Author and illustrator Bente Starcke King will demonstrate botanical drawing and watercolor techniques and sign copies of her new book, Beautiful Botanicals , Saturday, Oct. 23, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Cornell Plantations Garden Gift Shop on the Cornell campus.

Beautiful Botanicals: Painting and Drawing Flowers and Plants (North Light Books) contains step-by-step instructions for a variety of techniques, including graphite pencil, pen and ink, ink wash, transparent color and mixed media.

King teaches a course called Introduction to Natural Science Illustration as part of Cornell's Summer Sessions, and teaches botanical illustration at Cornell Plantations during the fall and spring. In addition, she has taught biological illustration at Cornell's Shoals Marine Laboratory in the Gulf of Maine. She also has taught professional workshops in Copenhagen, the New York Botanical Garden, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Duke University Botanical Garden and the University of Evora, Portugal.

Cornell Plantations is the arboretum, botanical gardens and natural areas of Cornell University, and is a member of Ithaca's Discovery Trail partnership. For more information, visit http://www.plantations.cornell.edu, or call (607) 255-2400.