RBGE Botanical Illustration Certificate: Unit 5 Reflection

In this portion of the course, I was introduced to the world of botany. I learned about identifying the basic floral parts, their functions and how to record the plant accurately through sectional drawings and cross sections. I never considered how vital botany was to botanical illustration and plant identification before this unit. Of course, I had noticed the dissections on classical botanical illustrations before, but had no idea on why they needed to be included. I found this fascinating and my highlighting was labeling all the different parts of the cyclamen. I found it mesmerizing how intricate a singular flower could be, this fascinated me.

I enjoyed all the learning, new terminology and exposure to new concepts and ways of relating different parts of the plant together. I found the dissection process and cross sectioning difficult. I cut open at least four different flowers before finally landing on my chosen piece to draw on my final try. This caused a time crunch as I started to run low on time and decided to do a graphite rendering of the cross section because I didn’t have enough time to paint it in time for submission. I took my time looking at the specimen to decipher the different plant anatomy. My eyesight is not great, so this portion took a very long time, I began to rely heavily on my jeweller's loup for referencing the cut flower. Once I was more comfortable with what I was looking at I was able to point out the different elements within the cyclamen. 

I knew this unit would be tough and decided to avoid the full dissection. I worked on the cross section for longer and allowed myself to take my time on this section. If I were to try this unit again, I would consider more time to go over and dissect the flower fully. Doing this would help in future with my identification standstill. I also found the new scale system a bit confusing and stayed within my comfort zone here and used the 3x3cm(x2) square to make all the elements much bigger. If I were to give this another go, I would explore a different scaling system. This unit was challenging, but also rewarding and I enjoyed learning a new skill.