Botanical Illustration for Beginners: A Step-By-Step Guide

A unique and exciting approach to botanical illustration, this beginner guide demonstrates everything you need to know about capturing beautiful botanical specimens on paper.

Each exercise guides the reader through a different aspect of botanical illustration, breaking the whole process down into simple, easy-to-follow stages. Whether you are a beginner looking for advice on composition and how to plot out your initial drawings, an experienced artist looking to develop your skills at colour mixing and working with unusual colours, or an old hand looking to capture more challenging and complex textures and shapes, there is something for botanical artists of all levels.

Acclaimed artists Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan ran the popular botanical painting course at the Eden Project and have filled this fantastically illustrated guide with practical and inspirational worksheets, colour swatches, sketches and stunning finished paintings.

Meriel Thurstan joined the renowned Eden Project at its creation and helped to create the Eden’s Friends organization and produce its very first magazine. Meriel organizes the extremely successful annual Eden diploma course in botanical illustration. Her own botanical paintings hang in England, France, and Australia, and have become a popular highlight of each issue of Eden’s Friends magazine. She lives in Cornwall, England.

Rosie Martin holds a Gold Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society for her botanical watercolor painting. She is an elected member of the Society of Botanical Artists and teaches a variety of art-based subjects, including botanical illustration. She has worked in fashion, ballet and theatre; her clients have included David Bowie, Anthony Caro, Karl Lagerfeld, and Jean Muir, for whom she produced textiles and interior design prints.