Natural History Illustration in Pen and Ink by Sarah Morrish

Author:Sarah Morrish
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd

The fruit of the Jade vine, which can grow to the size of a melon.

In the wild the plant is pollinated by bats. They hang upside down and press their head into the area where the nectar is located to drink it. While they are doing this, the pollen is spread onto the back of their head from the stamens and they then move onto another flower, where the pollen will hopefully come into contact with the stigma of that flower.

Later that same year I visited the conservatory again and this time the fruit were present on the plant, some hanging in small clusters, others singularly. I was amazed at the size of them and was even more fascinated when I read that they grow to the size of a melon! The flowers had obviously been hand pollinated by the staff and it was great to see that their dedication had enabled the visiting public to see each growth stage of the plant. I only hoped some of the other visitors appreciated it as much as I did. This time I took plenty of reference images and recorded an estimation of their size in my notebook, so that I had the information I needed for a future illustration.

A year later, I had the opportunity to combine my sketches and other recorded information into one illustration. I decided on a composition showing three elements: a whole individual flower, one that had been dissected, and a fruit. When recording information in your sketchbook, draw what you see as accurately as possible. This paid off and I then traced directly from the drawings in my sketchbook and transferred these onto my Bristol paper. I drew the fruit onto a separate piece of paper using the photo as a reference and traced it onto the Bristol paper. Using the tracing method meant there was less chance of me damaging the surface of the paper before inking the pencil drawing.

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