Illustrating the rainforest
Earlier this year, we put together a leaflet to help explain how special Scotland’s rainforest is, and why it needs our protection. But we also wanted to show its beauty and the range of habitats and wildlife found within these woodlands. That’s tricky to do with photos alone, so we asked illustrator Abi Pate to help. She explains how she put her brilliant design together.
I loved the challenge of this brief: a wraparound, continuous illustration showing off the temperate rainforest throughout the seasons. I knew it would have to be planned meticulously to fit in the seasonal changes as well as all the different species of plants, animals, lichen and fungi.
After agreeing with the experts on which species to showcase in each season, I set about collecting reference images. This made me appreciate the diversity within Scotland’s rainforest even more as weird lichens, colourful birds, intricate ferns and (honestly, occasionally repulsive) fungi collected on my iPad. From these photos I created a ‘mood board’ for each season to get a sense for their layout and colours.
After that, I began blocking out the basic shapes within the landscape. I sketched this digitally using Procreate on my iPad. My brief had included some helpful notes about the type of environment to showcase, for example autumn was to include a river, and spring the bluebells carpeting the woodland floor. I made sure the shapes of the foreground and background flowed across all four scenes, and used some large close-up trunks to show off lichen and fungi in more detail. I enjoyed balancing all the elements and making space for everything to be seen.
The next stage was colour studies - I experimented with some different sky colours to enhance the feeling of the different seasons. After I was happy with these I digitally painted all the finer details. I usually tweak the final colours, and this illustration was no exception, as there were so many greens in the image and I didn’t want them to become one murky mess!
In my (incredibly biased) opinion, I think it turned out well. While illustration can lack some of the accuracy of photography for nature subjects, I think it can bring a scene to life and capture the imagination. It also allowed us to show a cross section of the amazing rainforest wildlife, which would be impossible to capture in one photograph. I’m so grateful to ASR for this brilliant brief!
Look out for the ASR leaflet with Abi’s illustration at events with ASR partner organisations this summer!
