Botanical Art

Botanical Art - Body

Botanical Art Activity Mockup

What is botanical art?

Botanical art is a type of art that is both artistic and scientific. It can be made using many different media, and the subject can be any type of plant and any parts of a plant, such as flowers, seed pods, roots, leaves, or stems. If you have a plant and a pencil (or other drawing tool), you can make botanical art! The Huntington partners with the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California to put on exhibitions of botanical art. Watch the video below to see artworks from one of the exhibitions before creating your own work of botanical art.

Make your own artwork!

Materials

  • A plant
  • Paper, art board, or canvas
  • Art supplies of your choice (example: colored pencils, watercolor, markers, etc.)



Steps

1. Choose a plant that you think will be interesting to draw

2. Look closely at your plant

3. Make choices:

  • Which colors will you use?
  • From what angle will you draw your plant?
  • How will you create the textures you see?
  • Which media (art supplies) will you use?

4. Create your artwork!



Questions

  • In what ways does your artwork look like the plant? In what ways does it look different?
  • What do you hope viewers notice about your artwork? Try creating a label to share your thoughts!
  • Which is your favorite piece of botanical art in the video? Why?
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