Summer Session — Drawing in Practice: Integrating Form & Fluency

Have you ever spent hours working on a drawing, carefully applying techniques like sketching, shading, or measuring proportions, yet the result still doesn’t come together the way you imagined? Most students assume the solution is to learn more techniques. But often what’s missing is something more fundamental: understanding how the drawing process itself works. Knowing how observation, interpretation, and mark-making work together is essential for creating the work you envision and becoming a more proficient botanical artist. This class provides the time and guidance to practice that process deliberately, allowing the relationship between observation, interpretation, and mark-making to mature. Each session begins with short observational warm-ups designed to synchronize the eye–brain–hand loop and sharpen one of your most valuable creative tools as a botanical artist. Working both in the garden (weather permitting) and in the studio, we will explore practical ways to build form through contour, cross-contour, plane shifts, light, and shading. As drawings develop, we will also practice evaluating what is happening on the page—learning how to recognize when a drawing stalls, why it happens, and how to identify solutions that move the work forward. Confidence grows through this process. It doesn’t come from waiting until you know exactly what to do or from collecting more techniques. It develops through critical thinking, adjustment, and sustained engagement with the work. After all, drawing isn’t magic—it’s simply marks on paper. Every drawing emerges line by line through a series of decisions. When you learn how to guide those decisions, the process becomes clearer, more enjoyable and your drawings begin to grow with it. Because drawing fluency develops through sustained practice, this class is designed to be taken more than once. Each session offers new subjects, new observations, and new opportunities to refine your personal drawing process. Students supply materials. Click on the link below in the Event Details section for the list of required materials. Fees: Member $291, Non-Member $359 All programs are subject to change. Pre-registration through our website is required. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden strives to be a Garden for all and we are committed to offering diverse adult learning opportunities that are inclusive and accessible to all learners. If you would like to request an accommodation to support your participation in an adult learning opportunity at the Garden, please contact registrar@lewisginter.org or call 804-262-9887 x328 and we will make our best effort to help.