Scientific Art
Published in
2 min readJan 28, 2016
Botanical Illustration
- if you ever find yourself thumbing through a field guide
- you will likely realize that the images within are not photographs
- rather, they are illustrations
- why are they illustrations?
- because organisms within one species are variable
- not every blue spruce (Picea pungens) looks the same
- so a series of photographs would not do the wide range of variance justice
- by post processing images through the creation of painted illustrations, the diagnostic traits of the organism are made more apparent
- as Rodger Tory Peterson (the author of the first modern field guide) would say
- “A photograph is a record of a fleeting instant; a drawing is a composite of the artist’s experience.”
- scientific illustration is as much an art form as it is a technical skill
- the line between the two is blurred
- and rightfully so
- as nature is unendingly beautiful and understanding that beauty requisites structured inquiry
- there are botanical art societies all across the world
- thousands of people dedicated to the pictorial representation of the natural world
And what could be more beautiful than that? We are as curious about this planet as we are creative and that creativity can manifest itself in any number of forms. The art we derive from the natural world could be a painting, an illustration, a scientific paper, conservational efforts,inner peace, anything. Nature is an endless well of inspiration. What will you create?
