Workshops & Courses
WORKSHOPS & COURSES 2025
Cambridge University Botanic Gardens
ILLUSTRATING A HELLEBORE
Online – 10am - 1pm
Date: 4th, 5th & 6th March 2025
BOOKING: Please call +44 (0) 1223 331875 or email education@botanic.cam.ac.uk
During this workshop Janie will show you how to colour a Hellebore from a photo. Although this won’t teach you how to draw, it will teach you how to use coloured pencils to get the very best out of them, enabling you to create more of your own art using this wonderful, but very forgiving medium. Janie will demonstrate how to tackle the detailed centres of these beautiful flowers, as well as how to colour their lovely petals and markings.
PLEASE NOTE: The illustration shown will not be the one used for the course because it is too complicated.
LOOKING INSIDE: ILLUSTRATING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Classroom
Date: 18th, 19th & 20th March 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
BOOKING: Please call +44 (0) 1223 331875 or email education@botanic.cam.ac.uk
Fruit and vegetables have long been a favourite of the botanical illustrator, but taking a look at them from the inside is possibly even more exciting. We’re not talking about two or three tiny pips inside an apple but more the glorious formation of pips inside a bell pepper or a melon, or even the juicy inside an orange or grapefruit. There are endless subjects just waiting for us to open them up and record the bits we don’t see. There will be lots of demonstrations as well as individual tuition from your RHS gold medal ward winning tutor.
BEGINNERS' BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION IN COLOURED PENCIL
Classroom
Date: 7th, 8th & 9th October 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
BOOKING: Please call +44 (0) 1223 331875 or email education@botanic.cam.ac.uk
It’s not often beginners get the chance to learn the absolute basics of coloured pencil art. On this course Janie will take you through all the fundamentals to start your journey into the wonderful world of coloured pencils. Simple subjects will be available for you to draw, before transferring your drawing to good quality art paper. You will then begin learning how to lay down colour so it looks like a brush stroke of paint, how to blend colours seamlessly and how to create veins and contours on leaves to make them look amazingly three-dimensional.
ILLUSTRATING ROSA MUNDI
Online
Date: 12th, 13th & 14th November 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
BOOKING: Please call +44 (0) 1223 331875 or email education@botanic.cam.ac.uk
Another chance to learn about using coloured pencils without the worry of having to draw something first! You will be supplied with a photograph taken by Janie, your tutor, together with a line drawing for you to trace and transfer. Instructions will be sent before the course. You will see demonstrations throughout the course to help you go through the process in the right order, helping you to end up with a beautiful rose illustration of your own.
PLEASE NOTE: The illustration shown will not be the one used for the course because it is too complicated.
Tindalls Art Shop – Cambridge
SPRING BLOSSOM – working from photographs – Coloured Pencils
March 29th 2025
BOOKING: Call us: 03302 233 390
Email us: customerservice@tindalls.co.uk
Spring Blossom is delicate and pretty, but doesn’t like being picked, so for this workshop you will work from a photograph provided by your tutor, unless you have one of your own that you would particularly like to re-produce. This is a double workshop in many ways because you will learn how to work from photographs as well as how to work with coloured pencils to produce gentle and realistic pieces of illustration with fine detail.
Students will need:
A copy of the photograph I will send you
63gs Tracing Paper
An HB Pencil – Propelling if they have one
Erasers – plastic and kneadable
300gsm HP art paper (any make)
Coloured pencils
FLOWERS (any kind) – Mixed media (watercolour and Coloured Pencils)
May 17th 2025
BOOKING: Call us: 03302 233 390
Email us: customerservice@tindalls.co.uk
As a botanical artist I work with flowers all the time and they can be very easy or very tricky! A Calla Lily is relatively easy, whereas a Rose is quite difficult. You will learn how to draw accurately before colouring your subject using watercolours and coloured pencils. Please bring your own subject, but don’t choose something that is too challenging otherwise you’ll be drawing all day instead of painting and colouring.
Students will need:
A flower or flowers (plus receptacle to place it in)
63gs Tracing Paper
An HB Pencil – Propelling if they have one
Erasers – plastic and kneadable
300gsm HP art paper (any make)
Coloured pencils
Watercolours
Paint brushes
Watercolour pallettes
FRUIT – Coloured Pencils
July 19th 2025
BOOKING: Call us: 03302 233 390
Email us: customerservice@tindalls.co.uk
Fruit is one of my favourite subjects because it stays the same for hours. Using coloured pencils I will show you how to draw and colour fruit to make it look realistic, juicy and so round you could pick it off the page. Fruit will be provided but you are welcome to bring your own if you wish.
Students will need:
63gs Tracing Paper
An HB Pencil – Propelling if they have one
Erasers – plastic and kneadable
300gsm HP art paper (any make)
Coloured pencils
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT LETTERS (Gold Leaf, watercolours and/or Coloured Pencils)
September 27th 2025
BOOKING: Call us: 03302 233 390
Email us: customerservice@tindalls.co.uk
Medieval Illuminated Lettering is an art form that goes back centuries. The opening letter of a chapter in an ancient book was always something beautiful to behold. Using real gold and strong pigment paints these letters were painstakingly created by monks hundreds of years ago. Using more modern materials, but still with real 24ct gold leaf, you will be able to create a small letter of your choice in just one day. Some letters to copy will be provided but if you have a favourite initial you would like to work with please Google ‘Royalty Free Medieval Letters’ and you are bound to find something that appeals to you. Most materials for this workshop will be provided.
Students will need:
63gs Tracing Paper
An HB Pencil – Propelling if they have one
Erasers – plastic and kneadable
300gsm HP art paper (any make)
A piece of glassine paper
Coloured pencils
Watercolours
Paint brushes
A fine paint brush for applying mordant (glue)
Glue for use with gold leaf
Gold leaf (not Pebeo) - I can provide gold leaf but would have to make a charge*
An agate burnisher if they have one but it’s not imperative
Flatford Mill, Dedham, Essex
BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION IN WATERCOLOUR FOR BEGINNERS
4th – 6th April 2025
BOOKING: http://www.field-studies-council-org
(Subject will depend on what is available at the time, but participants are welcome to bring something of their own.)
Course description:
Come and join an RHS gold medal winning tutor and learn the basics of watercolour techniques to create a piece of botanical illustration. You will learn how to lay down simple glazes, merge colours, create good gradations, add fine details and so much more.
ILLUSTRATION SUMMER FRUITS USING COLOURED PENCILS
28th - 30th July 2025
BOOKING: http://www.field-studies-council-org
Course description:
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