RBGE Botanical Illustration Certificate: Unit 8 Reflection

In unit 8, I honed in my painting technique and explored my artistic style.

I favor light colour underpainting, using wet on wet washes, build up colour slowly this way and then always finish with dry brush details at the end. I am proud of how the initial shapes of the flowers turned out during the underpainting process using french ultramarine. I felt they were successful in rendering the plant as a 3D form and being able to see the initial flower shape.

I did wobble a bit getting started and overthought the final piece. I found myself unable to get into the ‘flow state’ of the painting process and took a long time on the practice flower. Too much time in fact, which caused a domino effect and led me to not get as much done as I had hoped. 

This particular painting ‘block’ was difficult to get through, I felt this fear of the final composition going wrong and caused a lot of overwhelm. The technique I found difficult was layering the colour, I found the depth of my initial underpaintings disappeared as the colour layers were laid down. As the painting went on I noticed the coloured layers started to take away from the shape of the cyclamen. I then stayed within the safety of the practice piece without touching the final composition.  

Confidence is something I’ve always struggled with and it's the most evident here. My intent is to always turn in my best work with my submissions and I believe this submission fell short of my own standard. Next, I’lI work on pushing through and painting despite how I feel it will go and remember learning always happens in that space. 

Practice samples & inital wash trial runs

Beginning to paint inital washes. Final, Cyclamen persicum