annieb123's Review of Just Draw Botanicals

by Helen Birch

Petite in size but packed with inspiration, Just Draw Botanicals presents 90 beautiful, contemporary botanical artworks in a range of media and styles.

Each spread includes a stunning work of art paired with a discussion of the artist’s approach to creating it, including the techniques employed. At the bottom of the page, find tips on the tools, materials and methods used to make the piece.

A hyper-realistic blackberry, a watercolour sketch of a bunch of mint in a glass, a detailed scratchboard study of three pussy willow twigs, a tribal-style pattern inspired by different leaf shapes, an abstract image-transfer print of a milkweed plant… the techniques and subjects covered are diverse. With these and more artworks – created in a variety of media, including watercolour, coloured pencils, oil, pen and ink, mixed media and pencil – explore:

Shape, form and light
Harmonious colours
Contrasting elements
Fine detail
Capturing movement
Cropped compositions
Using negative space
Anatomical accuracy

A visual index is included at the front of the book so you can easily skip to a style or colour palette that interests you. At the back of the book, find an overview of materials and tips for using them; a list of further resources, including books and websites; and two additional indexes, one by artist name and the other by subject.

Whether you are an artist looking for fresh ideas for creating botanical art or simply enjoy looking at nature-inspired images, this portable volume is a rich resource.

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Just Draw Botanicals is a beautifully curated artwork collection and gallery book by Helen Birch. Due out 3rd March 2020 from Quarto on their White Lion imprint, it's 208 pages and will be available in flexibound format.

This is both an inspiration book and (much less so) tutorial or instruction book. It covers a very wide range of artistic styles and subjects. The only common theme is the botanical subject. It includes a helpful picture gallery table of contents as well as an artist index, so readers can concentrate on one artist at a time or the entire smorgasbord of variety which is included.

A short introduction is followed by the gallery of works. Each of the studies has the work on a full page with a *short* info and tips section on the facing page. These explanations include techniques such as medium used and other contrast and style info.

The gallery is followed by a short fundamental tutorial for drawing botanicals: choosing tools and materials, getting started, painting, sketching, and working digitally. The tutorial chapter segues into a short (but fairly useful) bibliography and links for further reading.

This is a well done book showing a very wide variety of rendering techniques. This would be a valuable resource for a student up to professional artist, or as a beautiful art book in its own right. I'm emphatically not a gifted artist, but I found a number of good tips in this compilation.

Five stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Just Draw Botanicals

by Helen Birch

Reviewed by annieb123 on Feb 29, 2020

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