Botanical Drawing Class for Adults Held @ The Nyack Library

BY BARRY WARNER

Drawing Instructor Cayla Morganstern gathered together an adult class of “botanical artists” recently and instructed them in techniques to draw or paint beautiful flowers and other plant life.

Flowers are natural subjects to draw because of their varieties of colors and textures. The class attempted to portray flowers from photographs.

Instructor Cayla Morganstern said, “The students are translating the colors they see in the photographs to colors they find and create by blending and layering the colored pencils in their trays. After applying two or more layers of different colors, a colorless pencil is used to blend them for a smooth, shiny look called burnishing. In addition, cross-hatching is a method that uses fine parallel lines drawn closely together to create the illusion of texture in the drawing.”

During the class, The Rockland County Times learned that the flowers were drawn on watercolor paper as if they were transparent wire frame forms with vertical and horizontal lines of construction. This technique made it easier to draw the flowers against a background of sky or water. The primary colored pencils used were red, yellow and blue and the secondary colored pencils employed were orange, green and purple. The shading beneath and around the flowers added to the definition of their shapes.

Library books about botanical drawing include ‘Picturing Plants’ by Gill Saunders and ‘Basic Colored Pencil Techniques’ by Bet Borgeson.

For additional information about future programs at The Nyack Library call 845-358-3370.