Product Review

Kew is eminent worldwide in botanical science and the study and preservation of plant species, and Christabel King has been doing illustrations for them for 40 years and is their foremost botanical artist. Here she explains both scientific botanical illustration and the looser botanical art, and covers materials, collecting and preserving plant specimens, drawing and painting techniques, magnification, using dividers, drawing from life, composition, light and shade and transferring drawings. She goes on to discuss painting leaves, flowers, cactii and succulents, wildflowers, trees and plates for Curtis's Botanical magazine. A chapter on travel drawings gives a flavour of the author's passion and worldwide experience. There is a helpful section on suitable subjects for beginners and a glossary of terms. The text is highly illustrated throughout with beautiful paintings.