Botanical Drawing

An accomplished botanical artist whose work will be featured in Issue 53 of Artist’s Palette magazine shares some special insights about her subjects and techniques.

- Helene Wild

ITALIAN ARUM FRUITS AND SNAILS Down in the far corner of our back garden, next to the compost bins, there is a clump of Italian Arum (Arum italicum). Early one morning, after heavy overnight rain, I spied the dramatic orange fruits and the snails that had emerged from hiding to feast on their bounty.

While I love using colour, I must confess that drawing is an absolute passion. It is immensely satisfying to create a work of art using simple materials that every Australian school age child takes for granted – a sheet of paper and a pencil.

For this particular tonal drawing, I selected a softly marbled sheet of pale pewter-coloured paper. Because my style is precise and detailed, I prefer to use propelling pencils and 0.5 leads.

Beginning with a 2H lead, I lightly sketched a cartoon of the two fruiting bodies. Accurately recording the arrangement of the fruits was challenging enough, but anyone attempting to draw a common garden snail will soon discover that it won’t hold a pose once it has stretched its head out from under its shell.

These two snails were constantly on the move; and their speed was quite surprising.

A snail’s slimy, muscular ‘foot’ does have its advantages, and I had no trouble placing these creatures into positions that enhanced my composition – but before I could pick up my pencil they were off again, gliding up, down, and around to the back of the specimen. At times, one would make a dash for freedom and race towards the far side of the table. Eventually the snail that is half hidden behind the fruiting stem on the right retreated into its shell and went to sleep. I breathed a sigh of relief.