Botany for the Artist, Hardcover

This beautifully illustrated guide to botany in art explores the extraordinary world of plants and inspires you to try drawing them yourself.

Understanding botany helps any artist draw plants better. In Botany for the Artist, celebrated artist Sarah Simblet takes you on a journey of discovery through the kingdom of plants--from tiny ferns and mosses to exotic flowers and majestic trees--encouraging you to observe them more closely and draw them more accurately.

Complemented by beautiful photographic plant portraits, Sarah's drawings reveal the structure of roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits as she explains how plants breathe, feed, and produce fruits. If you have ever wondered how photosynthesis works, why leaves change color in the fall, where plants store food, or how seeds know when to grow, Botany for the Artist has all the answers.

Step-by-step drawing classes and detailed pages from Sarah's sketchbooks guide you through all the techniques that you need to draw plants successfully. Master classes by famous artists--from Renaissance masters to contemporary illustrators--showcase different approaches to drawing and painting plants over the centuries. Botany for the Artist is a visual feast, not just for anyone wishing to create fresh, vibrant, drawings, but for gardeners, photographers, and everyone who is passionate about plants and how they are portrayed in art.

Dr. Sarah Simblet is a fine artist, writer, and broadcaster whose work explores the relationship among science, history, and art. The author of Anatomy for the Artist and Sketchbook for the Artist and coauthor of The New Sylva, Sarah is dedicated to encouraging visual intelligence in others through her drawings, teaching, and broadcasting worldwide. She is Director of Studies for Fine Art at Christ Church, Oxford, and Tutor in Anatomy at the Ruskin School of Art. She also teaches short courses in anatomy, botany, and drawing for both the Ruskin and the Royal Academy of Art, London.