Painting white flowers are notoriously tricky, and I am often asked about the best way to go about it… Here are my 5 top tips to make it that little bit easier…

In April this year I was asked to design a wreath of sweet peas for wedding stationary. The beautiful wedding was a few weeks ago. I am happy to be able to share with you a little bit about the process and the final piece!

A lot has changed in my world over the last month, and it’s a good time for me to stop and reflect. So, I I thought I would share with you a bit about my current, past and future steps to create Helen Cousins Botanics…

In 2016 I had a wonderful opportunity to create the branding for a new florist opening in West Sussex. Becky contacted me having read my blog, and I was so excited to have my first ever commercial commission…

A lot of people ask me, ‘I’d love to start watercolours, but I have no idea where to start!’, or they go out and buy a sketchbook and a watercolour set, but give up too soon. I hope this post will inspire you to not only start, but keep going…

Do you know that wonderful feeling of getting completely immersed in a project or activity? What I'm describing here is called 'flow', and it's one of the reasons I love getting stuck into a creative project.

I knew before starting this piece that I wanted to give the impression of looking through a meadow into the flowers, rather than a traditional bunch of flowers…

The first piece that I painted for the Diploma Portfolio was of a beetroot. I was first struck by the colours in the leaves when I was at a local farmers market…

A short post about Assignment 11 - ‘Mixed Floral’…

Assignment 10 was entitled ‘Working from Photographs’. We were supposed to take our own photographs, and create a design in the form of a greetings card or poster…

For this assignment we were asked to find a location we liked, any natural habitat, and study, record and illustrate the species that were present…

I was really excited about this assignment. Botanical illustration, what the course is all about… When you sign up for a 27 month course, life is bound to throw changes and challenges your way during that time…

Assignment 7 involved painting a vegetable. I wanted to paint something a bit obscure and interesting… In the end, I settled for something really simple. Onions…

Assignment 6 of the Society of Botanical Artist’s Distance Learning Diploma involved painting a fruit of our choosing…

I loved this assignment. I feel like I have improved since the last assignment, and each element (the drawing, planning composition, painting) all came much more naturally…

Assignment 4 was a fun assignment, the first opportunity to use a lot of colour after the first two graphite assignments and then all the greens in Assignment 3…

I was really excited for Assignment 3, but for various reasons (including finishing my 4th year at University, moving house and county, and welcoming into the world 7 jackapoo puppies) I only had 2 weeks to paint, rather than 2 months…

I really struggled with what to draw for my second assignment… If I sit at home and try and decide from scratch what my next subject will be I get absolutely nowhere. I need to be in a garden, or in a nursery, or just in nature to get inspiration…

This afternoon I went to the post office and dropped off my first assignment of the Society of Botanical Artists Distance Learning Diploma. For Assignment 1 there are 3 components: a simple line drawing, a stippled drawing, and a full tonal pencil piece…

I feel like I have a lot of news to share and catch up on. I’ve been accepted onto the Society of Botanical Artists Distance Learning Diploma: a big decision for me that has led me to take a year out of my medical studies…