Cesieco Deluxe Proportional Divider
A reader asks:
What kind of dividers do you use? Proportional dividers or the academic dividers you can buy at the art supply store? If you own both kinds, do you use one more than the other? Which one is the wisest investment for someone new to botanical art? Thank you.
Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below.
ArtPlantae Today 
I wouldn’t even mess with the academic dividers as the proportional ones are going to be so much more useful and will satisfy any measuring you will be doing. There will be a time (more than you think) when you will need to enlarge or reduce something and you will be very glad you got them. The biggest problem is the cost and availability…they are getting hard to find. Sometimes you can find some really nice antique ones if you have time to search them out.
I bought my proportional divider from Jerry’s Artarama many years ago. It was $75 back then. I just checked and they still sell a proportional divider. The current price is $99.99. (no affiliation, just checking to see if they still sold them).
When I was starting in botanical art I used a pair of very cheap dividers that I had kept from my school days to measure the size of the plant material I was drawing. It was only when I got much better that I thought it was worth investing in a pair of proportional dividers.
Whilst there is something very satisfying and exciting about being able to draw something accurately and twice the size with proportional dividers, beginners sometimes think that buying all the best equipment will make their art good instantly; at the start I think it’s practise that makes all the difference.
If money is a consideration then I’d start with cheap equipment all round, with the exception of a brush with a decent point, until you are sure you really want to do a lot of botanical art. However, if you are sure that botanical art is for you then some good proportional dividers are the wisest investment and always a joy to use.
What is the actual difference between the proportional divider and the academic divider?
Proportional dividers allow you to reduce or enlarge the scale of an object (here is a video on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9MS10cY734).
The instructions that came with my divider also has instructions about how to use proportional dividers to:
a) divide a given length into equal parts
b) divide the circumference of a circle into equal parts
c) construct an angle
Here is a site about proportional dividers and mathematical instruments that is interesting – http://www.mathsinstruments.me.uk/page65.html