SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION OF PLANTS
by Rolf Campos
- 1 Session (4 hours per session)
- All basic materials are included
- Limited to 15 students per batch
- Open to beginners and advanced students
- Open to 12 years old and above
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION OF PLANTS
MEDIUM TO USE:
STUDENTS SHOULD BRING:
- REQUIRED: One botanical specimen / reference of your choice, easy to bring
(eg. leaf, fruit with seeds, flower)
- OPTIONAL: Coloring materials of your choice
(wet or dry mediums)
This workshop is for anyone who draws inspiration from plants and would, at the same time, like to draw them on paper. It is a space where we encourage thinking about the life-giving role of plants in an often unsustainable world. We will practice
drawing plants the same way botanical illustrators do, that is very close and with a patient and meticulous eye. We will look into why the drawing of plants remains important to our lives today: scientifically, practically and creatively.
Outline
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION OF PLANTS by Rolf Campos
Part 1:
Participants will each have a printed out reference (colored / photocopy) from Flora de Filipinas, Tracing Paper, and two sizes of Technical Pen. Pointillism method of botanical illustration will be applied.
Part 2:
Participants will pick a leaf, fruit, bark, or any plant material. They will then create their own illustration of this material based on their memory and imagination, a process inspired by Juan de Cuellar’s botanical illustrations.
Speaker/s
INSTRUCTOR:
Rolf Campos is a visual artist based in Manila, Philippines. A year after finishing his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Advertising, he held his first solo exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines which combined painting
with pressed plants and flowers on canvas paper.
His introduction to art began with formal drawing and painting lessons at Casa San Miguel, a community arts center for children in Zambales where he grew up. Later he would become a resident artist and teacher in the same arts center.
He held a regular item at the National Museum of the Philippines, Museum of Natural History as an artist -- Illustrator for the Botany and National Herbarium Division. He worked at National Museum for five years, collaborating on scientific illustrations with
botanists doing research on newly discovered species of plants. He also held leaf art workshops for blind and deaf individuals and out of school youth in the said museum.
Alongside his museum and art practice, he devotes much of his time in planting native plants and trees.
His most recent work include a scientific botanical illustration workshop at Cultural Center of the Philippines' Pasinaya Festival (February 2023) and an exhibition of plant paintings using only his non-dominant left hand at Blanc Gallery (June 2023).
