This particular plant had beautiful, creamy white blossoms with a tight cluster of stamens in the center that open up as the bud flowers. With thick stems that have a red/brown markings and large, serrated leaves, they make a striking addition to the table. I thought it would make a great subject for my next sketchbook entry.
I started with some rough graphite sketches to get a sense of the shapes of both open petals and buds. I did a little bit of sketching of the leaves as well. The biggest challenge, though, was the center of each blossom with up to 150 stamen surrounding the pistil.
I took many reference photos, especially close-ups of the open blossoms. This proved fortuitous as I inadvertently over-watered my beautiful plant and it did not survive! So, between my sketches and photos, I was able to create this sketchbook entry:
I still love the combination of ink and colored pencil, so I went over my initial pencil sketches with a 3x0 (.25) technical pen, adding some details here and there. Then I also used my Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils to add color to the page on the left. I think the page turned out well.
I am currently looking for a subject for the sketchbook that I have on my desk. Wish me luck!
4 comments:
I love your sketchbook entries. I saw the one in Traudl's book recently.... stunning!
Wow! Thank you so much, Shevaun. I am glad you got to see one in person. That pumpkin blossom was calling to me all summer... :)
Carol
Very lovely blog post, Carol. I like your process of first doing several studies in graphite before tackling the color. Nice work.
Thank you for your kind words, Carole! I wish I had photos of the sketches, but I believe I tested out some pen and ink on top of them before doing this in the actual book, so I kind of ruined them! :)
Carol
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