Nature has always inspired artists including illustrators, from botanical illustrations aiming at illustrating plants with accuracy to more or less abstract patterns based on nature.
I remember discovering Marianne North’s collection in Kew Gardens. The exhibition consisting of many of her paintings of plants and nature side by side is very impressive. Each painting is so rich in colours and details, it is hard to know where to look. In fact, I returned to Kew Gardens a few months later to look at her work again.
When I researched botanical illustrators, I noticed that most seem to favour traditional media, particularly watercolour and coloured pencils (https://www.soc-botanical-artists.org/artists/all-artists/ and https://shirleysherwood.com/).
Things are a bit different with floral patterns and illustrations and in that case, both traditional and digital media are used, sometimes together (www.printmag.com/graphic-design/top-five-floral-illustrators-to-follow-on-instagram/).
In fact, it is at times difficult to know what tools have been used to create a piece. Some watercolour illustrations can be very realistic and vivid like Denise Ramsay’s illustration “A Brilliant Life – Just Open” (https://shirleysherwood.com/-RDAB4096) or Victoria Braithwaite’s painting “Peony, Greenbank Garden” (https://shirleysherwood.com/-SSC999). On the other hand, painting in Photoshop can also give impressive outcomes, as is the case with Lori Anzalone’s paintings in Photoshop (https://lorianzalone.com/painted-illustration-styles-watercolor-vector/).
No matter the media used, technology still plays an important role nowadays.
Artists usually exhibit their work online (social media and specialised or personal websites) and their collection has to be digitalised and possibly enhanced before being published on a website. Carolyn Jenkins’ paintings in watercolour for instance would have had to be optimised to appear online (https://www.carolynjenkins.co.uk/paintings). The quality of the images is very high with no background or paper texture.
Today traditional and digital tools can be used by the same artists and can complement each other.
Pinterest board:
Sources:
https://shirleysherwood.com/
www.soc-botanical-artists.org/artists/
https://www.carolynjenkins.co.uk/paintings
www.angielewin.co.uk
www.hannahmcvicar.co.uk
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/study-room-resource-botanical-illustration/
www.printmag.com/graphic-design/top-five-floral-illustrators-to-follow-on-instagram/
Catherine Roux Degree in Illustration 