All About Anthuriums and How to Paint Them
In the video recording below I teach you all about Anthurium flowers and the intriguing family of tropical plants that they belong to.
You’ll learn about some of the weird and fascinating members of this family and about their unique anatomical traits. Then I’ll lead you through a step-by-step drawing and painting tutorial of a beautiful red Anthurium flower. If you’d like to follow along I suggest you gather some pencils, paints, and paper and also download the anthurium image that we’ll use in the demonstration.
ANTHURIUM SKETCHING A PAINTING WORKSHOP
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ANTHURIUM IMAGE
Interesting Facts About Anthuriums and the Araceae Family
Anthuriums are a group of exotic-looking plants that include about 1,000 species with a variety of common names including anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, and laceleaf.
They are native to the Caribbean and can also be found from Mexico to Argentina and are also popular houseplants.
They belong to the arum family or Araceae. This is a large family of flowering plants that includes some 3,500 species and are most diverse in the Neotropics. The family includes common houseplants like philodendron, North American natives like skunk cabbage and Jack-in-the-Pulpit, European natives like lords and ladies, florist’s flowers like calla lilies, economically important species like taro, and invasive species like water lettuce. Below is a picture of me with another member of this family, the elephant ear plant of Central America!
Christine with an Elephant Ear leaf!
The Araceae family also includes some truly bizarre species with horror film sounding names like voodoo lily, dragonroot, dead horse arum, and titan arum; a native of Sumatra that grows to 10 feet tall and sports the world’s largest and smelliest inflorescence. These last two species emit a wretched scent like rotten flesh to attract carrion-loving flies and beetles that serve as their primarily pollinators.
The Titan Arum flower
Invitation to the Colorful Botanicals Online Course
My Colorful Botanicals course teaches you the essentials of drawing and painting colorful flowers, including a survey of various media and techniques you can use to capture the beauty of plants, including graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, and mixed media.
I’ll teach you all you need to know about the anatomical structures of plants so that you can really observe plants from a botanist’s perspective and capture their forms accurately in your sketchbook.
This course includes a diverse library of tutorials that introduce you to a variety of common and colorful plant families including orchids, lilies, bird of paradises, passionflowers, poppies, sunflowers, cacti, and more!
You’ll be able to apply what you learn in this course whether you are sketching wildflowers in a meadow, painting exotic plants at an arboretum, or drawing a bouquet of flowers at home.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COLORFUL BOTANICALS COURSE