r/BotanicalIllustration

I found this beautiful maple leaf while walking around St Paul, Minnesota.Some unfortunate splashes stained the background. I plan to digitize and remove them in a photo editor. My art desk was a bit narrow for the size of paper and my water cup and palette placement were awkward, which I think contributed to the splashes. I'm planning to try using a cart to the side for my palette and water on my next painting to see if that helps mitigate the issue.

Saunders-Waterford 100% Cotton Hot Press (Natural White) 9×12". Mix of Holbein, Daniel Smith, and QoR watercolor paints.

Hopefully, I can do some more leaf hunting today!

Making some berry paints for future illustration efforts - so many colours from one fruit!

Probably one of the most architecturally dramatic plants I've drawn, crown imperial.

Water Lilies in Prague-Komořany (2021) 🪷🌿⚜️

I painted this at the end of May 2021, inspired by a real place in Prague-Komořany — a protected natural area with a beautiful pond filled with water lilies.

One beautiful day, around midday, I went there for a walk. The sun was shining, the water was almost perfectly still, and everything around me was incredibly peaceful. It was the kind of silence that doesn't feel empty at all — it feels alive.

The pond was covered with water lilies, surrounded by tall grasses and lush greenery. I watched a duck with her ducklings, saw nutrias nearby, and all around me this little natural world was simply going on with its life, almost untouched by the city surrounding it.

There was also a large piece of wood lying in the water. It was such an ordinary little detail, but somehow it stayed in my memory, so I included it in the foreground of the painting. I wanted to remember the place as I had experienced it — wild, overgrown and natural.

What fascinated me most was the stillness of the water and the sunlight.

I remember the colours so vividly — the blues and turquoise of the water, all those fresh shades of green, and the pink water lilies appearing like little islands of colour among them. I wanted to bring some of that beauty and joy of colour onto the canvas.

When I painted it, I wasn't trying to make a photographic copy of the place. I wanted to capture something more important to me: how it felt to be there that day — the light, the colours, the silence and that incredible sense of peace.

This is something I love about Prague. You can still be in a large city and suddenly find yourself standing beside quiet water, surrounded by water lilies, watching ducklings and nutrias, and for a moment feel as though the city doesn't exist at all.

That is the feeling I brought home with me that day.

Silence. Sunlight. Still water. Water lilies. And nature quietly living its own life.

I wanted to keep a little piece of that moment on my canvas. 🪷☀️🌿

Prague-Komořany, late May 2021.

Watercolor and pencil on paper (A4)