Lori, then I cant wait to see what you will be producing at the end!

Final Mark for the assignment 8.46

Hope you enjoy the journey with me

Lori V.

Filoli

Filoli, an estate South of San Francisco in the town of Woodside, California.  Built in 1915 by Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn.  The name Filoli came by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”    The 654-acre estate is a California State Historic Landmark and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. 

I was lucky enough to visit Filoli this past weekend, taking two courses, Framing & Portfolio, which are part of the Botanical Illustration Course offered at the estate.  Lee McCaffree was the instructor for this course.  She was a wonderful teacher and very knowledgeable about the subject.

The front entrance of the estate.

View of the Sunken Gardens

One of the garden carts at the Filoli Garden Shop.  

The carts were overflowing with flowers and plants to purchase.

View of the many paths of the walled gardens.

The back door of the estate

Just another pathway into one of the side entrances of the home

View looking in thru the Filoli Garden House

The Garden House

Oh yes, I did take a couple of classes while at Filoli.

Here is the instructor, Lee McCaffree and me working on framing ideas for my Hellebore.

Looking forward to returning to Filoli and taking more Botanical Art classes.

SBA - ASSIGNMENT #1 DRAWING

Received my artwork and marks from my SBA tutor in England today.

I had completed this assignment before even being accepted into the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course.  I read thru the sample assignment descriptions on the SBA website and decided to go along with the program, completing the assignments as best I could.

I tend to do well when I have instructions and a goal, so this kept me going with my artwork.

Once I was accepted into the program, they gladly accepted the first assignment, which I had brought with me to England on my last trip.

I really wasn't sure what to expect grade wise, so I was very happy when I received my marks in the mail today and received an 8.7 out of 10.

Tonal Values

Tutor's comments:  Excellent tonal strip with good even graduated of squares from light to dark. 

 Near Perfect!

Line Drawing

Tutor's Comments:  Beautiful piece well composed and positioned on the sheet.  However the line is too dark.  (I did not realize the weight of the lines were to be very thin, so it could be painted over at a later date)  All the structure and character is there as is your drawing ability.

Stippled Study of a Single Flower

 Tutors Comments:  Here you have produced a wonderful study showing the character of the subject.  Your ability to convey shape and form with this technique is extremely good and you have good constraint showing depth.

Note: Tutor's comments are a condensed version

All in all, I am very happy with my marks and the tutors comments. 

Looking forward to receiving the marks back from Assignment #2

Now it's back to work on Assignment #3 Leaves!

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SBA Society of Botanical Artists

I have begun my 27 month journey of the Society of Botanical Artists,  Distance Learning Diploma Course.  I was accepted into the program which began the beginning of 2013 and will be completing the course entirely in Coloured Pencil.  I will be posting my progress thought the months by posting my art and adventures

The SBA Course is open to students anywhere in the world and there are currently students from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Canada and the USA as well as Europe and the UK. 

For more information on the Society and the Distance Learning course, check out the SBA website.

Please join me in my journey!

Assignment #1 Drawing.  
I will post these drawings as soon as I receive them back from the tutor in the UK, I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them before turning them into my tutor.




Assignment #2 Coloured Pencil

 Exercise 1 - Drawing an cylinder, 

Exercise 2 - Layering with a single colour

Exercise 3 - Blending two colors

This was a fun little exercise which I used a Prismacolor Pencil for the cylinder and Faber Castell pencils for the layering and blending exercises.

Study 1 - Produce a small composition of a leaf, fruit and single flower.

Citrus × meyeri 

This Meyer Lemon tree is right outside the window of my art room.  It has lemons on it most of the year and I am always leaving a bucket of them for my neighbors to enjoy.

Study 2 - Produce a small study of single flower and its foliage.

Tulipa 'Ronaldo'

I decided to draw a Tulip after my mother said she would like one of my paintings for Mother's Day.

Since these assignments take so much time out of my life, I decided to create greeting cards out of this Tulip and send one to each of my favorite mothers for their special day :)

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers of the world!

Check back in a couple weeks for my tutors comments and marks!

Hope you enjoy the journey with me

Lori V.