THE-RAttie on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/the-rattie/art/Celmisia-lindsayi-320576265THE-RAttie

Deviation Actions

THE-RAttie's avatar

Celmisia lindsayi

By
Published:
1K Views

Description

This is a botanical illustration of Celmisia lindsayi It will be entered into a botanical biological illustration competion neat month.

Sorry about the poor quality, I don't have a scanner at the moment so was forced to take a photo. I will put up a better quality scan when I get one :D

Thanks for looking
Image size
2136x2848px 3.27 MB
Make
FUJIFILM
Model
FinePix S7000
Shutter Speed
1/56 second
Aperture
F/2.8
Focal Length
8 mm
ISO Speed
200
Date Taken
Aug 11, 2012, 11:15:13 PM
Sensor Size
5mm
© 2012 - 2024 THE-RAttie
Comments6
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Black-Rose227's avatar
Hi there,
This is a beautiful piece. The circular composition of the habit and the details are very nice :) And the habit itself is lovely-the leaf placement sits quite naturally. I also quite like the subtle textures and interesting use of black line to define the whiter parts of the leaves and florets (painting white is something I have trouble with myself)

I would say my only crit would be two things: There isn't really a clearly defined light source, traditionally scientific plates have a top left light source pointed right across the page. A few carefully placed shadows could add more of a sense of roundness and depth. A lead up sketch with a lighting key is useful for this.
Also Perhaps in your next piece I would also experiment with foreshortening-in the sense that leaves further away from you are lighter/less tone and leaves closer are brighter and have more detail. This can make a work more 3D and add focus to important areas.

I would say my only other major point would be the text, it really needs to be aligned properly and traced on a light board from a computer print out, possibly with a ruler as well. One method I found that works well is to scan the work, and using "rulers" in Photoshop construct a text composition that flows with the work. Then printing out a version of the file with just text and then tracing this onto the piece with a light table. It will add a lot more professionalism to your work.

I hope I have overloaded you here! I happen to be in a Natural History Illustration course in Australia and have done quite a few scientific plates and learned some nifty tricks from my teachers!
Here's a botanical artist I think you'll enjoy (i've done a workshop with her before) [link]
Specially at how she tackles white flowers.

Keep up the great work, keen to see some more!