Poppy bud in colored pencil on matboard

I just love the look of poppy buds, but wasn't enjoying trying to render them on white paper because of all the little white hairs on them. So, I found a nice little piece of smooth, green matboard and went with colored pencils. This sketch is the result - I love how it turned out.

Raspberries - ink and colored pencil on drawing paper

These are some of the actual raspberries from the plant I'd been drawing lately. This was done on Strathmore drawing paper, not the hot-press watercolor I used before. This paper has a bit more tooth and so the texture if a little rougher. I used ink to do the base drawing and then colored pencil over that. It's a more of a rough drawing than the full plant, but I think it is still a fun piece showing the berries as they ripen.

Raspberry sprig - finished!

I have finally finished this illustration of a raspberry sprig. This was done from a clipping taken last month, so there were just some blossoms on it, but no berries yet. I layered three different greens on the leaves and just added a bit of ivory over the pen work of the blossoms themselves since they are white/ivory in color.

Raspberry sprig - colored pencil continued

Making more progress on the raspberry plant...

Raspberry sprig - colored pencil progress

Continuing the colored pencil. I've done a light shading on all of the large leaves and have begun adding some layers of darker green and then light green on top of that to the leaves on the lower right. I think it's coming along nicely. I'll continue that process with the other leaves, darkening where needed and layering the lighter green on top to brighten and burnish.

Raspberry sprig - starting colored pencil

So I have started adding color to this ink drawing of the raspberry sprig. I am trying to keep a light hand right now so I don't overwork it. I plan to continue adding shading and color to hopefully give the leaves some depth and form. Stay tuned for more updates!

Raspberry sprig - pen and ink

This is the raspberry plant in pen and ink. I deliberately just did a line drawing, trying to emphasize heavier lines/lighter lines to show a bit of depth.

I will be using this as a base for my colored pencil rendering, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out!

Raspberry sprig - light and shade study

I've been working on a drawing of a raspberry plant. It's a cutting that I took from the bush in our side yard. I'm excited to be working from a live plant this time! It really does make all the difference.

I had started with a nice drawing and began inking and doing some colored pencil work, but it was looking rather flat. I realized that I needed to go back to some basics and do a light and shade study of the leaves in particular to get some depth and form back into the drawing.

So, this is the rough light and shade study on tracing paper that I will continue to tweak. I'll use this as a reference point when redoing the original drawing so that my shading/light looks correct in colored pencil. Stay tuned for more progress!

Chive blossom sketch

Who knew chives could be so pretty? :) Our neighbors have a bunch of chives in their flower bed and they have a beautiful, light purple flower. When you clip the stem off, you can clearly smell the oniony scent of chives.

The bloom consists of a cluster of small, individual blossoms that together look similar to a thistle. Lots of detail to draw each one, so I settled for a looser interpretation to get the idea across.

Tulip - colored pencil drawing

I had a chance to try a version of the tulip in colored pencil. It's a beautiful purple/pink color with white at the top of the petals. I had some difficulty rendering the white -- I added shadows in various shades of gray, but am not sure it turned out very well.

If anyone has any suggestions/comments on how you handle this sort of problem - especially when rendering on a white background - that would be appreciated!