Need to Know
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Who is this course for?Everyone -
Course length (start & watch when you want)5 hours of video content -
Course credits5 CEUs / PDAs*Please note that many of the associations listed under ‘CEUs/PDAs’ do not formally pre-approve online courses for credits, and thus require the student to track their own online course hours to submit for approval for their annual CEU/PDA requirements.
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ExtrasLifetime access · Certificate of completion
Meet your course instructor
Katharine Dickinson | MA
Katharine Dickinson is an illustrator and artist-educator in Vancouver, BC. She has exhibited at numerous galleries in Canada, the US and the UK, including the National Portrait Gallery in London. She has a Postgraduate Diploma (HDFA) from the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London, UK, and has worked as a freelance illustrator for publishing companies, magazines, ad campaigns and animation projects, including book covers for Margaret Atwood and Kurt Vonnegut. She currently teaches at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and VanDusen Botanical Gardens. As an artist-educator, she specializes in observational drawing methods and techniques for botanical illustration and landscape painting. By helping students slow down and experience the meditative effects of focused observational drawing, Katharine helps them learn about nature and further their appreciation of the natural world.
Course description
As the world speeds up, many are seeking to slow down and deepen their connection with the rhythms of nature and its flora.
In this course, participants will be guided through a series of step-by-step instructions, learning how to transform any botanical specimen into precise, two-dimensional representations using the fundamental tools and techniques of observational drawing.
Students will acquire the skills necessary to create lifelike depictions of plants that aid in accurate identification while fostering a meditative artistic practice. Through a hands-on approach to visual language, participants will enhance their observational abilities, cultivating a unique expression of nature through drawing.
By employing techniques in both ‘fast and slow looking,’ participants will learn to identify distinctive plant features through mark-making and explore novel ways of perceiving their subjects.
Join this course to delve into the meditative practice of slow looking, and to capture the vitality, character, and essence of live plants in accurate and expressive two-dimensional drawings.
Upon completing this course, students will be proficient in:
- Developing strong observation skills of plants
- Utilizing line drawing to simplify the complexities of nature into line, shape, and form
- Understanding how to use line to describe the shape and form of plants
- Employing measuring techniques to accurately capture the scale and proportion of plants
- Applying basic shading techniques to create volume in drawings
- Analyzing and deconstructing plants in visual note-making studies using simple drawing elements (line, shape, and form)
- Expanding their mark-making vocabulary with lines, dots, marks, patterns, and textures for plants
*To excel in this course, all you truly need are just a pencil and paper! While there’s a list of recommended tools for those eager to dive deeper, they’re not essential for fully grasping the course content.