Botanical Illustrations

We took some time to learn about scientific flower illustrations in this lesson! I showed the class images of real botanical illustrations and discussed why they were made and what their use is.  After talking about the illustrations, I had the kids sit down in front of many groups of different (and yes, real!) flowers.  The students were to study the flowers and draw them with as much detail as they could.  We didn't draw on regular paper but recycled news paper and book pages to evoke the antique feel of an old botanical illustration.  The students drew the flowers in black crayon and drew a pattern in the background using a white crayon to begin the wax resist technique.  Then the students painted in their flower pictures with watercolor paints.  I had my older students do a bigger image on a piece of newspaper and my younger students made a group of 4 five in squares on the book pages. We then decoupaged them onto construction paper with Modge Podge!