Step by step Botanical Japanese leaves illustration process

   Last weekend I Spent two days at a botanical illustration seminar painting the beautiful leaves of a very large Japanese Maple not far from my house. This is a seminar I indulge in once or twice a year as a student. It provides a great chance to simply sit and paint for two consecutive days without the constant interruptions of the studio and household. It is set up in a very informal way with each participant choosing their subject and then simply get to work. The professor wanders around helping people as they encounter problems and we just paint for a while. It is a mixed group of beginners and experienced artists.

   Botanical illustration is a very time intensive technique and as a result I ended up cutting a lot of corners in order to get things done by the end of the second day. Four leaves were quite a bit of work but look nice lined up.


   The first thing I did was to select a few leaves which were unique in colour or pattern from those around them. Japanese maple trees, while appearing red, encompass tones from yellow through various oranges and golds to deep scarlet. Many have small spots on them and I tried to add a couple of these to the mix for interest.

   Out of these I was able to select four leaves to render. After a light pencil drawing I began with a light yellow wash.
   A particular challenge with these leaves is that the edges are actually darker than the insides of the leaf. Since the light yellow was incredibly hard to see I started with the edges this time. The result was easier to see although much less aesthetically pleasing during the process than it usually is.

   Working in layers I was able to add a enough color to the plate to establish the unique tones of individual leaves.

   Coming back on the second morning, I was glad to have stopped by the tree again as all the leaves where dry and had rolled up. I tried to match the leaves as much as possible colourwise. That is why there are a number of leaves layed out above the original four.
   I began day two by adding in the green tips on each of the leaves that had them.

From there it was just a question of intensifying the colours

and adding detail

Seems simple enough, but it took the rest of the day.


Here is the finished work.

There were several wonderful illustrations. Several people chose apples and the others primarily did leaves. A few did other Autumn fruits and berries.

  Since returning from this weekend of painting I have been starting to get ready slowly for Christmas and Advent. I am working on my Christmas gift guide for those of you who are artists or know artists. I will be including some of my newer finds as well as continuing favorites. Look out for it on the weekend. I will also be doing a cultural post on Advent in the coming week.

In the meantime check out my 2 workshops coming up as well as how to order a painting of your house as a special Christmas present.

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