RBGE Botanical Illustration Certificate: Unit 10 Reflection
What do you feel you have learned from this unit?
The final submission is here! I cannot believe it!! This unit in particular allowed me to trust my decisions with underwashes, dry brush details and compositional skills. I can see my skills have improved from my final practice/study pages to the final piece. I am pleasantly surprised I was able to render the painting as a 3D form and even managed to maintain some of those highlights I’m always striving to get right!! I think the flowers have that special botanical ‘glow’ that causes them to pop off the page! I’m proud of my progress over the last 6 months and am sad the course has come to a natural end. I wish I could go back and do it all over again, even just to rediscover the beauty of slow progress again.
Are there any particular areas you have found difficult?
I struggled the most with problem solving, especially when I decided to take a step back from painting and go back to finish the tonal study. I should have done this sooner, before cracking on with painting the final. This allowed me to conceptualize what I was seeing to translate it down on paper and informed my underwash decisions. It resulted in me feeling more confident about my final. When I tried to skip this step, I believe my work fell short so I'm glad I went back. Now I know how vital this step is for a final composition! Painting leaves was challenging. I found the leaves the toughest bit of this course. My final reflects this too. Not the leaf facing away, but the two front facing at the bottom. Although, this isn't too bad as the viewer's eye is drawn to the flowers first!
What do you think you need to work on?
Leaves!! Next time I paint leaves, I'll take better colour notes. The side leaf went well, as I used French ultramarine for the underpainting. For the other two at the front of the piece, I used Indantherene blue as the underpainting which caused a bit of balance disruption. Next time, I will also work on rendering leaves more 3D because I don’t think they are as strong as the flowers above. In the interest of time, I spent my final weeks here going over my final piece with a fine tooth comb/practicing too which is why my roots section is notably missing. I do realise the lack of roots will result in a lower grade. My next mission will be to work on more leaves and plant roots. This was my mistake as I ran out of time to do so here. That said, I can’t wait to paint more! This course has really ignited my love for this art form. I am thankful I was able to participate in something I’ve found so meaningful.
