Botanical Illustration: With Watercolor & Colored Pencils
Adele Rossetti
Class Preview
0:51
- In-depth Instruction; over 185 mins
- On-demand video access anytime
- Bonus downloadable PDF resources
- Access to class Q&A
Beginning the Basic Drawing
18:31
Meet your instructor, professor and botanical artist Adele Rossetti, as you dive into a colorful marriage of botany and art. You'll start by studying the basic structure of flowers and selecting a reference photo to use throughout the class. Next, Adele shows you how to create a grid and block in spaces for your flower structures.
Finishing the Basic Outline in Graphite
18:07
Build upon the major forms you created in the prior lesson as you start to develop the significant geometric shapes in your drawing. Adele shares valuable tips for capturing the proper dimension and perspective of your plants, as well as how to train your eye to recreate shapes and lines with precision.
The Black & White Value Study
31:33
Put the finishing touches on your graphite study and transfer it to create a beautiful monochromatic underpainting. Adele walks you through the best methods for mixing a neutral watercolor hue that will help you build out the chiaroscuro qualities of your painting.
Painting the Leaves
32:52
Transition from your monochromatic value study into colorful hues as you study the color and value of the leaves. Adele shows you professional techniques for mixing your paints to create the exact color you want, walking you through brush types and strokes that will help lay in smooth, realistic-looking gradations.
Painting the Flowers
28:39
Move from greens and yellows into a world of vivid color and dark shadows as you explore flower colors. You'll learn how to match the color of each part of your flower before developing a delicate layer of translucency that captures the delicate nature of petals. Adele also shows you how to recreate dark velvety textures that are rich in nuance.
Finishing Your Botanical Illustration
33:14
Put the finishing touches on your botanical painting using colored pencils and the light use of kneaded erasers. Add vibrant hatching or subtle shading to create rich textures along the petals and leaves. Adele shows you how to continue improving your skills in creating gradations as you develop more dimension and depth in your beautiful work of art.
Flower Variation Techniques
21:42
Let your creativity run wild as you explore additional flower structures and techniques that will help bring your illustrations alive on the page. Adele shares anatomy tips that apply to almost every flower before sharing masterful examples of gradation, shadow, light and color that will help inform your future projects.
Learn how to draw botanical illustrations as you capture the incredible beauty of flowers and plants in intricate detail! Illustrate a stunning orchid as award-winning artist Adele Rossetti shows you how to achieve lifelike accuracy with ease. Explore the structure of plants before learning how to create a proportional outline sketch, and discover Adele’s clever trick for conquering perspective challenges. Transform your drawing from flat to fully dimensional using value shifts to build form and volume. Then, master color-mixing, vibrant watercolor washes and soft, seamless blends as you paint the leaves and petals of your plant. Use colored pencils to refine your painting with rich texture and contrast, and learn Adele’s inspiring tips for creating a gorgeous garden of floral variations.
Adele Rossetti
Adele RossettiÂ’s botanical illustrations and paintings have been widely published and exhibited, winning awards from the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Royal Horticultural Society of the UK and the Hunt Institute. Adele taught color theory and scientific illustration at the Pratt Institute for more than a decade, and continues to teach privately and at the New York and Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.
Bonus materials available after purchase