Sketchbook Exchange - Drawings #6 and #7 and my own book back!

It has been a busy time! I last posted in March and we are now to mid-July! In those four months, I  have completed the final two drawings for the sketchbook exchange project that I have been a part of for the past year.

I also moved houses and went on vacation, so I was thrilled, upon my return, to find my own sketchbook back from its last stop in Singapore, filled with amazing artwork from around the world!

Here is a peek at some pictures of the gorgeous pieces that fill my sketchbook from seven amazing artists. From left to right (starting in the top left corner): Linda Trella, Giulia Canevari, Elaine Moore Mackey, Beryl Prout (two pages), Mischa (two pages), Sevil Medhi, and Teo Nam Siang.

Previous to getting my own book back, I finished up drawings for Giulia's and Linda's books.

For Guilia's, I did some ink and colored pencil drawings of the beautiful chive blossoms that were popping up in my old garden. I also found some neat seed hyacinth seed pods to round out the other page (graphite, ink and ink/colored pencil.) I was anxious to get this mailed out before our move and was glad to get it finished.

Linda's book was carefully packed in my bag so I wouldn't lose it. Once we were settled in a bit at the new place, I was able to do some drawings of iris buds that I had from my old garden and then found the perfect finishing touch at the new place once my hostas started blooming. I used ink and colored pencil on the hostas, colored pencil alone on the one iris bud and graphite alone on the other iris bud. Happily, I was able to mail this out to Linda before vacation.

A modified group of us (depending on availability, etc.) plan to continue the exchange for a second round starting in August, so stay tuned!

Japanese Iris Blossom - Ink and Colored Pencil

Happy Monday! I had a chance to work on and finish this drawing of a Japanese Iris blossom. I had bought a small bunch at the store a few weeks ago and had done some sketching at the time. I finally had an opportunity to add color to the blossom sketch last night. I just love these particular iris with the bright yellow midrib and delicate, draping blossoms. So beautiful!

I completed this with my usual array of Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils on smooth bristol paper, doing some basic pen work with my Rapidograph 3X0 (.25) pen. Interestingly, the center part of the blossom that was still closed in this view really is a darker, more reddish-purple color than the lighter blue-purple outer petals.

As you can tell from my posts, I really like iris and daffodil! I also really love tulips, but haven't done much drawing of them. What are some of your favorite spring flowers?

Purple Iris Study - Ink and Colored Pencil

I bought a beautiful bunch of purple iris today. They have a bright yellow rib in the center that you can't see yet (I'll save that for another day!) I just love studying the buds before they open and then as the petals unfold. 

I did this study in ink and colored pencil on Fabriano Artistico extra white 140 lb hot press watercolor paper. I am not entirely pleased with how the color of the petals turned out. They seem much more luminous in person. I think that I need to do more light layers of pencil as well as use some different colors (perhaps the purples I have are too dark...maybe need some medium blues...) How do you deal with colored pencils and dark flower petals?

Iris studies

These are some studies that I did of a beautiful iris plant this summer. I was trying to work on the form of the leaf and bud and also played around with some detailed studies of the petals.

I wanted to see what I could do with colored pencil as well as some ink.