This Skillshare final project I call the Emily Dickinson Botanical Garden Illustration. Inspired by the Emily Dickinson Museum in New York City. I enjoyed sketching these floral gardens. Then to finish off the project, I added watercolor and details with white and black pens.

I can tell that our styles are completely different. However, her method and style inspired me and I’d love to follow-up with more botanical drawings filling my sketchbooks. In addition, I need to find some botanical gardens nearby to observe. I also think it’s time to revisit my favorite botanical drawing reference books.

Inspiration:

• Skillshare Class: Sara Boccaccini Meadows – Botanical Illustration: Paint a colorful Garden with Watercolor and Gouache (sign up for the free 2-month trial and watch the class for yourself)
• Emily Dickinson Museum Garden in New York City

Skillshare Class Project – Emily Dickinson Botanical Garden Illustration

I loosely painted the flowers and then added depth with layered colors. I’d love to paint more architectural buildings and items, so adding the indoor garden building is another fun detail.

Class Take-Aways:

I love Skillshare for more than just the final projects like this one. I enjoy the ideas and find so much inspiration in the stories the teachers weave throughout their classes.

My additional class take-aways:

• Keep a sketchbook for your doodles
• Sit and sketch for a while
• When painting doodles like this, keep a section for swatches
• Add details with a black pen, and don’t feel like you have to outline everything
• Gouache acts like watercolor, but has a chalky texture and is opaque

After doing the project:

• I’d definitely like to try watercolor combined with Gouache
• I need to find some local botanical gardens – they’d be good for sketches, but also good for the soul
• Need to mix watercolors so they are more muted
• I’d love to try different styles and emulate her whimsical style
• Adding a border around the illustration is a fun way to set limits & allow me to break the border as well
• The white border area allows a color swatch area

I can’t wait to do more botanical garden illustrations and want to find more references. I’ll absolutely include a framed border around the image so I can break out of it if I want. Gouache paints are now on my list of ‘things to buy’.

Product References:

Here’s what I used to create this project – for my reference and yours.