Botanical Garden Illustration Watercolor Painting

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.

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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’.