Crafts Beautiful
If, like us, your first port of call for crafty inspiration is nature, you might want to listen up! Who better to take horticultural art tips from the person behind some of Kew Garden's most iconic botanical illustrations? Christabel King's The Kew Book of Botanical Illustration is a comprehensive guide on all things plants. Learn everything from drawing techniques to pressing and preserving your own treasured blooms. Whether you're a budding artist looking for inspiration or a plant lover who just wants to admire great art, this brilliant book is a must-read.
Leisure Painter
Originally published in hardback in 2015, Christabel King's popular book, The Kew Book of Botanical Illustration, is now available in paperback. Christabel is the foremost botanical artist at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, and her beautifully illustrated book shares her working methods, producing both scientifically accurate representations of flowers as well as flowers in a looser botanical style. There's plenty of practical advice here, such as how to use how to preserve your specimens, and suitable subjects for beginners.
Amazon Customer Review
While the book contains some background information relating to botanical illustration and art its main purpose is to provide excellent, no nonsense information in relation to materials, process and techniques. The explanation of these is clear and supported by drawings. There are numerous beautiful illustrations of a huge variety of plants clearly showing the skill and expertise of the author. I found this book to be very readable and inspirational and it will provide useful information for many years to come.
Amazon Customer Review
Everything you need to know about being a botanical illustrator.
A lovely book if you want to know what its like to be a botanical illustrator, and learn some of their techniques. The colour chart gives information on why Christabel King uses the colours she does, theres information on equipment used, including proportional dividers which I brought for myself after reading this book, they are very useful if you want to resize a drawing.
The drawing illustrations in this book are beautiful and well done. The book tells of the history of Curtiss Botanical magazine with some beautiful illustrations from the magazines. It also includes what you need to know about collecting and preserving plant specimens. I would recommend this book if you are interested in how botanical artists work at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
