Botanical illustration at Kew: Our resident artist shares…

In an age of photography, are botanical illustrations still important? Meet with Kew’s botanical artist in residence Lucy T Smith to …

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So, inside the ripe fruit you’ve got these tiny, tiny, tiny seeds. And I really loved painting that because they were so small. Hi, I’m Lucy Smith,
one of the botanical artists at Kew. Welcome to my little hidden corner of Kew, which is the artist room
inside the herbarium. My job is to draw plants and paint plants, usually for publication
in scientific journals and books. Sometimes there are new species of plants
that are being described to science for the first time, and other times they might be plants that are interesting
or new to horticulture. With scientific research,
every time a plant is described as being new to science,
it has to be published in the journal and that journal
has to have illustrations alongside it. So we take the botanists words
and put them into visual form. But often while we’re drawing the plants,
we actually make new observations about them that perhaps enhance
what the botanists have told us. But often we find new things as well. So working with botanists
is very collaborative. It’s a back and forth conversation, often with plants and identifying
and understanding them. It’s all about shapes, sizes, numbers
of things and how they’re put together. So the visual language acts
as a sort of shortcut for that. All of the illustrations and paintings
that we produce here as Kew artists go into the big collection, the archive of illustrations
that’s held here in Kew’s Library. And it’s believed there’s over 200,000
pieces of artwork in that collection. My favorite plants are probably
the ones that I’ve gotten to know best over my time at Kew,
so I really love drawing palms. That’s how I got started and also the giant waterlilies,
which I’ve been painting and drawing for about ten years now. I love how architectural
those types of plants are. So I like plants with really interesting
structures and forms. We have to be really faithful
to what the plant looks like. We can’t really take liberties
or make anything up. So you have to be very strict
in your observations about the plant. Often,
especially for scientific illustrations, we need to use our microscopes
and a magnifying glasses to blow up, and enlarge certain details
that can’t be seen with the naked eye. That’s where our scientific illustration
skills really come into play. I’m working on a new species of coffee,
and it’s really important because there’s a lot of research
being done into how there might be new species of coffee
out there that can be used for us to drink in the future to help protect
crops against climate change. And apart from that, it’s just really important
to document the biodiversity of the world For this work, I’m using pencil
to do all my preparatory drawings or the working drawings
and composing the illustration. and then I use pen and ink to create black
and white illustrations. As well as doing pen and ink work I also do watercolour for Kew. So these are the kind of illustrations I do in watercolour. This species is quite unusual because the flowers can be a little bit pink, not the usual white. And I love how on this branch you’ve got the unripe fruit which are quite green and they are turning this lovely maroon colour until they get really dark. So, inside the ripe fruit you’ve got these tiny, tiny, tiny seeds and I really loved painting that because they were so small. So for example here we’ve got the flower buds and the big leaf, you’ve got the flowers on the branch, the fruits on the branch and a breakdown of the fruits and the seed inside. When I start working on a piece, I actually start by
not even picking up a pencil, but by just really looking at the plant
and examining it from all angles. Because I want to get to know the plant,
and I want to find the best angle to draw it from. And then I start with measuring the plant. So measuring the proportions
between parts of it and measuring specific parts and making quite loose
drawings to begin with and starting to draw all those beautiful little details that
we’re really fond of in botanical art. Are you interested in knowing how to start
getting into botanical art? Well, these are things that I recommend. Firstly, it helps if you’re
the kind of person who loves nature, who loves observing nature,
and if you’re really into detail. plants all around us
and we take them for granted. But as a botanical artist and illustrator, you learn to look further
and further into that plant and you just discover new things about it
all the time. So it’s this constant voyage of discovery,
exploration and appreciation of nature. So I would say start by observing
and drawing the plants around you. take a closer look at them. Start your own botanical sketchbook where
you might record plants on a daily basis. Learn a little bit about botany so that you can understand
about the structures of plants. Try out different methods of drawing
using pencil, pen and ink and watercolor. And finally, take your time with this
art form. It’s something that requires
a lot of patience and pleasure
in looking really thoroughly at something. So don’t rush it. I If you’re going to
then work on a botanical painting. It’s really important to observe the color
of the plant from life. So have your watercolors with you. And don’t be afraid of color. Just mix up your paints. Splash them down on the paper
until you’ve got the colors that you need, and you can start slowly building them up.

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