Update: 08/06/22: These are some of my favourite pen and ink drawings that I completed, and I am especially pleased with the clarity that the scan reproduced them with. These drawings also show-case the new skill I found with using the Rotring technical drawing pens, which gave me a much greater level of control and accuracy over the drawing, without compromising the methods I wanted to use in order to create the works in the first place (using the same methods used by Botanical Illustrators).
As I have previously explained the process of drawing, I will not explain it again, but I will instead show images of the completed drawings:
Knock, E. (2022) Gonystylus bancanus [Pen and Ink]
Knock, E. (2022) Dalbergia retusa [Pen and Ink]
Knock, E. (2022) Hopea micrantha [Pen and Ink]
Overall, I am extremely pleased with the drawings that I have created here – I feel that they are not only very representative of the plants themselves, they also maintain strong links with the traditional style of Botanical Illustration (whilst also deviating from it slightly), which is something that I still want to achieve in my work. I also feel that you can see a clear style emerging in the drawings, as I become much more confident with my mark making. I now know which elements I want to be a certain mark making technique (be it pointillism, hatching or lines), and I am confident in placing them in order to create the desired level of shape, structure and shading.
I am also really pleased with how the drawings look on the paper. Using tracedown has allowed me to get a much better composition of the pieces on the paper – they are much more central, and there is a good balance of negative and positive space – much more so than on previous drawings (such as the Catacol Whitebeam). The off-white colour of the paper also creates a really lovely contrast with the black, allowing the plant to really stand out against the paper, in addition to further helping to create an archival feel to the pieces (which is what I want to achieve, as the work is a form of archive).
Reference Image Sources:
Gonystylus bancanus: POWO. (2019) Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77118655-1 (accessed: 29 May 2022)
Dalbergia retusa: POWO. (2019) Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:490428-1 (accessed: 29 May 2022)
Hopea micrantha: POWO. (2019) Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:320945-1 (accessed: 29 May 2022)
