Hi everyone,

I wonder if anyone on the Listserv has any experience with painting museum botanical specimens? I have been asked to paint dried botanical specimens for a museum display, and it will be my first time doing so and have had trouble finding any information about this. The specimens will be small freeze-dried branches, and the leaves will be painted.

I have been doing some small tests on dried leaves, trying out dry-brushing the leaves with acrylics and also gouache, as well as testing out airbrushing liquid-acrylics. I've also tried painting the leaves with an acrylic gel medium to seal the leaf and prep the surface before painting with these options. Based on these tests I'm thinking of sticking with acrylic, but thinking I'm going to need to hand paint each leaf, as while the airbrushing worked well on individual leaves, but the once you start airbrushing leaves on a branch they move around so much its difficult to control the painting!

Does anyone have any tips or advice for this? 

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Emma Scheltema Illustration

021 206 4031

www.emmascheltema.com