Dear Readers,
A fellow reader has asked an interesting question.
Increasingly dissatisfied with the wet-in-wet watercolor technique taught in traditional botanical art classes, this reader was wondering if there are any botanical artists who use dry-brush as their predominant technique.
Well aware that botanical artists often use dry-brush to put finishing details into their wet-n-washy paintings, this reader is asking for your help:
Can you recommend any botanical artists, working in watercolor, whose primary technique is dry brush applied in stippling, hatching, or both?
Let’s Chat
If you know of botanical artists or scientific illustrators who work in this way, please respond in the Comment box below. Thank you for your help!
ArtPlantae Today 
Lizzie Sanders and Karen Kluglein do dry brush on paper. Anyone working on vellum uses dry brush, like Carol Woodin, Denise Walser-Kolar, Kate Nessler.
Thank you, Elisabeth.
Readers, you can learn more about these artists on their websites:
Lizzie Sanders
http://www.lizziesanders.co.uk
Karen Kluglein
http://www.botanical-paintings.com
Carol Woodin
http://carolwoodin.com/Home.html
Denise Walser-Kolar
http://www.denisewalserkolar.com/denisewalserkolar.com/Welcome.html
Kate Nessler
http://www.katenessler.com
Readers, do you know of other natural history artists who work in dry-brush? Do you?
I certainly enjoy using both wet and dry techniques depending on the situation.
If you would like to see my work please look at http://www.contemporarybotanicart.com.
Best wishes, Angeline de Meester
While I do most of my work in dry-brush on vellum, I use the exact same dry-brush technique when working on paper. I feel that I have a lot more control with dry-brush. This is an interesting discussion and I look forward to hearing from other people out there that use dry-brush.
British artist Anna Mason, annamasonart.com, uses drybrush. She has had artcles in several issues of Artists & Illustrators that are relevant as well.
Thank you, Kay.
To read an interview with Anna (Knights) Mason (2011), click here.
Hi there – my name is David Reynolds and I am a botanical artist in Melbourne Australia – I use dry brushing quite a bit in my paintings. I have tutorials on my Botanical Art TV website. In particular there is one on dry brushing that you might be interested in.
Thank you, David.
David’s dry brushing tutorial can be viewed at http://botanicalarttv.wix.com/tutorials.
Anita Barley is another beautiful artist who uses a lot of dry brush.
http://www.anitabarley.com
Botanical artist, Dianne Sutherland SBA predominantly uses a dry brush technique, she teaches this in her online courses
Thank you, Sheryl.
Dianne Sutherland’s website can be viewed at http://www.diannesutherland.com/index.html.
I use dry brush exclusively on both paper and vellum, and have
taught the technique for more than twenty years.
Linda, thank you.
Note:
Readers, if a contributor’s name is in bold green text, clicking on their name will take you to their website. I remove spam responses, spam sites and links not related to the topics discussed on this site.
I too use dry-brush technique on both vellum and paper, and I teach it at the Phipps Conservatory from time to time as part of their botanical illustration program. I do use some washes as the base layer when working on paper sometimes, but often I just use dry-brush.
Christine Hutson
I also had a similar question and so far have liked Anna Mason tutorials for watercolor. Dry brush gives me more control when combined with a light wash underneath sometimes. Mixed media like the legendary Roger Tory Peterson can also be used.
I absolutely do most of my work with a dry brush technique and teach this too. My first layer might be a light wash to wet the paper and change the nap of the paper (not with vellum), but then I use dry brush. It is a little more time consuming, but the technique encourages one to observe the detail in the subject thoroughly and then learn control of brush, pigment and water.
I believe I was instrumental in initiating this topic on dry brush. I don’t usually participate in online forums, discussions, blogs etcetera, but I have just returned to England after a couple of weeks’ travelling with no access to the Web and am amazed at the response to my original question about dry brush. This just goes to demonstrate the power of Artplantae to tap into the the global community of botanical artists. I have found your comments truly helpful, interesting and motivating. My thanks to everyone who responded.
Thank you, Paul. And thank you readers for your help!