Step by step developement of my Basil Plant study

 Week four of the natural history illustration course just ended and with it the leaf and flower studies. I was a little late doing the leaf as I was ill on the weekend, but it is done and turned in allowing my attention to turn to animals and birds. One of the hardest and most delightful sections of this course.

Since I have written posts on how to keep a natural history illustration field journal, and well as showing mine, I will simply show the steps I took to create this page.


 I put my plant against a canvas to provide a white background- do you see the stained glass window reflected in it?

 A rough sketch of the overall proportion of the plant and positioning of the leaves:

Then I stated to add detail:

 As I worked I noted interesting specifics of the plant:

 Here I am removing the erasings:

Developing the 'flower':

 I had to take a break. there were a ton of tiny elements in the flower:)

 And finally a close up of an individual leaf to show detailed form and structure:

 And here is the final product including the color swatches, date, temperature, and species information:

What do you think? would it make a nice poster? Should I do other herbs? Let me know.



If you liked this you might also like:
- Step by step Grizzly bear illustration
- Graphite only
- Field sketching kit must haves
- creating a routine to get things done in the studio


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