Just Draw Botanicals

This is a gorgeous book full of just incredibly beautiful drawings and paintings of botanicals -- flowers, leaves, mint sprigs in a glass, patterns, you name it. They are often just stunningly beautiful works, but this is not a how-to book. Each two page spread shows the artwork on one page (with lots of white space around it) and the other tells you a little bit about that piece and the artist, along with a tip related to it. These are award winning pieces though, the stuff you flip through for the beauty and inspiration, not try to replicate. The end section tells a little bit about materials.

I'm not sure why this series is called "Just Draw" since most of the works in this book are painted. No matter, though, they're gorgeous and just wonderful to visit again and again.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

What an inspirational book for drawing botanicals. Some of these examples are just amazingly well done. Don't expect step by step tutorials, though. That would be undoable looking at the amazing quality of these drawings. All of these are made by real artists, no casual painters. I could never paint anything remotely close to these. However, this is a great book for inspiration, and just dreaming away at these beautiful botanicals.

It has some great tips, some of them are more modern and discusses editing on the computer, which is great! At the end it has a summary of materials and other resources you can check out for more help.

Very inspirational snippets on drawing botanicals; I like the variety of not only types of plant but also artistic style. While the book isn’t majorly in depth with information, the range of tips and tricks is vast and the pages enjoyable to skim through. Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of this book.

I love this book. The layout, the art, the information and tips are for artists are perfectly pitched. It is a book to be dipped into for inspiration and to enjoy. Because the information is just snippets, not detailed instructions, or analysis you feel free to mull over the art and enjoy the different offerings. I like the different styles of the artists and the selected observations of the author. I would love to have a hard copy of this book on my coffee table it is both a creative delight and a gentle connection with nature. Excellent - thank you.

Wow I love this book and, having just finished and submitted a textile course based on botanical subjects, I wish I had had a copy beforehand! The book is beautifully laid out and very well organised. I think the photographic index at the beginning is a great idea to help you quickly find the page you want. The tips on how each image was achieved were fascinating and make me want to collect together my art media and experiment all over again.

This book is absolutely stunning. The pages are filled with gorgeous inspiring artwork and illustrations.

The artwork spans beautiful drawings and paintings of botanical's, flowers, leaves, fruit, and so much more.

The colors are so vivid and compelling it is truly inspirational. However, this is not a how-to book. Each two page spread shows the artwork on one page and the other tells you a little bit about that piece and the artist, along with a tip related to it's creation and the type of medium used. this book mostly contains painted and mixed media art and does not include many drawings but I absolutely love the book anyway.

The examples are just amazing and completed with a very high level of expertise. This book has no step by step tutorials but is worth its weight in gold for inspiration and beauty alone. All of the artwork shown has been created by real and accomplished artists.

It is filled with some great tips and discusses editing on the computer which, was very fascinating and more cutting edge graphic work but highly valuable information.

I loved loved loved this book!!! The layout, the art, the everything!!! I would literally buy this as a conversational piece on display on my coffee table and for friends. I really can't say enough about it. What a joy to read!!!

I received this book from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion Publishing for an honest review. Thank you sooo much this was an incredible read!!!

3.5-4 Stars! Good book if you’re looking for inspiration. This book does give a few tips and a bunch of pictures but it’s not really a step by step teaching book. This is more of a inspiration for botanical painting pictures!
*I received this book at no charge from the publisher and I voluntarily left a review.*

Absolutely stunning illustrations. Unfortunately it is more for people who can already draw so much skillset wasn't up to scratch but I won't mark it down for that.

Just Draw Botanicals is a lovely book, full of pictures, and is aimed at people who can already draw. 

It is about working with different mediums, and how to approach drawing plants, flowers and fruit 

I really liked the pictures, and I think if you are an artist then it would be helpful for you to read and approach things in a different way.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about art for this to be as useful to me as I feel it would be!

Just Draw Botanicals is to be published on 3rd March 2020,  and is available to pre-order on  Amazon   and on  Waterstones .  I've found a  link  to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow Helen Birch on  Twitter or through her blog.


I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Quarto (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my  GoodReads profile  to see more reviews!

Just Draw Botanicals is a beautifully curated artwork collection and gallery book by Helen Birch. Due out 3rd March 2020 from Quarto on their White Lion imprint, it's 208 pages and will be available in flexibound format.

This is both an inspiration book and (much less so) tutorial or instruction book. It covers a very wide range of artistic styles and subjects. The only common theme is the botanical subject. It includes a helpful picture gallery table of contents as well as an artist index, so readers can concentrate on one artist at a time or the entire smorgasbord of variety which is included.

A short introduction is followed by the gallery of works. Each of the studies has the work on a full page with a *short* info and tips section on the facing page. These explanations include techniques such as medium used and other contrast and style info.

The gallery is followed by a short fundamental tutorial for drawing botanicals: choosing tools and materials, getting started, painting, sketching, and working digitally. The tutorial chapter segues into a short (but fairly useful) bibliography and links for further reading.

This is a well done book showing a very wide variety of rendering techniques. This would be a valuable resource for a student up to professional artist, or as a beautiful art book in its own right. I'm emphatically not a gifted artist, but I found a number of good tips in this compilation.

Five stars

This is a great resource for those who are learning to do botanical illustration or prefer to paint plants. I'm not an artist, but I enjoyed paging through this book to see the points of emphasis (e.g., "high-key color" or "selecting a viewipoint." Each set of pages focuses on one of these points, using an artwork to illustrate the concept. And, each set of pages has a Tip that helps the novice to learn how to improve their work. The works of art that are used in this book are varied from abstract to multimedia to traditional watercolor. In particular, I was really impressed with the Scratchboard techniques of Lisa Goesling. All are masterpieces in their own right, but the author has cleverly chosen each as an example of a particular technique. And, there are over 100 pages of techniques in this book. As one who appreciates botanical art, I loved the book. And, I think it would be a great instructional tool for those who are just beginning to learn botanical art.

While illustrated with beautiful artworks from a number of artists, each with a short description and a tip (technical or creative), and so showcasing various approaches to botanical illustration, it is a pleasant passtime to look at, but in my opinion, not very useful for the beginner or intermediate artist.

This is a good book with a poor title. 3 stars for living up to the title, but 4 stars overall if I ignore it.

This is a looking/ideas book, not a "let's draw" book. For one thing, there are more paintings than drawings in this book, so it's more "let's paint" except that most of the paintings are rendered at an intermediate to highly advanced level, and more likely to intimidate than instruct beginning artists. I believe it's part of a series, so I believe this is more a publisher than author issue.

Each 2 page spread has one painting/drawing on the right and on the left is an idea that the painting illustrates. For example, one might say "limited color palette" and then the text below will explain why the painting on the right is a good example of that idea.

The artwork is well chosen and lovely to look at. The artists names are given, making it a good book for finding new botanical artists to look into. I enjoyed looking at the book, and it did provide inspiration, if also at the same time being a bit intimidating, even though I have shown botanical work before in galleries.

I received this book for free for an honest review.

Just Draw Botanicals is full of beautiful artwork. That being said, it was a little different than what I was expecting. If you’re hoping for a how-to book, Just Draw Botanicals most likely is not the book you’re looking for. There was advice and tips on different techniques used in each piece, but the advice was very limited and specifically geared towards the artwork shown.

Don’t let that discourage you, though. The book was full of amazingly talented artists and a huge variety of gorgeous artwork and interesting mediums. Each piece was beautiful and inspiring. If you’re a fan of art, I’d highly suggest checking Just Draw Botanicals out!

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is a stunning book of many different pieces of art to be used for inspiration and ideas, rather than copy. This book is not a how to or step by step book to follow.
The book displays different pieces of art and then tells you about each piece and then gives you a top tip for advice if your thinking of trying a piece like it.
A beautiful book for any art collection.

This is fabulous book depicting different artist using various mediums to present some beautiful artwork. each piece is explained in the methods used, including tips and ideas. Much of the botanical material is painted in watercolour and mixed media with some works in oils, pencil, pen/ink and digital. With one item to each page they are very beautifully presented and inspiring.

I was very happy with all the information easy to understand. I'm practicing with watercolors and this book help a lot with my habilities with them, I will use this a lot.

This book is for everyone who want to start drawing. And It's cute and will look beautiful in the shelf.

Copy in exchange of an honest review.

A high-level detailed explanation about the modern botanical drawings. It includes what both the science and the art are looking for in professional level botanical drawings. This book is not for beginners, but for those with professional-level skill looking at how to take their artistic skills to the next step. However, regardless of ability the illustrations included are beautiful and worth a peek through.

Oh my goodness what a book. It’s displays the sumptuous work by a mix of artists so well. Each has a few lines of description and with them and added tip to finish off. I like that the materials are only mentioned until the very back, leaving the work to be enjoyed and encouraged. I will certainly be buying a copy.

Absolutely gorgeous book on drawing botanicals. So many helpful techniques and use of varied medium. Because I was interested in more than wildflowers, I really love that this book incorporates fruits and still life aspects. I *really* want this book in hard copy as a reference and have so ready pre-ordered it. It is just superior to my other botanical books. A vigorous recommendation from me.

Wonderful reference book on drawing botanicals. The illustrations are gorgeous and the book is well organized. Very helpful and filled with techniques and tips.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

The botanical prints in this book were beautiful. They were enhanced by the information the author shared about each artist. The information was useful to artists working in watercolor, pencil, mixed media, and pen and ink.

I especially found the ‘tips’ the author shared on each page,the most valuable.
This book would be useful to experienced artists as well as the novice.

This book belongs in your reference library if you are a botanical illustrator, artist or just someone that is interested in the art of nature.

This is so beautiful and helpful! I’ve been having a play on procreate on my iPad and love copying things but find it so difficult to make things up! This has really helped!

This is an illustrated book about how to draw and color botanical works of art. This covers a little bit of history about botanical drawing and it's uses, as well the basics of drawing and watercoloring to capture both light and shadows. It includes lots of colorful works of art to demonstrate the basics of capturing specific subjects. Whether you are wanting to learn to draw and paint, or are just interested in the techniques of how it is done, this is the book for you!