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Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration: An artist's guide to drawing and illustrating realistic flora, fauna, and botanical scenes from nature
Draw and paint beautiful, vibrant, and realistic birds and botanicals with The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration. Take a sketch and transform it into fine art!
The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration is a guide for contemporary artists aspiring to master shape, color, and texture and render beautiful, realistic, and vibrant botanical artwork. Author Mindy Lighthipe, an expert botanical artist, educates you about the tools and materials traditionally used in botanical illustration, including pencils, colored pencils, watercolor, gouache, and pastels.
This thorough yet easily digestible guide includes overviews of key illustration techniques and basic color theory and mixing, and it's loaded with exercises designed to help you learn to see shape, value, and form. By learning tounderstand plant life and anatomy, you can craft elegant flowers, leaves, trees, and much more in no time!
To bring it all together, The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration includes step-by-step demonstrations to follow along with as you practice taking sketches and transforming them into fully rendered, colorful pieces of fine art.
The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration is a guide for contemporary artists aspiring to master shape, color, and texture and render beautiful, realistic, and vibrant botanical artwork. Author Mindy Lighthipe, an expert botanical artist, educates you about the tools and materials traditionally used in botanical illustration, including pencils, colored pencils, watercolor, gouache, and pastels.
This thorough yet easily digestible guide includes overviews of key illustration techniques and basic color theory and mixing, and it's loaded with exercises designed to help you learn to see shape, value, and form. By learning tounderstand plant life and anatomy, you can craft elegant flowers, leaves, trees, and much more in no time!
To bring it all together, The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration includes step-by-step demonstrations to follow along with as you practice taking sketches and transforming them into fully rendered, colorful pieces of fine art.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2017
203 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 17, 2018
Awesome books keep coming my way and I hope it remains like that. This time I got inspired to level up my nature-themed drawing and painting skills with Mindy Lighthipe's book, The art of botanical and bird illustration. It starts with the very basics of recommended materials, their properties and how she makes use of them: from different types of paper to digital cameras and pinterest. She also uses different kinds of mediums: graphite, watercolors, gouache, pastels and colored pencils, which gives more freedom of expression depending what type of illustration we want to achieve.
This is not a 3-step DIY book for you to just follow and copy drawings, if you want instant gratification and a book that helps you create something ready in a day, if you don't want to spend the time learning, then I wouldn't recommend this book for you. If you are willing to do the work and take your time to practice, this book gives you foundations so you can choose your own subjects and create whatever nature illustration you want. It includes tips, notes and exercises that will help you polish your craft. Some of them are: graphite pencil tonal scale worksheet, color charts, brush techniques, how to photograph botanical subjects, surface contour, how to light a subject, leaf, flower and bird anatomy/ morphology (only what is relevant for achieving realistic illustrations), tonal rendering, several examples of her illustration process (with helpful images), how to achieve realism and three dimensionality, etc.
I specially liked how detailed the explanations were and how much of her own experience is shared in here. The way she uses mylar (which I didn't know about) on both sides of the page was totally new to me. I would have loved to own a book like this one when I was studying Biology, but it is never too late to start!. I think this book is a great resource if you want to create realistic nature illustrations with emphasis on plants and birds. Those who practice urban sketching or keep travel journals and include nature in their sketchbooks can also benefit from it.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an eArc of this awesome book.
This is not a 3-step DIY book for you to just follow and copy drawings, if you want instant gratification and a book that helps you create something ready in a day, if you don't want to spend the time learning, then I wouldn't recommend this book for you. If you are willing to do the work and take your time to practice, this book gives you foundations so you can choose your own subjects and create whatever nature illustration you want. It includes tips, notes and exercises that will help you polish your craft. Some of them are: graphite pencil tonal scale worksheet, color charts, brush techniques, how to photograph botanical subjects, surface contour, how to light a subject, leaf, flower and bird anatomy/ morphology (only what is relevant for achieving realistic illustrations), tonal rendering, several examples of her illustration process (with helpful images), how to achieve realism and three dimensionality, etc.
I specially liked how detailed the explanations were and how much of her own experience is shared in here. The way she uses mylar (which I didn't know about) on both sides of the page was totally new to me. I would have loved to own a book like this one when I was studying Biology, but it is never too late to start!. I think this book is a great resource if you want to create realistic nature illustrations with emphasis on plants and birds. Those who practice urban sketching or keep travel journals and include nature in their sketchbooks can also benefit from it.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an eArc of this awesome book.
January 23, 2018
The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration: An artist's guide to drawing and illustrating realistic flora, fauna, and botanical scenes from nature by author Mindy Lighthipe is Great! The instructions are very clear and easy to understand. The illustrations are artfully presented and encourage a beginner or intermediate to want to grab a sketchbook and get started. The variations of the subjects and content are beautifully illustrated. This book is a welcome addition to my library!
August 19, 2018
This is a very good basic book on drawing and illustrating plants and birds. It has un underpinning of the traditional and how to achieve accurate illustrations. There are a few methods to get the detail right, which are extremely useful to both beginners and experienced artists. In this world of razzamatazz, it's great to find a solid book on how to do it right.
February 4, 2018
This book is an art instruction book for using graphite pencil, colored pencil, and watercolor to do botanical illustration. It covered the basic materials and techniques for realistic rendering of plants and birds. She covered plant anatomy and how to draw leaves, branches, roots, flowers, and birds. She talked a little about the special considerations in botanical drawing and how it is different from other artwork. For example, you include the different stages of the flower in one drawing. She also talked about setting up a live plant reference with lighting and such.
She did a good job of explaining drawing terms at a level a beginner can understand. In the demonstrations, she went step-by-step from the idea to the final artwork, explaining what she was doing and why. She included clear illustrations of what she was describing. Overall, I'd recommend this informative book.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.
She did a good job of explaining drawing terms at a level a beginner can understand. In the demonstrations, she went step-by-step from the idea to the final artwork, explaining what she was doing and why. She included clear illustrations of what she was describing. Overall, I'd recommend this informative book.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.
February 26, 2018
The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration by Mindy Lighthipe is a wonderful starting place for a beginner artist looking to understand the mediums, approach and details of how to create botanical art. For me, I had a lot of the first half of the book in my head already but it was a great reminder of the age old principles I had been taught. The second half really hits it's stride on the detailed botanical side of drawing. I am an impressionist by nature and the extraordinary amount of patience, set-up and attention to detail required to create these kinds of work has always put me off. I love admiring it though, it's so intricate. The book illuminates on all the little things one wouldn't think of which will make a huge impact on the final piece. Despite my impatience, I intend to give this a go as soon as my CRPS allows, the author has instilled in me a "can-do" attitude and broken the process down enough that it feels manageable. It's a five out of five on the en-JOY-ment scale.
February 21, 2018
This book gives incredibly detailed instruction for illustrating nature with stunning imagery! I highly recommend this book to those looking to develop or improve their artistic skills.
Thank you #NetGalley and Walter Foster Publishing for providing me with #TheArtofBotanical&BirdIllustration to read and review!
Thank you #NetGalley and Walter Foster Publishing for providing me with #TheArtofBotanical&BirdIllustration to read and review!
January 24, 2018
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Walter Foster art and graphics publishing have a catalog which encompasses all types of graphic and mixed media arts as well as art history and culture. The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration is a 144 page instruction and tutorial manual available in ebook and paperback formats. The author is an experienced artist and illustrator.
There was a lot to like here. I really like the author's calm and reassuring writing style. The photography and individual technical tutorials are well written and very well illustrated. The biological/botanical/anatomical information in the book is well presented and correct. She also emphasizes the importance of nomenclature and precision when drawing and illustrating plants. The book abounds with creative and useful tips for natural positioning and drawing botanical samples. I loved the tip about using floral water tubes and a third hand to hold botanical samples during the drawing process.
I also really liked that the author isn't a purist. It's clear that she's not a shill for any particular brand name. She shows what -she- uses and works with and leaves it up to the student to find methods and tools which work for them.
She even manages to sneak a little philosophy into the book without being preachy or strident at all. She mentions the use of reference photographs and that ethical artists will use stock photographs as reference guides but not slavishly copy them and claim them as original. (She says it in a much less confrontational manner). Intellectual theft and copying is so rife. I think her subtle message is both needed and timely.
There are many things to like about this book. I read it in one sitting and went back and worked on some of the introductory shading and shadowing exercises with a still life. My results weren't terribly impressive, but it's made me want to work on my drawing more rather than frustrating me into quitting. This is not a beginner book. It is , however, an inspirational book and one to grow with.
There is basically zero handholding/spoonfeeding. This is not a book to pick up if you've never held a pencil before. She does go over some basics of perspective and shading, but not nearly enough to get a beginner from a starting point to a position of confidence without a lot of (possibly insurmountable) frustration.
I received the electronic ARC of this book, so I can't speak to the quality of the physical book, but I'm assuming it's the same quality as the other Walter Foster tutorial titles.
Four stars, beautifully illustrated and a valuable resource.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
Walter Foster art and graphics publishing have a catalog which encompasses all types of graphic and mixed media arts as well as art history and culture. The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration is a 144 page instruction and tutorial manual available in ebook and paperback formats. The author is an experienced artist and illustrator.
There was a lot to like here. I really like the author's calm and reassuring writing style. The photography and individual technical tutorials are well written and very well illustrated. The biological/botanical/anatomical information in the book is well presented and correct. She also emphasizes the importance of nomenclature and precision when drawing and illustrating plants. The book abounds with creative and useful tips for natural positioning and drawing botanical samples. I loved the tip about using floral water tubes and a third hand to hold botanical samples during the drawing process.
I also really liked that the author isn't a purist. It's clear that she's not a shill for any particular brand name. She shows what -she- uses and works with and leaves it up to the student to find methods and tools which work for them.
She even manages to sneak a little philosophy into the book without being preachy or strident at all. She mentions the use of reference photographs and that ethical artists will use stock photographs as reference guides but not slavishly copy them and claim them as original. (She says it in a much less confrontational manner). Intellectual theft and copying is so rife. I think her subtle message is both needed and timely.
There are many things to like about this book. I read it in one sitting and went back and worked on some of the introductory shading and shadowing exercises with a still life. My results weren't terribly impressive, but it's made me want to work on my drawing more rather than frustrating me into quitting. This is not a beginner book. It is , however, an inspirational book and one to grow with.
There is basically zero handholding/spoonfeeding. This is not a book to pick up if you've never held a pencil before. She does go over some basics of perspective and shading, but not nearly enough to get a beginner from a starting point to a position of confidence without a lot of (possibly insurmountable) frustration.
I received the electronic ARC of this book, so I can't speak to the quality of the physical book, but I'm assuming it's the same quality as the other Walter Foster tutorial titles.
Four stars, beautifully illustrated and a valuable resource.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
January 21, 2018
In The Art of Botanical and Bird Illustration Mindy Lighthipe describes step-by-step how she makes her intricate illustrations and gives the reader insight into her artist toolbox. As I am not an artist with formal training in drawing, reading this book from a professional was very helpful for me in many aspects. Mindy Lighthipe's tips range from gathering inspirations, photographing and sketching, using different tools, making anatomically correct drawings, using color, incorporating light and shade, playing with the arrangement of objects, producing a layered drawing with mixed media, to digitalizing the final product. This book has taught me that a lot of work goes into a high quality illustration. By paying attention to detail and breaking the work down into manageable steps, the task becomes less daunting.
January 31, 2018
Beautifully illustrated book, quite short-spoken explanations. It contains elementary information you can find in any art-teaching book (materials, light and shadow, color mixing, etc), plus theme related arguments as how to photograph plants, how to identify them, leafs and petals anatomy, specific techniques, etc. Some drawings and paintings also include animals, birds actually (with some anatomy, too), why I have not seen any insects. It is quite far from being complete, it seems the author picked up some arguments she was interested in while totally neglecting others.
August 19, 2020
Very nicely done artists guide that gives not only technical details of techniques, but also provides an insight into the decision-making process of creating the illustrations. Many examples of works are shown, step-by-step. The tips and advice given in the book are not limited to botanical and bird illustration, but I think would be helpful for any artist.
March 11, 2021
It’s not often I happen upon a drawing book that I really learn from, but this book is one of those. I’ve been an artist for 20 years and this book breaks down birds and botanicals in an easy way, so you can replicate the process outside of the book as well. My teen artist and I both loved it. I only wish it had been a bit longer
September 5, 2018
Excellent!
Comprehensive in all ways and my new favorite resource book. There is no process of approach she misses. I couldn't be happier or more excited to dig in and produce professional work.
Comprehensive in all ways and my new favorite resource book. There is no process of approach she misses. I couldn't be happier or more excited to dig in and produce professional work.
January 12, 2021
Loved the illustration and 'how to' sections of gaining full depth to any botanical or bird illustrations, I am only just started 'dabbling' and found this book inspiring and gave me hope to practise more and improve my sketching skills, as I love both botanical and bird illustration.
July 21, 2021
A very thorough guide to botanical and bird illustration. The step by step drawings and description are very helpful in understanding all the various elements involved. The book is also very instructive in helping to train to guide the artist's eye when looking at plants and birds.
December 22, 2022
Great art book with tips for any level of artists, beginners to pros. Process is very thoroughly explained, especially the WHY things are done, and offers takes on multiple mediums (pencils, watercolor, gouache).
August 19, 2018
Loved this book.
March 2, 2020
Amazingly gorgeous! Buy it!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews