Vicki Lee Johnston - Botanical Art: SBA Assignment

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Sketchbook studies ....

The great news is that my final diploma artworks have been completed and are on their way to the location in the UK to be assessed by the judging panel.


Finally ...

It's been a chaotic household in the last few weeks - trying to complete three artworks and gather everything together. The postage for this course has been very expensive - travelling from Western Australia to London is an awfully long way and the time taken and costs incurred certainly reflect that. The sketchbook adds a lot of weight to the final packages being sent.

For the duration of the course we have been following guidelines and examples given by those of former student Mary Ann Scott - features of her sketchbook were published by the Society of Botanical Artists publishing available here

Interview with Mary Ann Scott here at Making A Mark.

A big part of the whole assignment process is to work from sketches, colour studies and plan compositional ideas in a sketchbook supplied by the SBA - to be sent on completion with the final artworks. This sketchbook is also assessed and a mark is given to reflect a student's use of it.

These are some of my earlier sketches and going back through the book made me cringe a little - my way of working is quite crude in the early stages!

The studio is usually littered with scraps of sketch and watercolour paper with all these observations - rather than working tightly on a spiral bound book - then all the bits are stuck into the SBA provided sketchbook to show the planning process.

It's a process that works for me, while the research and observations are recorded, the lion's share of accuracy and enthusiasm is reserved for the artwork once I feel intuitively I am on the right track.
It's not as pretty as many I have seen but for me it's a personal reference tool rather than for public show. I'm not inclined to go back over it and try and embellish it, to me that defeats the purpose somewhat.

Things were done a little differently with the field studies - the sketchbook became a mini journal of sorts that travelled with me to the location ...

I included this as a separate journal to show the work in situ under very different conditions to an art studio.


Working in the Field sketch journal

Hopefully the judges can see how the sketchbook was significantly utilised rather than assess its beauty ...

For now I will breathe a sigh of relief .. at the massive amount of work completed, at the fact that summer has come to an end on the calendar, even though it's still hot and dry ...

and that there are holidays on the horizon and a season starting to turn ...

Final Assignment ...

It's difficult to believe it's been two years ... twelve assignments - and this is the final artwork before the most important part of the course - the diploma portfolio works. For now I am happy to breathe a sigh of relief I managed to get this far. You can see the familiar brown envelope in which our artwork travels across the globe - 'students work of no commercial value' always makes me cringe a little.

The assignment called for three or more flowers or berries and fruit brought together in a mixed composition. Continuing from my previous post I managed to include the final elements - being the strappy leaves of the society garlic, the stems of all the subjects and to refine the painting as much as time would allow. I can't believe I still have plenty of that blue painter's tape left - I use it to secure the paper to the perspex board and it clashes terribly with my painting - time to get a neutral coloured tape :) It is supposed to keep the artwork flat while working with watercolour.

As you can see here it doesn't work as well as hoped - but then I work quite wet and always end up with warped paper. I love to see the way the colour interacts with the wet paper - I am not so keen on working dry.

Back to my method of stretching artwork - I was organised enough to have two days spare to use this technique of flattening the artwork on completion.

Voila! Nice and flat - and no ugly blue tape. I could have done a better job of the stretching but rushed it a little and after talking to another artist have picked up a few more tips to assist with an even better result.

Now it's back to the drawing board. While this is our final regular assignment of the course - we now launch into the diploma works - three artworks required in half the time. They are also worth around forty per cent of our overall mark which is quite daunting. There are a lot of weary students around the world having to do some serious time management to meet the final course deadline in three months. Fingers crossed we have learnt enough along the way to help us all over the line. Thank you for your lovely comments and for being a great support - it makes the road a lot less lonely ...

All images © Vicki Lee Johnston

Mixed Flowers ...

The inspiration behind the choices made for this assignment came from my garden - in its prime right now at the heart of spring. One of my favourite trees is our Bauhinia variegata - known here as the butterfly tree, or orchid tree. You can see the picture of our tree here complete with the ladder still in place from my attempts at cutting the best stems to show the detail and structure of the flowers and leaves. The flowers are incredibly striking with showy stamens and the most beautiful strong colours.


Colour studies to match

The leaves are so complex - very prominent vein system and beautiful butterfly shapes .. hence the common name of butterfly tree.


First of the front facing flowers ...

These flowers were almost completed so that it would be easier to choose the other flowers to complement and not compete with the showy bauhinia. I chose 'Good Samaritan' rose buds as their colour was a beautiful rich raspberry red and the buds were a lovely form and shape which didn't overwhelm as a full blown rose might have. I also chose some scarlet rose hips to bring in a little more bright red.

I included the Tulbaghia violacea - society garlic - as it showed an interesting flowerhead shape and being such small flowers did not overwhelm the composition, yet still brought in variety to help fill the page. This would also bring in some strappy long, lean and different green leaves to contrast with the butterfly-shaped bauhinia leaf.

There's still a lot more to show on this one with a few more elements so once I have all the photos together I'll post the completed artwork ... it's a tough one as you have to choose the flowers as you go - much like gathering a bouquet from the garden. More work still to come ...

All images © Vicki Lee Johnston

Working from Photographs ...

This is Assignment 11 in the Society of Botanical Artists Distance Learning Diploma Course. After previous assignments working from real life - the botanical subject in front of us, sketching, colour studies, compositional drawing and painting the artwork ... this assignment was a chance to use our design skills. The criteria asked us to compose a greeting card using only our own photos, bringing them together in a style to suit a more commercial environment. Once completed we had to send the photos with the artwork to show how we had constructed the completed card design.

Moving along from my last blog post where I had completed the botanical subject - the Pierre de Ronsard roses, I began to incorporate the architectural elements into the composition.

The heart sign from the French Alps, the stone archway from Provence, the bird bath from our home ..

... and of course, the Eiffel Tower from Paris!

The tower was completed in graphite ... my apologies to the architect for this subtle rendition.

The architectural elements are all done in a neutral palette in watercolour.

A compilation of personal photographs resulting in my finished greeting card design.

A card for my beloved to celebrate our anniversary trip to France

or whatever you may wish it to be ... envoyé avec amour

Voila!!

Field Study Composition ...

The artwork is finally in the UK with my tutor and I wanted to show the final composition of all the field work and individual studies. The SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course has become such a familiar routine now and it's reassuring to think there will be feedback on the way we approach a botanical artwork as complex as this.


Very rough composition ideas

Once back in the studio it's time to make some sense of it all. There are so many components to the final artwork - five plants including flowers or fruit plus one to include undergrowth ... as well as a dissection of one of the plants. I had a fair idea of which five I would choose from the ten full studies done - and it came down to size as well as my personal favourites. One of my original choices was a fabulous Hakea petiolaris but in reality would have taken most of the page on its own. I scribbled a very rough plan and tried to portray my mental image of what the page would look like.


Top section

By this point it was too difficult to decide on a final composition until the painting started to take shape with colours and flow ... so I began the top two - starting with the top left Eucalyptus leucoxylon - once I had the basic drawing and washes done I moved on to the Corymbia calophylla as I was anxious to see the fit.


Starting lower area

Then on to the lower left part of the page I began the Banksia sessilis.... as you can see I had already deviated from the original plan due to how it was developing


Taking shape

Followed by the Acacia aphylla, bottom right - no room for the snapshot in the centre


Beginning the habitat study in graphite

There wasn't a lot of space left and I still had to do the plant with habitat... thankfully the Oxalis glabra is quite dainty! After doing the initial stages I threw caution to the wind and started drawing freehand with the graphite understory ... but then again it is erasable! I wanted to fill the space and chose leaves, stones, gumnuts etc to bring the composition together

I had to think about the dissection and decided (mostly due to excess white spaces) to do two dissections showing longitudinal section of the inflorescence on each one. The top dissection is done at actual size, and the Banksia sessilis was made slightly larger, hence the x 1.25 written next to it. When doing a dissection it is important to show the size portrayed for accuracy of identification.

I also played with the grasses a little to pull it all together, as there was a little too much white paper in the middle of the composition.


Assignment 10 - Working in the Field

As many of the SBA students would say, this assignment is exhaustive and I was happy to let it go. I spent a day writing a summary page, collating the long list of species sighted in the habitat, plus gathering the many pages of sketchbook studies to include in the envelope.

Botanical art is such a precise genre, although I am sensing it is important not to be too mechanical about filling the criteria ... and despite all my grumbles I really did enjoy working in the field and hope to do a lot more once the course is completed next year.

Botanical Illustration ....


Botanical Illustration

The Botanical Illustration is a real step up in the intensity in the Society of Botanical Artists DLDC. The artwork should reflect an accurate representation of the subject - size, shape, form, botanical structures, plant anatomy - and yet still be aesthetically pleasing in the form of a finished piece.


Colour testing


Testing greens ... a tricky leaf

After transferring the final composition onto watercolour paper, I did quite a few washes and colour testing to get the colour as true as possible. I used Quinacridone Coral and Permanent Rose on the upper bracts, bringing in a little Transparent Yellow in the warmer tones and Neutral Tint in the shadows. The leaves were a combination of Cadmium Lemon, Cerulean, French Ultramarine and Neutral Tint.


First washes going on

A new way of working this time was to bring in the first washes on the leaves well before the flower was completed ... it helped to give a better overall perspective of what was needed. As I built the layers of colour I also brought in the stem and started to refine the detail ...


Starting graphite dissection illustration


Longitudinal flower head dissection

Working very carefully after ensuring measurements are accurate and finer detail are included. I really enjoyed this part of the artwork, it was a nice relief to have more control over the pencil work rather than the watercolour washes and detail. I probably started the graphite work too early as I still had to work over the top of it to complete the painting.


The graphite illustrations


Botanical illustration - watercolour and graphite

Very happy to finish this one ... this is so much more than just a painting to me ... and I look forward to completing more botanical illustrations in the future ...

Protea neriifolia x P. susannae 'Pink Ice'

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